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
