Large Wifi Network

Hello All.

First of i would like to welcome myself to youur forum as a new member and hope you can help me like i would like to help others.

I have been asked to design a large wifi network to cover a building with 30 odd rooms on a approx size of 30m by 20m over two floors.

the specification is to wifi the whole building to see 1 network name connected to the internet.

So they would be able to work around the whole building and only have to connect to 1 network name.

is this possible? and also which is the best brand of routers/ switch to use.

Regards

Jon

If you can get ethernet cabling to sufficient locations, then just a case of giving access points the same SSID and security keys and off you go. Devices should then switch between the best one

Welcome!

The clue is in the Forum information

Also it sounds like you are doing this commercially (without the necessary technical knowledge) and we don't get paid

Perfectly possible, do consider a professional solution such as Meraki. This isn't really a job ideally left to consumer grade kit.

I think in this case you need to look at enterprise level systems.

Do research and get in contact with all the companies.

AeroHive, Juniper, Meru, Trapeze, Ruckus, Cisco, Colubris...

You need to decide on various things such as

-Does existing cabling not permit APs going back to a controller
--Can they only go back to your layer 2 switching infrastructure
-Power over ethernet
-Redundancy considerations
-Management considerations

etc etc

Bare in mind that with some enterprise systems the standard rules of wireless networks do not apply (i.e., different channels on APs), some work in more complicated ways so you really need to get some professional insight into which ever solution you choose.

Depending where you are in the country I might be able to point you in direction of some suppliers that are useful to talk to.

Edited by Pipexer (Mon 20-Aug-12 23:08:08)

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

Welcome!

The clue is in the Forum information

Also it sounds like you are doing this commercially (without the necessary technical knowledge) and we don't get paid

He is only asking for advice, not for us to do the work for him. So, personally, I don't have a problem helping.

After initially acting in support of open-source development of software on Meraki Mini units, in early 2008 the company introduced a more restrictive EULA covering sales of new equipment requiring that, "Meraki Hardware may only be used with Meraki Software" and prohibiting reverse engineering, adding, removing or otherwise altering the software on the device. The previous license agreements contained no restrictions on replacing the software on the device. Shortly after the new EULA was imposed, Meraki sent an unsolicited firmware update to their units in the field which disabled future firmware updates by customers. This has dismayed mesh network enthusiasts, some of whom have questioned the legality of such restrictions being imposed involuntarily and without advance notice. In 2008 Open-Mesh began offering similar software with fewer licensing restrictions

In reply to a post by jonwisbey:

Hello All.

First of i would like to welcome myself to youur forum as a new member and hope you can help me like i would like to help others.

I have been asked to design a large wifi network to cover a building with 30 odd rooms on a approx size of 30m by 20m over two floors.

the specification is to wifi the whole building to see 1 network name connected to the internet.

So they would be able to work around the whole building and only have to connect to 1 network name.

is this possible? and also which is the best brand of routers/ switch to use.

Regards

Jon

If literally loads of people are gonna be using the connection get business grade equipment.

If just a few people then a few NETGEAR WNR2000s all linked with ethernet would do the trick. Could do it for around £100 - £300 if it's only for a few people e.g a family

Edited by ukhardy07 (Mon 20-Aug-12 23:06:29)

Yes?

I wouldn't trust that shower.