Wireless Internet System

Questions and Answers

Q. What is the Teton County Library's wireless Internet access system?
A. The wireless system allows adult Library patrons that own their own laptop computers to connect to the Internet by checking out a wireless card, which may be used in the Library to get on the Internet. It requires that you install the card the first time you use the system. On subsequent visits, you only need to check out and insert the card. We see this as being ideal for students taking classes, business people or individuals that want to do extensive research and are frustrated by the time it takes to work on the Internet from their home or office.

Q. Do I need to install the software each time I use the card?
A. No. The software needs to be installed only once - the first time. On subsequent visits, you only need to insert the card after the computer boots.

Q. What do I need to use the Library's wireless system?
A. What you need to provide:
Your library card.
Your laptop with a working CD drive and an empty type II PC card slot.
A working understanding of your computer.
Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP (USB connection is
available for new MacOS 9 or later without a PCMCIA card slot).
Your power supply or battery.
You may need the operating system installation disk, especially if you have never had your laptop on a network before.

What the Library provides:
· Wireless PC card
· Instruction booklet
· Driver CD
· Comment sheet

Q. Where do I check out a card?
A. You may check out a wireless card for two hours from the Front Desk.

Q. What are the policies for the wireless cards?
A. Check out for two hours per day
No reservations or holds
Overdue fine of $5.00 an hour
Only patrons who are 18 years and older may check out a wireless card

Q. Do I need to buy anything?
A. No.

Q. My laptop already has wireless capability; can I just use it as it is?
A. No, you will need to check out a wireless card from the Library and install it.

Q. Who at the Library can help me install this product on my computer?
A. The Library staff can not provide any assistance to you with your own computer. Everyone's computer is different, and if we try to assist patrons with their personal equipment, it presents liability concerns for the staff. The owner is responsible for knowing how to operate their computer.

Q. What operating systems does your hardware support? 
A. For PCMCIA cards:
Windows 95, 98, ME, CE, 2000, XP

For USB:
Mac 9x and OSX only

Q. Why do you not enable WEP encryption? I want to send credit card numbers.
A. If we turned on WEP (Wired Equivalent Protocol) we would need to hand out the encryption keys to all our users, then everyone would have to keys to decrypt the signals and the system would no longer be secure. WEP is known to be insecure anyway. It would be like giving everyone a password. There is no point in using passwords if everyone has them. We suggest you only send confidential information to secure sites. Those are sites that begin with https://.

Q. How fast is it?
A. The speed that files can be transfered between two computers depends on many things:
· How fast the computers are at either end.
· How busy the computers are at either end.
· How many other users are currently on the connection.

The Library has a T1 connection to the Internet but under no conditions can a patron expect to gain connection speeds at that rate. A maximum connection rate of 50 KBytes/second may be possible, which is faster than a DSL connection.

Q. Can I print?
A. No, we have no print capability for the wireless system. You may save your information to a disk, and make an appointment at the Computer Center where there is a printer.