Multiple Access Points and SSID's

Ever notice that most buildings to not have a 13th floor?

Be sure to locate your 13 access points in a manner where those on different non-overlapping channels, do not hear or interfere with each other. You'll need a channel plan to prevent mutual interference. I strongly suggest you read through this document from Intel on "hot spot" topology and planning before blundering onward:

Not a good idea.

Yep. That's exactly what will happen if you do it that way. You should use a single SSID and different channels. Use non-overlapping channels such as 1, 6, and 11.

Yep. However, be advised that some client radios will stick tenatiously to one access point before finally deciding to let go and scan for a better connection. This arrangement has a problem where one is not being able to select a specific access point or even determine to which access point one is connected. It's usually not a problem for most roaming users, but be prepared to deal with it.

I would suggest you install 12 access points and one spare. Leave out the 13th.

some access points don't roam well, like the two I have,, can roam one way but not back - in the back roam the radio connects but mapping for the ip/mac is still aimed at the one it orig roamed to AP so while it says connected, it is radio connected and is not network connected. .

I say go with 14 AP's 7 is a lucky floor number and floor 14 is twice as lucky because if you climbed the stairs all the way past 13 without a heart attack, you're damb lucky.

-->I have 3 AP's in my building, 7th, 3rd and 1st floors and used same SSID for all of 'em. Set my ( 802.11b/g ) channels to 1 for 1st floor, 11 for 3rd and 6 for 7th floor ( roofdeck).

Works well for me. I take a laptop in the elevator and from the basement, locks on to each AP on the way up to the roof. With 13 ap's though, you will have to channel space in combination with a signal meter or netstumbler type program, etc. to get the channel interference down though.

Hope this helps! :-)

Scotty