Re: Help needed regarding Wireless Network at a Motel
- From: Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@xxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 15:53:12 -0800
amaar2003@xxxxxxxxx hath wroth:
Thank you for your reply.
Your welcome. Next time, please reply to the original thread. Also,
I asked some rather specific questions (mostly details) most of which
you've ignored.
<http://groups.google.com/group/alt.internet.wireless/browse_thread/thread/dde68bdd3efd2234/92d046ed91de86b6?hl=en\d046ed91de86b6>
The building that I am looking to
network wirelessly has about 10 rooms on each floor ( 3 floors) and
each room is about 8X12. It is a motel, so there are 30 rooms on one
side and 30 on the opposite.
Ok. It's long and narrow. Any particular constuction? If concete
and steel, you're going to have problems going through the walls.
You're not going to be able to do this by "illuminating" the rooms
from the center hallway. You'll also have problems going between
floors. Well, you can try it, but you're already at a disadvantage by
having to through doors and walls. If they block RF, it won't work.
I suggest you illuminate the rooms from the outside, with a sector
antenna. I can't tell which way your 8x12 (ft|meter) rooms are
oriented. That makes the building anywhere between 80 and 120
ft|meters long. A reasonable sector antenna has about a 90 degree
radiation angle, so you're going to need to locate the antenna about
40 to 50 ft|meters away from the building. You can get closer with a
120 degree sector, but the gain is lower.
<http://www.superpass.com/2400-2483M.html>
<http://www.hyperlinktech.com/web/wlan_sector_antennas.php>
These are NOT cheap, but you can build your own. Google for "Franklin
antenna" or "AMOS antenna".
I have quite a bit of experience in
networking(wired and somewhat wireless at an enterpeise level).
Ok. Then you should be familiar with the effects of using bottom of
the line hardware to do the job where a better quality device would be
more reliable. One of the problems you're going to run into
immediately is that low end wireless just doesn't handle your
unspecied but apparently substantial number of users. See chart at:
<http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/component/option,com_chart/Itemid,189/chart,124/>
Note the low end hardware that can barely handle a handful of
simultanous connections.
Getting a Cisco 1200 AP would be something that the client can not
afford.
Well, he's going to need at least two for the outdoor illumination
method I suggested. If you decide to do it indoors, probably at least
2 per floor, time 3 floors. Have your checkbook ready.
This is my first go at doing this kind of work on my own.
Yeah. I can tell by the general lack of numbers and details. See my
original reply to your original question. Hint: If it doesn't work
on paper, it isn't going to work when you install it.
My main concerns are as follwing:
1) what AP woud be appropriate to use in such an enviroment.
I have no idea. That's because I only have a vague idea of the layout
and construction. It may be impossible if the building is full of
steel and concrete. It may be right next to an existing wireless
network or sitting under the local municipal wireless LAN. The very
LAST thing you specific is the hardware. First, nail down the
topology, estimate the usage, figure out how you're going to handle
the backhaul (hint: a DSL line isn't enough), and get a budget from
the client. If the money is inadequate to do the job, run, because
it's not going to work and you probably won't get paid if it doesn't
work.
I am
thinking of getting a Linksys WAP54GPE and doing a site survey at the
site to get a good idea regarding coverage. Is this AP appropriagte ?
Nope. What you want is any (and I do mean any) cheap wireless router
or access point that can handle and external antenna. Set it up where
you think your access point(s) are going to be located. Use a laptop
for the site surver which is typical of what the visitors are likely
to drag along. Fire up Netstumbler and get a feel for the signal
strength and reliability. Try multiple locations for the router.
Experiment with various antenna combinations. See what kind of speeds
you can get at the client. If you're constantly at the low end of the
speed range (i.e. 1 to perhaps 12Mbits/sec), it's going to be flakey.
2) I am going to use PoE switch to provide power to these APs and also
I got to make sure that the channels are used appropriatly ( we have 3
channels in 802.11b and g).
What's the question? PoE works fine. However, please note that there
are some rather crappy PoE implimentations. What you want is 802.3af.
3) About authentication and access to network. What option are
available to provide access to guests at the motel? I have used
wireless networks at hotels where the front desk provides me with
access and the router has redirection to hotels main page acking for
access. How do I accomplish this ? THis is differnet from enterprise
enviroment of having tacacas+ or radius deployments.
You can buy turnkey systems with built in authentication and billing.
They all work roughly the same. The AP is setup for WPA-RADIUS (also
known as WPA-Enterprise). You have a Linux box running one of the
RADIUS authentication database suites. The hard part is entering the
customers name and password, keeping the database clean, and dealing
with lost passwords. This machine can double as a management
workstation to track usage, bandwidth consuption, abuse, bandwidth
hogs, hackers, and billing. Some form of URL redirction in the main
router will take care of the splash page.
I would really apprieciate your advise in this matter.
Sincerely.
A
--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@xxxxxxxxxx
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
.
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- Help needed regarding Wireless Network at a Motel
- From: amaar2003
- Help needed regarding Wireless Network at a Motel
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