Q: Where is Public Internet Access available?
Public Internet Access is accessible from most of the public areas in all the Brevard County Library locations. Due to the nature of the WiFi signal there may be some "weak signal" areas around the book shelves due to the metal materials used in the construction of the book shelves.
Q: What kind of equipment do I need to access the service?
A wireless network-enabled portable computer or PDA. See the Hardware Requirements for more details.
Q:Will the information on my laptop be safe from hackers?
The security of your laptop will be your responsibility.
We recommend that you keep up to date with security patches that are released from various software vendors. www.windowsupdate.com is a good place to go to make sure your operating systems is secure (Microsoft Windows operation system only).
You may also wish to run one of the firewall packages obtainable from the internet - Zone Alarm Firewall is one such package - There is a free version for private individual use). The Brevard County Library does not provide firewall software for anyone - this is your responsibility!
You may also wish to install an anti-virus software package to protect yourself from the many varied forms of computer virus. One such packege which is free for private individual use is called "AVG" and is available from Grisoft, s r o (www.grisoft.com) and they do keep their anti-virus signature files very current! The Brevard County Library does not provide anti-virus software for anyone - this is your responsibility!
Q: How do I know if my laptop is compatible with your network?
As long as you purchased and installed a WiFi card that said 802.11b or 802.11g compatible, you'll be able to access our network. If your laptop came with built-in wireless networking capabilities most likely it already is compatble with our system. While our wireless network, using 802.11b/g wireless routers, supports 802.11g (54-mbits/sec) the minimum requirement is 802.11b compatibility (11-mbits/sec). The "connection speeds' listed here are "best" link speeds between the wireless Access Point equipment and your wireless network card - they do not reflect the actual connection speed to the Internet!
NOTE: Even though you may have a 802.11g wireless card in your laptop you may only get 802.11b connectivity - this is caused by other 802.11b devices being connected to our WiFi system at the same time. This is a function of the way WiFi works - it allows backward compatability with the 802.11b standard but can not work in both standards at the same time.
Q: I don't have a laptop! Does BCLS provide laptops?
No, but you can sign up to use one of the public access computers available to the public in one of our 17 Library locations. Our public computers are limited to some extent as we do not allow sending or receiving email using an email client and we do not allow Instant Messaging programs on our public computers.
Q: How much do you charge to use your network?
If you have a valid Brevard County Library Card, then the WiFi access is free and you have access to all the Brevard County Library online resources, Instant Messaging,
POP-3/SMTP email capability and the Internet for website access. If you are a resident of Brevard County, Florida you can obtain a Brevard County Library Card for free at any of our library locations.
The Guest Access is also free but limited to only the library resources and Internet browsing along with web-based email. If you are not a resident of Brevard County, Florida and wish to obtain a Brevard County Library Card you may do so at the non-resident rate of $15 , which will allow use of our WiFi network for one year. Please ask one of our friendly library staff for further information on obtaining a Brevard County Library Card.
Q: How long can I stay connected to the Internet?
Brevard County Library Card Holders:
You can stay connected to our Public WiFi Access service up to 12 hours during normal business hours in any given day. The connection time is cumulative at all Brevard County Library locations.
Guest Accounts are limited to a total of 6 hours in any given day cumulative at all Brevard County Libary locations.
NOTE:
If you are running pop-up blocking software or Windows XP with Service-Pak 2 you need to disable the pop-up blocker or allow pop-up windows from the following URL: http://highnoon.brev.org as the system opens a pop-up window on your system for the purpose of verification that you are still connected and using the system.
If you experience disconnects every 10 minutes you have either blocked the pop-up window or closed the pop-up window accidently. You can minimize the pop-up window and continue to use the system but you need to keep the pop-up window open.
If your wireless device can not have more than one browser window open at a time you can still use the system but you will have to log back in every 10 minutes or so.
For further Questions and Answers Please
see our detailed WiFi-FAQs Page. |
This service provides a way to access the same Internet resources available
from our Public Internet, Database and Online Catalog from the convenience
of your own wireless enabled laptop computer or PDA. For Brevard County
Library Card Holders this service also allows you to connect to Internet
resources that may not be accessible through the Library's Public Access
computers. You can also download and upload data and files directly to
and from your laptop computer or PDA.