Conducting In-Person VE Session

The following resources may be helpful for teams conducting in-person exam sessions:

Issue: Connecting to a WiFi Network at the Exam Site

  • One approach is to use a TP-Link TL-WR902AC Travel Router or similar device to share an existing WiFi network or Wireless Hotspot. If the tablets are configured in advance to recognize the TP-Link wireless network, no on-site configuration is required. Determining the range and capacity limitations of the TP-Link is left as an exercise for the reader.
  • An alternative approach is to use the Fully Kiosk WiFi PIN to join a wireless network on-site.
  • If the on-site WiFi network requires login through a Captive Portal (a WiFi network that requires a web login prior to using the network), using that WiFi network requires the Fully Kiosk PIN to exit Fully Kiosk, so that you can open a web browser to login to the network. After logging into the network, you would need to restart Fully Kiosk.
  • I contacted Fully Kiosk Support to request better support for accessing public WiFi networks behind a Captive Portal:

    I recently needed to use my Fully Kiosk tablets with a public WiFi network at a community college. Unfortunately, their WiFi requires use of a Captive Portal to login after selecting the WiFi network.

    It is not possible to configure Fully to use this WiFi network with only the WiFi PIN. It is necessary to completely exit Fully in order to open a browser, and then restart Fully.

    It would be great if it were possible to complete this task without having access to the Fully Kiosk PIN, and without quitting Fully. One possible way to do this would be to provide a new PIN that allows the user to open a browser. As soon as you exit the browser, Fully would resume operation. Perhaps there are other approaches. Or, perhaps you have other suggestions regarding how to handle this situation.

    Thank you for your attention.

  • I received the following reply:

    this feature has been asked only 2-3 times for the last years. But it requires lot of testing with different devices. We unlikely will develop this feature unless some business pays.

  • I would therefore recommend that if this feature would be helpful to you, you contact Fully Kiosk Support to make the same request. Perhaps if they receive a substantial number of requests, they will implement this feature.

Issue: Previewing Form 605 and CSCE

  • Unless the tablets are properly configured (View Remote PDF Files (PLUS) is set to Use Build-in PDF Viewer in Web Content Settings), the candidate will not be able to preview the Form 605 and CSCE prior to signing. Unfortunately, with a large number of tablets, Murphy's Law predicts that at least some will be incorrectly configured.
  • Furthermore, there is no easy way to test that your tablets are properly configured. Normally, testing this would require setting up the Sandbox with a candidate that has passed and exam and is ready to sign, joining that Sandbox session using the tablet that needs to be tested, and then having a VE approve the request to join.
  • I attempted to configure my web server (https://aa7hw.org/form605.cgi) to send Content-type: application/pdf\n\n, followed by PDF content. You can access this web page by visiting https://www.aa7hw.org/tablet.html, clicking on ASSIST, then clicking on VIEW FORM 605. Unfortunately, this is not the same sequence sent by ExamTools, and is not displayed the same way in Fully Kiosk.
  • On November 18, 2022, I requested assistance in Discord #et-bugs-features-qa on configuring my webserver to send the correct sequence to test viewing PDF content in Fully Kiosk, but have received no responses. I would appreciate any suggestions that anyone reading this can offer.