[Michlib-l] How do you gather Uses of Wireless Logins per Year for LOM Annual Report?

[aldenlib at torchlake.com]

_Here's my question and the replies I got:_

Hi all, 

I was told by my tech person that in order to track all wireless logins
to our wifi, we'd have to get a separate router to do the job, as our
current configuration won't pick that data up; it just shows the hits to
the website.  Since the Library of Michigan Annual Report has recently
been asking for that info (it was in Section H, line 13 this past year),
I just estimated it from a clipboard at the front desk, where we note
patrons using their own laptops or tablets.  But we're missing the users
outside the building, phone use and whatnot that we don't notice. 
(We're a very small, Class I library.) 

Thanks for your help, 

--  

_Susan Riegler_ 

Susan Riegler, Director 

Alden District Library 

Hi. 

We used to use that same method.  It was frustrating because we knew
that we were missing a lot of people.   

I don't know the technical stuff, but we now have a "page" that when
someone clicks on our wireless, pops up.  There isn't a password, but
they have to click on a box to agree to our policy.  The software counts
that so we know how many sessions happen.  A session can last up to 3
hours, then they will have to log back in again.  We use "untangle"
software. 

Ann 

Eau Claire District Library 

Your tech can't just pluck these out of the air (and be believed); we
have an appliance that does this and we keep the reports for a couple
years as proof. 

Attached is an example. Here is a good presentation given in SE Michigan
a couple years ago; and not by me.
http://tln.lib.mi.us/dept/technology-services/wifi/files/techcomm/Best_Practices_for_Wireless_Statistics.pdf


wishing you goodness, 

Mary Carleton; Farmington Community Library (Mary.Carleton at farmlib.org) 


I read my lists from old school account. 

Hi Susan, 

The Leelanau Township Library purchased a router and a contract with
Sputnik (now part of a compnay called Lokket) to track wireless logins,
connectivity. I didn't set up the contract (the former director did) but
it works just fine and I'm happy with the service. 
http://sputnik.com [1]
Nellie 

Hi Sue, 

We use a company called Sputnik (sputnik.com) that supplies us with the
routers (we use two so we can cover the library and meeting room). It
counts Wi-Fi users and also provides a "splash page" where users have to
agree to our wireless use policy before they get onto the internet.
Since we do not use internet filters and keep the Wi-Fi on 24/7 which
can be accessed outside the building this splash page helps give us some
legal protection from improper use of the internet. 

Sputnik costs us about $200.00 per year and it hasn't given us any
trouble. 

_MARK MORTON_ 

Director 

Leland Township Public Library 

203 E Cedar St Leland, MI 49654 

231-256-9152 

We count the unique MAC addresses that our DHCP server hands out in a
day.  

It sounds like your budget is limited. 

Do you have a firewall? So the low-tech/annoying solution is to have
your firewall or (most) router make a splash page to use the wi-fi. Set
a guest password, and change it once a week or such. Then people will
have to come get a slip to login, and you can physically count the
users. 

Christian Dunham | Director 

Bullard Sanford Memorial Library 

989-823-2171 | vassarlibrary.org | facebook.com/vassarlibrary 

Our Cisco Meraki wireless access point (MR 16?) has a dashboard of
statistics that we can log into, info supplied includes number of unique
users, devices accessing, operating systems, applications accessed -
loads if detail! 

I used to have to leave that part of State Aid report blank. We're a
class 4. 

It does count sessions - not just number of unique users. 

 --- jude halloran, Highland Library, 248-887-2218 ext. 110    
www.highlandlibrary.info [2] 

Hello Susan, 

Have you looked into any software solutions to help you count this?  You
might want to check out a service like  Who's On My WiFi or reconfigure
your router for the WiFi connection counts and use something like Google
Analytics to count your web traffic. I think you would probably be
surprised how many external WiFi uses you get.   

Thank you, 

Joseph Hamlin 

Library Data Coordinator 

Library of Michigan 

702 West Kalamazoo St. 

P.O. Box 30007 

Lansing, MI 48909-7507 

 

Links:
------
[1] http://sputnik.com/
[2] http://www.highlandlibrary.info/
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail3.mcls.org/pipermail/michlib-l/attachments/20180508/9312231d/attachment.html>