News and Product info from SecurEdge

When Charlotte’s Mint Museum moved from its Randolph Road location to its new uptown facility its biggest challenges was to incorporate a secure wireless network. With the explosion of hand held devices, and the increase of mobile users, the Museum knew this was a good time to install a wireless system that could support current and future needs.

The Mint Museum’s IT Services Group engaged SecurEdge Networks to design and install a wireless network solution that would allow them to provide connectivity throughout the new facility. This secure connectivity would be available for their employees as well as Museum Guests.

SecurEdge Networks’ team of wireless engineers used various tools and experience to put together a wireless design. This wireless design implemented the newest wireless technology (802.11n), completely covering the new large Mint Museum facility with a secure wireless network. The new wireless technology that was installed will not only help the Museum with current wireless needs, but also future wireless services. Future wireless services include giving employees the ability to inventory exhibit pieces through handheld mobile devices, providing patrons with narrated audio tours and even a wireless hotspot, located in the Museum’s Café.   

SecurEdge Networks provided a secure wireless system with top of the line, above industry equipment. One of the advantages of the wireless network is a feature called “guest access”. Guest Access allows the Mint Museum a complete secured wireless infrastructure, meaning guest traffic on the network is separated from Museum employee traffic. This allows the Museum to easily track visitors on their wireless network and prevent malicious activity. 

Specific features of the wireless network provided to the Mint includes:

• Mint Private – Employee access with laptops
  Highly secure wireless access
  Role based access using firewall policies to define access
• Mint Guest – Public access
  Captive portal authentication
  Secured using mixed mode WPA/WPA2-PSK
  Role based access limiting Guest use to HTTP/HTTPS only to internet
  Physical port segmentation of traffic connected to Fortigate 80C for web content filtering/malware/application control
• Mint Device – Miscellaneous device access
  Created for devices with minimal security capabilities
  Role based access using firewall policies to limit network access to resources
  Currently being used by AV vendor and other vendors for communication on the Museum network

The Mint Museum in Charlotte has been open several months now at its new location. Stop by to enjoy some modern art and feel free to check-in online or tweet about your visit on the Mint Museums secured wireless network.