POLKASPOTS

Posts Tagged ‘wifi hotspot security’

Gwynedd Council Rolls Out Free Wi-Fi

Posted on: by Lydia Curtis No Comments
Over 40 Wi-Fi hotspots are being installed around Gwynedd county – North Wales. The service will provide Free Wi-Fi for Council buildings, Leisure Centres, Tourist Information Centres and Art Galleries.

Meraki Wi-Fi Network Installation

The Wi-Fi network is part of the council’s digital inclusion initiative – “Digital Gwynedd”, helping provide council residents with a good quality broadband connection.

Why did Gwynedd Council Choose PolkaSpots Supafly Wi-Fi?

Gwynedd needed to provide secure guest Wi-Fi alongside a private staff connection. Historically this meant installing two separate Wi-Fi networks – guest Wi-Fi and staff Wi-Fi.

Using Meraki Wi-Fi access points, PolkaSpots segregated staff access from guest access, and one platform was installed for public and private Wi-Fi access.

The council network uses our cloud-based hotspot management system to regulate internet usage.

You will be able to use the Gwynedd Wi-Fi network to do interesting things online this summer. Click here for more info on Gwynedd Council’s free WiFi hotspots and here for a map of Wi-Fi hotspot locations around Gwynedd.

No more Internet Explorer 6

Posted on: by Simon Morley No Comments

We’ve taken the bold move to block Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) users from using the PolkaSpots Supafly Wi-Fi Network.

It wasn’t a decision we took lightly. Our customers’ security is a major priority at PolkaSpots and the vulnerabilities found in IE6 were far too great to continue supporting it.

Old browsers, especially IE6, that haven’t been upgraded are likely to have security vulnerabilities that attackers can exploit.

It’s not just about the person using the old browser we were worried about – it’s all the users at the Hotspot – we need to think about the bigger picture.

For 284 days of 2006, IE6 had a substantial number of un-patched flaws that were being exploited and probed by hackers, viruses, malware and spyware. We found that these flaws were significantly decreasing network performance as well and putting other customers at risk.

As a result, on January 1st 2011, we’ve disallowed access for all IE6 users. The solution is to upgrade to a more secure browser:

Some corporate users are still on the older browser, we still don’t understand why considering the massive security risks…

You can download Firefox for free on all PolkaSpots Supafly Wi-Fi Hotspots.

If you have any questions, please contact support [at] polkaspots dot com or post a question on our Wi-Fi Hotspot support pages…