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Using business product for open access?

dvorak
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Using business product for open access?

My parents church are opening a coffee shop / drop in type room and want to be able to have a WiFi access point to enable any students to hop on the net.
I don't think there will be enough usage (or available cash) to warrant a leased line, so was wondering if this type of usage was acceptable on a business product?
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11 REPLIES 11
James
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Re: Using business product for open access?

Ultimately, the owner of a connection is responsible for the usage on the connection, so as long as the usage remained within the terms and conditions on the product (read as don't do bad things) then we wouldn't have an issue with it.
We've got a number of boarding schools that are business customers who use the connection for something similar.
Lurker
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Re: Using business product for open access?

Adie - a very easy way to 'safeguard' the church a little would be to ensure you register an account with static IP, then setup an account with OpenDNS. You can use their filtering to ensure that broad categorisations of sites are not accessible.
We use it at work as an additional measure, and whilst it wouldn't necessarily stop people from abusing the connection, it would make it a little safer from the churches POV.
I'd also be tempted to setup the network to use a modem, hardwired to an access point, rather than a combined device such as one may use at home.
This enables you to ensure that the modem remains on all the time, but you can instruct the people responsible for 'opening up' that they simply need to turn on the power to the AP to allow folks to get access and off again before they leave (stopping overnight use/abuse say) - and of course this approach safeguards sync speed etc a little more robustly.
dvorak
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Re: Using business product for open access?

Cheers James_G, if they do decide to go ahead with this (church is still been built in the middle of Leeds) then I was going to use the OpenDNS account, which I use at home too.
Hadn't thought about separate AP, was looking at something like the Draytek Vigor 2820n which you can have multiples SSID's and also time controlled wireless.
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Lurker
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Re: Using business product for open access?

Perhaps the decision might be clearer once you can see the layout of the building - either way would work though, and one might fit the requirements better than the other - the main thing I reckon is to make it harder for people to 'accidentally' turn it off.
Where abouts in Leeds is it? I'm SW of Leeds (Pudsey)
dvorak
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Re: Using business product for open access?

In the centre of town, here is a webcam feed for http://160.9.161.231/view/index.shtml
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Lurker
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Re: Using business product for open access?

Aha - that makes sense!
Leeds Met continue to take over the world!
Should get decent stats there, the three central Leeds BT Exchanges are all located next to the ring road (A58(M)) in an anticlockwise direction. (Grace Street and Hanover Well - which are either side of the ring road where Park Lane crosses it, and Lisbon Street which is just a little further south on the ring road.)
The furthest one is less than a mile away, and the closest much closer.
Fingers crossed hey!
As an aside, isn't there an option to lease a nominal amount of bandwidth from Leeds Met? They have boatloads in the city centre!
MrC
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Re: Using business product for open access?

Quote from: James_G
I'd also be tempted to setup the network to use a modem, hardwired to an access point, rather than a combined device such as one may use at home.

Minor nit-pick here. You need a wireless WAN router which accepts a DSL modem on it's WAN port, not an AP. Strictly speaking, an AP is a device which just allows a wireless connection to an existing LAN and doesn't have IP routing or PPP abilities.
Note that the Draytek 2820 series can either use their own inbuilt modem or will accept a separate modem on their WAN ports (probably a good thing as Draytek DSL performance isn't that wonderful). A slightly cheaper route might be a 2910 which is a WAN only device and can be found on Ebay for quite a bit less. Couple that with something like a cheap DG834V4 also from Ebay and you'll have an excellent combination.
Mike
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Re: Using business product for open access?

OK, should have said Router/AP combination - but hey - I like to nit-pick too, its quite a fun sport, so I'll let you off! Grin
MrC
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Re: Using business product for open access?

Perhaps we could have nit-pick points awarded, and have annual championships Smiley
Mike
MrC
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Re: Using business product for open access?

Quote from: adiewoo
In the centre of town, here is a webcam feed for http://160.9.161.231/view/index.shtml

I'm not sure if it's the camera angle or what but that's one ugly looking building  Shocked 
Prince Charles would probably like it tho'  Roll_eyes
Mike
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Re: Using business product for open access?

It looks marginally better in this image.
It's very marginal though - I believe they describe this type of architecture as 'polarising'. Grin