Need suggestions for large wireless installation

[Agamar]

I am gearing up to install 30+ PC's at a new 4 story office building that has absolutely no ethernet cable in it. I was considering going 802.11G wireless but need some suggestions on this setup:

--802.11G access points that accept power over ethernet (need about 6 of them)

--PCI wireless ethernet cards (preferably ones that are the same brand as the access points, so I can get speed "doubling" that some vendors claim)

--1 small power over ethernet switch (8 - 16 port)

Anyway, I have only started getting specifications, and any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[azangerle]

Cisco 1230 AP's
Cisco 350 G cards

all that speedbooster stuff is crap

 

[ktwebb]

350's are b cards but Cisco does have g client adapters. I believe they are a/b/g so they will be muy expensive. The Cisco 1100 or 1200 AP's will as well. Good equipment and recommended IF you are willing to spend some pretty serious bread on your WLAN. If your going budget then throw a dart. azangerle is correct about channel bonding, especially for a multi access point infrastructure. You can forget about using channel bonding to "double" your bandwidth in that scenario. You can go with an A or G solution and get your 30 to 35 Mbps best case scenario or wait for something like Broadcom's 125 Mbps single channel hardware to surface. That or add more AP's with a complex channel design.

 

[Agamar]

Yes, I have heard that you wouldn't get near the proposed performance from the "boosted" wireless pairs, but I thought there might be *some* gain in using them. I will have to check the prices on those Cisco models, but I am thinking that they may be a tad out of my budget. I probably need to keep this installed below ~$5k.

Just the Power over Ethernet switch (24 port, smallest I have found so far) is ~$1200...

 

[amdskip]

Is it not possible to wire the building? Wireless networks are cool but they should not be used for hooking desktops up especially in a corporate environment. There are too many security issues and wireless just does not work that good IMHO. Its cool for laptops, etc. I support about 300 wireless users in a building and it does not work that good.

 

[ktwebb]

It can work wonderfully provided you use high end equipment and it's engineered properly. Installed several hundred AP's and thousands of client devices. Suprisingly little return work for issues related to the installation or reliability. It's all in the preperation and installation. And good gear of course.

5k will be a struggle if you go Cisco. If you want to use 6 Access Points then your looking at over half your budget right there. Then client cards, running cable to the AP's, antennas and so forth.

Channel bonding is for very controlled environments and generally just a one AP setup. Harmonics on using two frequency sets on one AP is just not condusive to having any other AP's in the area. Strictly home brew world with that equipment.

Have you had a cable jockey take a look at your building. While wireless as a primary infrastructure is do-able, is not preferable. Wireless is still in the stage where it's a very nice addition to a properly cabled network, but not particularly good as a backbone. It can be done and I've done it quite a few times but I never really thought it was the best solution. Not because of reliability or stability. Was always a bandwidth question. Microwave LAN's just don't provide enough of it to be effective for a LAN with moderate to heavy traffic yet.

 

[Agamar]

Have any of you taken a look at the Netgear WG302 AP? I was comparing specs bw it and the Orinoco AP-4000, and it is pretty close with features and power. I was wondering what the real world quality was like.

I am thinking I will bring the number of access points down to only 2 (on the 3rd floor), and try to go ahead and run cable to the rest of the building. This should take some of the load off of the AP.

BTW, I have found the Netgear FSM7326P POE 24 port switch for $1200. It is pretty much overkill for what I need, but it has layer 3 capabilities if I ever need it, and can pretty much become the "core" switch. I would consider a Cisco switch, but I am having trouble finding one with POE in that price range.

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

I'd think LONG AND HARD about biting the bullet and running wire, you'll be MUCH happier with the result, and so will your customer. :roll: