How to setup Wireless connection in a big conference room ?

[johnpau80]

Wanted some suggestions and answers from the expertise from this forum.

We are planning to setup a wireless network environment in a big conference room with 150 users accessing.

We have a server with a web application in it and want this web application available to all the users in the conference room to be able to access it. There will be around 150 users with there own laptops and every laptop will be having some kind of wireless device to it.

We wanted to setup a wireless network in the conference room where all the users can be in one network and acess this web application over this wireless network.


So whats the best hardware to be used for this WIRELESS ROUTERS or access points whatever it is ?

The conference is around 5000 square feet.


Any help !!!

 

[bpinning]

Hey,

I would suggest a Netgear WG602 AU$130.

It will probably cover most of the room, but you can buy a second one, and use it in repeater mode on a separate channel.

This will easily hold that many users.

"one network and acess this web application over this wireless network." I am assuming that this is an internal app.

Thanks,

Brett

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.eyetstore.com

NSW, Australia
(Unless you want to pay for our trip?)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[johnpau80]

Can you explain more of this "

====================================
It will probably cover most of the room, but you can buy a second one, and use it in repeater mode on a separate channel.

=========================================

What is this REPEATER MODE ?


What is this seperate channel ?

What is a channel ?

 

[bpinning]

Ok,

You wireless network works on channels or parts of a frequency. When you setup an AP you have to choose a channel to run on. eg, 6 and 11.

Repeater mode, is where the AP repeats the other AP, therefore giving greater coverage for an AP. The two AP's act as one SSID and users can roam between the two without loosing the connection.

So,

Setup one AP, Set the SSID, channel 11 and the security, WPA as a minimum generally, but maybe None or WEP for this use, as its temporary.

The copy the config to the second AP and change the channel to 6. And put it in repeater mode.


Let me know if there is anything else I can help you with.

Brett

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.eyetstore.com

NSW, Australia
(Unless you want to pay for our trip?)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[dput]

That sounds like an awful lot of users to put on one (or one plus a repeater) access point all trying to use the wirless at one time. I would suggest that you may want to hire a fimr that does wireless to come in and do a site survery and to help you determine the best methods given your goals. If it was a conference room with 30 users, I would do it yourself, but with these requirements, I would bring a professional firm in. They will want to identify your actual needs and do a site survey.

A couple of other things to think about...
Are these laptops theirs, or the companies?
Can you control the quality of equipment?
Will you need to setup the wireless on each of the laptops?
Does this network need to be secure(probably)?
and how secure?

It seems like to me that you run a real risk of trying this yourself and ending up with a big problem.

Dan

 

[Spirit]

In addition to the above.

I would create a separte subnet or even a dmz for the users and place the web server in it and set the firewall to only allow the server to talk to the rest of the internal network other wise you have 100 people trying to connect everywhere they shouldn't!

Iain

 

[johnpau80]

1) How many AP's do you think we might need , lets say
if its a conference room of size 300ft from one wall
to other. (height around 100ft )?

2) So all I have to do is make one Primary AP and give it
a SSID and channell 11 and the next AP's I should put in
the same SSID and put them in a repeater mode.

So I can have 1 Primary AP and 3-4 repeater mode AP's
with the same SSID to make the signal stronger ?


3) Regarding the subnet mask what Iain was suggesting,
so if I put the whole configuration in subnet of
something unique it will be good ? I can give as
255.255.0.248 ?

4) Can i make the AP set as DHCP server so all the wireless
laptop users once they configure with the given SSID/KEY
they get the IP address from the configured range
on the AP ?


Any more suggestions !!!!!

 

[bpinning]

Ok,

1. I would say 3 with 5dB areials.

2. Yes, Make sure the repeaters are on differnt channels

3. Follow Iain's sugestion

4. Yep, make sure that it has a large enough range to cover all the users.

What will they be accessing? Local or over the internet? can what they are accessing be separated from your normal network?

Brett

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.eyetstore.com

NSW, Australia
(Unless you want to pay for our trip?)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[johnpau80]

I will have a server in this network which has a web application and I wanted all these 150 users to run this web application .

 

[ItIsHardToProgram]

Have a look with the person who programmed that application would be the best deal... don't try a "do it yourself" on a network, since you will have issues obviously... firstly security, then in second hand probably bugs to fix..... I would suggest to ask a professional... its already been said, I am only emphasing it....

"Knowing that you know is the greatest sign of stupidity, knowing that you are ignorant is the best proof of intelligence.

 

[bpinning]

Hey,

Can you move the server to a separate network? That was you only have to worry about the security on that server and not the rest of the network?

I cannot see this setup being a problem.

Brett

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.eyetstore.com

NSW, Australia
(Unless you want to pay for our trip?)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.eyetstore.com

NSW, Australia
(Unless you want to pay for our trip?)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[johnpau80]

Hi guys,

I had brought LINKSYS WRT300N for testing the above setup
in my office.

http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Sate...513404&pagename=Linksys/Common/VisitorWrapper

quick questions:

1) Are there any tools which can monitor the connectivity
between the laptop and wireless router over a period of time. ?

Lets say I have a laptop which works on wireless through
a wireless router, I wanted some service or tool which can run on my laptop and do a continous ping to the router address and give a report at the end of the day as how many times it got disconnected.

--Thanks
SAM

 

[dput]

You could just do a continous ping. "Ping xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx -t" at the end of the day do a CTL C and it will give you the number of missed pings.

Dan

 

[johnpau80]

My conference room is 170' x 190' = 32,000 sq. ft

So what wireless devices do you think is good for our purpose
with around 100 users connecting to a same network.