San Mateo Library Gets WiFi Boost

The San Mateo Main Library has received a WiFi upgrade that, if all goes well, will soon be shared with other Peninsula libraries.

The San Mateo Library was selected as the pilot test site for the Peninsula Library System's WiFi access points technology upgrade, library officials announced this week.

The new access points were installed and went operational on Jan. 7.

This new wireless technology will provide library patrons faster Internet speeds and will be compatible with older WiFi technologies.

When patrons access new Internet pages from their wireless devices, they will see a new access splash page. This page is where users will accept the library’s WiFi policy for up to 12 hours of uninterrupted access.

The greatest benefit of this technology to library patrons is the automatic load balancing feature of the new wireless access points, according to library officials.

With the previous technology, multiple WiFi users would connect to one access point, thus creating congestion and causing a slow connection. The new wireless access points are smart enough to balance out the number of users with the number of wireless access points, thus maximizing the available bandwidth.

This new system will be able to provide faster speeds through dual band radios frequencies of 2.4 Ghz and 5.0 Ghz and feature automatic user migration between access points.

As a user moves around the building the connection will automatically be moved to the best access point for the user. With this technological improvement, patrons should be able to enjoy many hours of faster and uninterrupted Internet use on their various wireless devices.

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