New Public WiFi Access at Town Hall Next to Old Fire Department and Post Office

There is a new public WiFi access point at the Town Hall (not the Town Clerks office) located on the exterior of the building. This new access point is very powerful and has a very wide broadcast range, extending many hundreds of feet in all directions. It can reach far up Cabot Rd, north and south along Rt 14, and to the school parking lot.

This is both good and bad news and gives the public many places where they can park and get a strong WiFi signal. This also applies to the bad guys that want to sit hidden someplace and monitor the public’s access to the WiFi and then pirate or steal information using software that’s readily available on the web.

To prevent this from happening the WiFi access point has to be password protected. There are multiple WiFi networks configured on the new Town Hall access point, all of which are password protected. The public WiFi network is called Town Hall and the password is:

townhall

in all lower case

Here’s the details on why a password is needed.

If the access point is open and does not require a password it would be like a party line telephone system, while the access point requiring a password would be like a private line telephone system.

I am old enough to remember my family having a party line (will any of you admit to being that old?), and anyone on that line could pick up their phone and listen in on any conversation on the line. The party line provided an unsecured single path to the phone company central office that was used by multiple subscribers.

The private line was a secure connection between each house directly to the phone company central office. No one could pick up the phone in their house and snoop on a phone conversation I was having in my house.

If we setup this new pubic WiFi access point without requiring a password that would be like using a party line telephone system. If we set it up requiring a password that would be like using a private line telephone system.

Unfortunately in today’s web based internet environment, cyber crime is pervasive. Given the range and speed of the new public WiFi access point, anyone with the right equipment and software, which is easily obtainable – can sit out of sight and undetected especially at night – and snoop or spy on an internet session if the session has been initiated without a password being required. Anything that a user was communicating in their internet session – personal or financial information, credit card numbers, or other private information – can be stolen by someone using spyware.

It is like being on a party line telephone system.

When a person logs on to the Town Hall network they will have to agree to a set of Terms and Conditions that says they will not use the network for illegal stuff and will behave. By agreeing, this will give the user an 8 hour license to use the network. This means that they will not have to sign in again in the current 8 hour period. Once that 8 hour period expires, they will have to log on and agree to the Ts & Cs again.

Also – security on this network is set up to prevent access to the dark web, pornographic websites, torrent down loaders, and other nefarious places on the web.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.

Enjoy the new Woodbury public WiFi access.

Skip Marchesani & Wayne Lappen
Town IT Team