Product Recommendations 1

[CaffieneNnicotine]

Hello all,

Our company is trying to set up wireless internet services in a nearby town. What we need to do is connect several floors of an apartment building to the internet for college students. We have tried Proxim harmony products, but the first unit was DOA, so we are a little worried about quality. We liked the Breezcom products and would like to go with them, but here is the catch. To achieve total coverage from within the building we must have an access point on each floor preferably midway in the building. So far, Proxim products are the only one's that we have seen that allow power for the access point to be transmitted accross the ethernet cables. This is very advantageous to us because I dont think the landlord will justify the expense of placing power in the janitors closet on every floor. Do you have any suggestions on wireless solutions that may work? Any assistance will be greatly appreciated!

All Complaints Will Be Routed To /dev/null

 

[jimbopalmer]

Our Cisco Aironet Access Points are powered via ethernet, we have been happy. I think the Symbol Access Points work that way as well. The one thing you can't give for your heart's desire is your heart. - Lois McMaster Bujold

 

[vdmboy]

Cisco Aironet 350 Access Points are "Line" powered, and are 100Mw in power, providing better range and speed. Most AP's, including the Cisco 340 , are 30 Mw - big difference. The older Aironet4800 E Turbo's are also 100Mw, but only support 40 Bit WEP. You can get all of these on Ebay. Its very difficult to get the manufacturere's spec on power, so be sure its the 350, or the Aironet 4800 Turbo series. I do not know of any others that are 100Mw. (If another poaster knows, I'd lik thata info).

You might also try an better antenna for your AP, and have fewer APs. Again, be careful, the Cisco 340 and 350 have "permanent antenna, and require you to open the unit to disconnect. The older Aironets and Linksys have BNC connectors for the antennas.

Heres an antenna site (no recommendation on this site, I just got this from another board, and it looks interesting)

http://www.hyperlinktech.com/web/antennas.html

Be careful, though. The antenna and signal pattern of most AP's work vertically very nicely, and not as well horizontally. I am familiar with Cisco, Linksys, and D-Link AP's. Depending on how many square feet each floor is, you may wnat to, as an axmaple, put two units on the seond floor, which should cover floors 1,2 & 3. Test it though, if there is a lot of steel in the structure, it tends to deflect and distort the signal.