Question How do I handle a bandwidth problem in my local library?

[Hugh_Mungus]

This may be beyond the normal scope of question asked here so if there's a better place to ask it, please tell me and I'll go there.
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I'm facing a challenge involving computer bandwidth and I'm hoping someone can suggest a good direction to resolve my problem.

I'm a senior member of a book club that meets monthly at our local library, the main branch in the city. We video-conference at almost every meeting because we have one member who lives a few thousand kilometers away. The library provides a few meeting rooms and has both ethernet and WiFi access in each meeting room. We're currently using Skype as our video-calling program.

Unfortunately, the bandwidth in those rooms is pretty low and it's really messing with your video-conferencing. After our last meeting, this past Saturday, I checked our bandwidth and it was just 3.3mpbs down (ping time 8 ms; there was an error when it tried to get the up speed). I wasn't able to get a WiFi signal at all on Saturday. WiFi is usually possible in the meeting rooms although I've been told in the past that ethernet is always going to give a better signal than WiFi for video-conferencing. The meeting rooms are a bit of a distance from the main part of the library and that's not going to change in the foreseeable future.

I don't recall the maximum length of a CAT6 ethernet cable to get decent bandwidth but I think it was either 150ft or 300ft. I don't know where the signal comes into the building but it's entirely possible that the cable runs to the meeting room exceed the maximum for ethernet, which may be why the bandwidth is so low.

We've raised the issue with the library before and they have shown themselves to be extremely reluctant to spend whatever they would have to spend to get us decent bandwidth. I suppose they have very tight budgets and that they consider this a discretionary and avoidable expense that they want to avoid, although they've never actually said that.

I'm wondering what could be done by either them or us to improve the bandwidth in that room. On Saturday, we had an award-winning writer join us on the video-conference and even at the best of times, we only heard about 80% of what he had to say because the audio would drop out for a sentence or two now and again; the video was quite pixellated as well. We didn't dare connect our regular attendee because we didn't want the writer's signal to degrade even further and I really hated doing that.

What could the library do to improve the bandwidth if we could persuade them to do so? And since the odds of that happening are slim, what could we do as a club to improve the bandwidth through our own efforts?

It occurred to me that maybe a WiFi signal booster would help us considerably. I've seen them at Amazon.ca - I'm in Canada - for as little as $20 (Canadian), which is something the club could afford despite a very small treasury. Would that help us enough so that we could get a good signal while video-conferencing with, say, two remote attendees at a time?

I don't know anything about signal boosters except that they exist. I have no idea how much they boost the signal or if they have any negative impacts on other WiFi users in the building. If they only boost the WiFi one or two mbps, that might not be enough to help much. If the signal booster harms the WiFi in other meeting rooms by grabbing bandwidth from them in some way, then I expect the library would be very unhappy with us.

Would we need to know any particulars about the library's network to set up the booster, such as the password on their WiFi? Or is it just a matter of looking for the right network name and then telling it to boost that signal, as opposed to any of the others the booster might be able to see there?

 

[Alabalcho]

The first thing to establish is whether the library has decent Internet connectivity in the first place.

Second - talk to someone in charge of the infrastructure, and see where is the closest Ethernet point. From there, you can string a 300ft cable across the halls during your meetings. If the distance is much larger, an ethernet switch ($20 one) in the middle could be used as an "amplifier".

As for "boosters": They need good WiFi connection in the place where they are plugged in. From that place, count another 30 meters, at most.

 

[Ralston18]

The signal/network/performance will only be as good as the slowest link.

Cat 5e is good for 100 meters (328 feet) - just FYI but there are many other factors involved especially in a mixed environment.

You really should not do anything at all on your own (i.e, you, the book club, or anyone else) as that could cause more problems and even possible security breaches. (Libraries in my area were hacked a few months ago, got a virus, and are still having problems...)

This:

"We've raised the issue with the library before and they have shown themselves to be extremely reluctant to spend whatever they would have to spend to get us decent bandwidth."

You will need to start a "public interest" approach to lobby Library administrators, local political leaders, get media coverage, do fund raisers etc..

May be find a local, reputable IT company that will offer assistance gratis (which means for good PR).

Unfortunately, escalation is necessary. Aka the "squeaky wheel gets the grease".

 

[USAFRet]

What could the library do to improve the bandwidth if we could persuade them to do so?

Convince their budgetary source to pay for a better connection.

Their connection to the outside world is almost certainly the limiting factor.
If your laptop were right next to the router, with the best WiFi signal possible...it is still hampered by whatever their upstream connection is like.

You need to determine what the actual library connection is like. Then maybe investigate any WiFi issues.

 

[jsmithepa]

Talk to the person who's the advocate to provide services to patrons, he obviously doesn't know the technical details, but he can put you in touch with IT, and you should be willing to defray any cost. If ur lucky, as mentioned a switch (relatively inexpensive) in the middle is all it needs.

Run speediest at various locations through the lib, via ethernet of course. The lib may not have its own Internet service, but rather connects to a central IT and limited bandwidth.