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Summary

The VITA MILPITAS COMMUNITY LIBRARY Site used a Networked TaxWise installation in 2005.  In the absence of a permanent network infrastructure, a temporary private Local Area Network (VITA LAN) was assembled and dismantled each session.  In 2006, this was converted to a wireless LAN (VITA WLAN)

System Description

The VITA WLAN used a combination Wireless Access Point (WAP) Router in infrastructure mode.  Switches required for the VITA LAN were no longer necessary, and fewer network cables were needed.

Three printers were connected to the network:

  • One Kyocera printer connected to a D-Link Wireless Game Adapter,
  • A second Kyocera printer connected via network cable to the WAP Router
  • A Lexmark 312 printer connected via a USB Wireless Print Server.
In each case, print drivers were installed on the client computers, and the network printers configured as local tcp/ip printers on each client.

Benefits of VITA WLAN compared to VITA LAN

How did the VITA WLAN Networked TaxWise affect Tax Volunteers?

  • Faster setup - once the WAP Router was up and running, each device joined the network when it powered up, with no further configuration required.
    • reduced cabling, no cables to trip over
    • greater reliability
  • One time configuration of the wireless adapter took a little longer than configuring the wired Router
To handle security of the WLAN we used 128 bit WEP shared key encryption

For greater security, the future plans include the following:

  • WPA  or WPA2 encryption
  • Reduced power output
  • SSID broadcast off
  • restrict connections to known Mac ID devices
Caveats:
  • the wireless network configuration is unsupported by TaxWise
  • there is potential for hijacking if weak or no encryption is used

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Last modified: 10/28/09.