Wifi access point/router for business|
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Posted by =?ISO-8859-1?Q?=22Simen_S=2E_= on February 6, 2009, 7:38 am
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they work rather poor. I have finally got through with my statement that consumer wifi solutions are made for families with 5 members and such and not 100+ students and 20 teachers/other employees. So now we are looking at replacing or supplementing our wifi ap's. We mostly have Linksys WAP54G, WRT54G and a couple of WRT300N. The network, well. That's a sad story. Mostly made of cheap switches from a local hardware (like in hardware for cars, painting, computers, etc.) store, and cat5 wires outdoors made for indoor use, so it's far from professional. We do have one HP ProCurve 2510-48 Switch (J9020A) as a main switch, but that's the peak of the network's professionality :) Well, onto the case. You have any suggestions for a wifi AP/router (acting as a AP) that can handle alot of users? It must have WPA 2 radius support (for the future) and the "new" N standard (300Mbit). It would also be good if it had good range, and it has to be compatible with the existing wifi AP's. Any help would be appreciated. -- Simen S. Øya Fixed width is evil! | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Posted by Glen Herrmannsfeldt on February 6, 2009, 4:11 pm
Please log in for more thread options > So now we are looking at replacing or supplementing our wifi ap's. We
> mostly have Linksys WAP54G, WRT54G and a couple of WRT300N. It might be that your hardware is fine. The rules for channel allocation are a little complicated, but mostly work if the APs are not too close. (As in home use.) If they are close together, then, as I understand it, you need to try to allocate the channels such that they aren't too close together. It also depends on the material used for the walls. The signals go through the thin material used in many home walls much easier than in concrete used in many larger buildings. You might have someone who understands the system better, and even has tools for measuring signal strength, look at the system. Otherwise, if you really have 120+ people all doing net access in a small space, and they don't move around very often, a wired net might be a better choice. -- glen | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Posted by =?ISO-8859-1?Q?=22Simen_S=2E_= on February 6, 2009, 4:33 pm
Please log in for more thread options Glen Herrmannsfeldt wrote:
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> The rules for channel allocation are a little complicated, but mostly > work if the APs are not too close. (As in home use.) If they are > close together, then, as I understand it, you need to try to allocate > the channels such that they aren't too close together. We have all AP's on the same channels, so that is a problem? They all share the same SSID. Some places there are two AP's on the same spot to cover many users, these should have their channels for from each other? > It also depends on the material used for the walls. The signals
> go through the thin material used in many home walls much easier > than in concrete used in many larger buildings. That differs from building to building. > You might have someone who understands the system better, and
> even has tools for measuring signal strength, look at the system. Might be smart. I would love to have some tools for this myself, but I haven't found any. > Otherwise, if you really have 120+ people all doing net access in
> a small space, and they don't move around very often, a wired net > might be a better choice. They are pretty spread out. The students are in their classroms, in their own rooms (they live at the school), and many other places, like the TV-room and big livingrooms. -- Simen S. Øya Fixed width is evil! | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Posted by Glen Herrmannsfeldt on February 6, 2009, 5:40 pm
Please log in for more thread options Simen S. Øya wrote:
(I wrote) >> The rules for channel allocation are a little complicated, but mostly
>> work if the APs are not too close. (As in home use.) If they are >> close together, then, as I understand it, you need to try to allocate >> the channels such that they aren't too close together. > We have all AP's on the same channels, so that is a problem? They all
> share the same SSID. Some places there are two AP's on the same spot to > cover many users, these should have their channels for from each other? If they are close enough that one user could see more than one access point, I believe they should have different channels, maybe four or five channel units apart. There is a book called "Wi-Foo" that describes much of this, but I don't have one right now. I believe having the SSID the same is fine, but I would choose different ones. If you get a report of someone having problems connecting it is nice to know which one they were trying to connect to. -- glen | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Posted by =?ISO-8859-1?Q?=22Simen_S=2E_= on February 6, 2009, 5:57 pm
Please log in for more thread options Glen Herrmannsfeldt wrote:
>
> If they are close enough that one user could see more than one access > point, I believe they should have different channels, maybe four or > five channel units apart. There is a book called "Wi-Foo" that > describes much of this, but I don't have one right now. > > I believe having the SSID the same is fine, but I would choose different > ones. If you get a report of someone having problems connecting it is > nice to know which one they were trying to connect to. > > -- glen > I'll look into that book. I have the same SSID and channel because you can then walk from classroom to classroom and not loose your connection. Maybe that just require same SSID and not same channel? If so I'll change the channels. But what model would you recommend when we buy new ones? We are about to make another building wifi so we are looking to invest some money in AP's now. -- Simen S. Øya Fixed width is evil! | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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> AP's) and they work rather poor. I have finally got through with my
> statement that consumer wifi solutions are made for families with 5
> members and such and not 100+ students and 20 teachers/other employees.