Wireless Network Handout
May 26th, 2009
Here's a new little handout to show patrons (and staff) the basics on how to connect to the library's wireless network. Feel free to modify* and use it if you like.
The handouts are designed to be a third of a page, with Windows instructions on one side and Mac instructions on the other:
Since the beginning of the year, I've been noticing more and more people asking for help connecting to the network. It wasn't that our network was problematic - the patrons just seemed like first-time laptop owners, and had no idea how to connect.
We have a more hardcore troubleshooting handout, instructing people to use ip config to release and renew their ip numbers, but that was definitely overkill for these patrons. They needed something plain and simple, that showed the basic steps to search for and connect to networks.
But of course, plain and simple is tricky, since there are so many brands and operating systems out there. Please let me know if you have any suggestions on making this better, or post a link to your own handout in the comments section.
And thank you to Jessamyn for writing the Mac portion - it would have only been half as useful without your help.
*I usually do little handouts like this in PowerPoint, because I already have templates setup - sorry for the amateur desktop publishing
May 26th, 2009 at 5:03 pm
I’ve been looking for a great hand-out. Do you mind if I borrow this and make some alterations?
May 26th, 2009 at 7:36 pm
I don’t mind at all – I’m glad you can use it, so feel free to customize it for your library. If the ppt/pdf don’t work for you, let me know and I can just send you a Word or text file, with the images separate.
And if there are any general changes you think would improve the handout for my patrons, please let me know so I can make it better.
May 26th, 2009 at 10:36 pm
Yay, you’re welcome for the help. It came out really nicely.
May 27th, 2009 at 8:04 am
Thank you Brian (and Jessamyn),
This looks like quite the paper saver compared to what we hand out now and it’s probably just what the majority of patrons need.
Very nice of you to make it available for tweaking.
-Kevin
July 7th, 2009 at 7:54 pm
This is fantastic….thanks so much. We’re an all volunteer staff, and several of our more chronologically advantaged volunteers don’t have the expertise to be able to help patrons get connected. If you could send this as a word/text file I’d really appreciate it. We don’t have a way to modify a PDF.
Great job!
July 7th, 2009 at 7:56 pm
DUH….I’ve got it in PPT – no need to drop the text file. Thanks again.
March 14th, 2012 at 2:57 pm
Thanks so much for this. I’ve had it in my bookmarks since you published it, and am just now getting around to modifying it for our library. I really appreciate the work you did!
March 14th, 2012 at 2:58 pm
Oh my goodness, just realized it has been 2 years since you published it!
March 14th, 2012 at 2:58 pm
Almost 3 years! Ok, I’m done now.