Wireless coverage over 3 hotel floors

[J1mmy]

Here's the deal, we're planning on taking one or two single internet lines and using an array of wireless extenders and hubs to stretch it across 3 floors of a hotel.

There's going to be 4 extenders on each floor each protected by a key. Cables aren't an option, and this appears to be easiest why possible.

Is this what you'd do?

[Nude_Lewd_Man]

Personally, I'd use one WAN link for the commercial (business) usage, and use the other for the guests' use. This should mean that the hotel's data and systems are safer, and if you were to use the 'guest' WAN link for a business "failover" link, then you can (depending on hardware) just hook the 'hotel' network onto the DMZ port of the 'guest' network...though this could just be adding an extra level of complexity, depending on the size of the entire network and the company's needs. Speaking of which, how big is each floor of this hotel, you may not need to have four per floor..?

I would try to run one network cable connection on each floor, if not to each WAP, so that each of the extenders are able to run at their full bandwidth (not being throttled/bottlenecked by each additional hop to the next extender) and it is also easier to configure in the first instance - not to mention that you're gaining reliability: if the WAP on the second floor packs in, it only affects that floor; if you go with bridging/extending, you may well find that you need to link one floor to the one above/below it due to the signal strengths...

Other than that, yes, I would go with locking it down to using a key - though you may have to find a happy medium between strength and guests being able to connect with ease...



Obviously, that is just the way I would do things, and I/we don't know any further info that could swing that decision to something different...

[J1mmy]

Yes, I want the staff network to be separate from the guests, its also required to be done for data protection and other laws. What do you mean by the WAN link for the hotel and guests?

We've been told the floors are quite thick, as is the walls. So by installing 4 per floor should be sufficient. The floor hall goes round in a circle, so where you start at the stairs is where you will finish when you walk round. We got some floor plans and thought 4 would be ideal. We also were limited by power sockets in the hall too, so we've had to compensate in some areas.

The way the WAP are going be connect are as follows. There is going to be a hub on each floor each port on that hub is going to serve a cable to each WAP, so port 1 for WAP 1, port 2 for WAP etc. We could interconnect them anyway because these WAP on have a single RK45 port on the back, they're aren't wireless AP's with integrated hubs. But I'm not sure if the distance of the cables would affect the performance.

For the next floor a cable would run directly from the router to the next floor into its own hub and the same setup would repeat for that floor.

One thing that did cross my mind was how the guests would see these WAP. At the moment they would probably see a list of AP's, but isn't it possible to show ONE big access point instead about about 4, and the system should automaticall determine somehow which one is the strongest closest to them?

[Nude_Lewd_Man]

I'm going to presume that you mean a switch rather than a hub, but I'm leaving work now...I'll check back in when I'm at home...

[J1mmy]

No, well, the manufacturers call their products hubs. But I don't know if I can find any quality 5-8 port switches within our budget. Is there really much of a difference

[Nude_Lewd_Man]

Quote:

Originally Posted by J1mmy

Yes, I want the staff network to be separate from the guests, its also required to be done for data protection and other laws. What do you mean by the WAN link for the hotel and guests?
I meant that one internet connection (WAN link) should be used for the hotel to use for their own business needs, the other connection for the guests. You said that there will be two WAN links, so split one each - though you could use the "guest" link as a backup/failover for the hotel's gateway.

We've been told the floors are quite thick, as is the walls. So by installing 4 per floor should be sufficient. The floor hall goes round in a circle, so where you start at the stairs is where you will finish when you walk round. We got some floor plans and thought 4 would be ideal. We also were limited by power sockets in the hall too, so we've had to compensate in some areas.
Depending on the construction, you could place the WAPs in the floor and/or the ceiling, but without knowing specifics it is difficult to be specific - or give the best advice for the scenario.. I'm sure you can check/tell for yourself.

The way the WAP are going be connect are as follows. There is going to be a hub on each floor each port on that hub is going to serve a cable to each WAP, so port 1 for WAP 1, port 2 for WAP etc. We could interconnect them anyway because these WAP on have a single RK45 port on the back, they're aren't wireless AP's with integrated hubs. But I'm not sure if the distance of the cables would affect the performance.
This is where I'm sure you mean a switch rather than a hub (see below for a quick run through the difference/s), and I'm also guessing you meant RJ45 ports.

