_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_Pract... wishing you goodness, Mary Carleton; Farmington Community Library (Mary.Carleton@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/