Other than that, it sounds like you've got things correct. How long a run are the cables likely to need to be going..? The recommended max run is ~100m, but I've had runs of around 150~160m without any problems - the absolute maximum length is 200 metres.

Quote:

For the next floor a cable would run directly from the router to the next floor into its own hub and the same setup would repeat for that floor.
Just to clarify, but the "hubs" you're intending to use will not be connecting directly from one floor to another - the only thing that each floor will connect to (other than itself) will be the 'master' switch device...correct? If that is how you're doing it, then it matches to what I would do - in case that wasn't clear earlier..

One thing that did cross my mind was how the guests would see these WAP. At the moment they would probably see a list of AP's, but isn't it possible to show ONE big access point instead about about 4, and the system should automaticall determine somehow which one is the strongest closest to them?

I haven't done it before as such, but you could call all of the devices the same thing, or rather have the 'wireless name' (SSID, IIRC) be set to the same thing, but yes, the guests would see a multitude of different WAPs - though that might not make too much of a difference, as the built-in M$ WLAN controller normally will pick whichever has the best signal and if the SSIDs and keys match from one to the other, it will almost seemlessly switch between the two.

Personally, I'd be tempted to give each floor one unique SSID ("Floor1", "Floor2", etc) and have each floor using a different key. Then, when a guest checks in, they get given the key and name for their floor's WAPs and away they go. An alternative could be to stagger the WAPs around the floor, as the signal from an adjacent floor may be stronger than one from their own floor, but this is something you can play with in testing..

For security of the WLAN, you may decide that you want to create a new key for each floor (or at least any that are able to connect to from outside) to minimise the chance of someone just linking in..

[Nude_Lewd_Man]

Okay, so you must've posted just after I'd started, and it took me 20 mins to answer...

Anyway, see my quote in the middle of your quote in the post above...

[J1mmy]

Thanks for the thorough reply.

My original plan was to use a router to which the internet will of course be connected to, and off that there will be 4 cables each cable running to a different floor. Should I introduce a switch, connect it to the router and get each floor cables running from that instead?

Also, is there any software available to create some sort of management solution for public/commercial wifi so we can basically assess and monitor simple things like how much usage per floor, how many users etc etc. It might be possible via the router, but I don't know if the ammount of WAP we're going to install will choke these statistics.

[Nude_Lewd_Man]

I wouldn't bother with adding a switch, unless you wanted to use more links than you have ports on the router for - otherwise you'd be potentially adding a bottleneck into the network; where all the traffic has to travel down the same cable. Having said that, given that the only thing available will be the interweb, it isn't likely to make much/any difference - but I'd still leave it for now anyway, and only add it to the network if you need to...

 Nothing doing, just forcing a break in the post...

With regards to the software you're asking about, the router may be able to tell you how many devices it is giving IP addresses to (using DHCP) which would tell you how many users are using it. You may want to check what it says when you've only got the networking equipment in place (bear in mind that it may well also include whatever device you're using, as you'd need to be on the network to check, unless you configured WAN access to the menu), which reminds me to mention that you may want to change the setting for the DHCP scope that the router can assign to start from .20 as you're already going to be using 17 IP addresses. I'm sure there are other bits of software that can be implemented to show usage, where it is going, what type of traffic.....and that may well be able to be analysed further to split between each floor, but I haven't actually used it myself, and I have no idea of where to get it or the price. It may well be that you need to get a more expensive router to do that, or just use something like Wireshark that can do a 'packet capture' which could then be reviewed to see what's going on - but you may need to make a note of the MAC address of each of the other devices on the network, as these might be needed to work out where the traffic is going through...

[GroundZero3]

What kind of distance are you trying to cover? Do you have a diagram of the place to give us an example?

How many clients are we talking about on a busy day?

What kind of internet connection will be feeding this?

What kind of hardware are you planning on using?

What is your budget?