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  • By (Deleted User)

    Hi

    I am working on a project team assessing various network options within the office. I am a newcomer to this technolagy and therefore would appreciate some assistance.

    I want to get an idea of what type of equipment i need, fitting costs, timescale for the following:

    5 story building approx 2000sq ft per floor split in to three offices per floor... want strong wireless connection throughout...

    Do not require network drives... just the wireless service.

    Any help would be greatly appreciated

    Thanks

    Mister P

  • By (Deleted User)

    i don't have all the answers for sure, but some guidance...

    have a thorough site survey accomplished. do not assume anything.

    your wired infrastructure will be important if you want to roam throughout. consider each floor having its own subnet/vlan. all floors at some point will need to go back to a routing device.

    for the wireless, have one vlan, seperate all the others and available on every floor; these are what your access points are going to connect to and will help isolate your wired from your wireless.

    pay attention to security. sounds like anyone gaining access to the building will be able to see the wireless. use some type of authentication scheme, with vpns, certificates, or something of the sort.

    keep everything to code, especially the fire codes and your rise/ceiling cables.

    stick with one vendor. have not been here long. many people have chimed in with different vendors.

    what you find out during the site survey will drive a lot of decisions as to the type and amount of equipment you purchase.

    if someone is installing a wired lan, make sure they know your intention of installing a wireless one.

  • By (Deleted User)

    thanks Eeyore that is really helpful... we are not looking for roaming capability throughout the building, and therefore it appears from what you are saying that this would make the installation much easier.

    We do not run of servers and thus we do not have a heavy IT infrastructure in the building... effectively all we want to do is install wireless with one provider that everyone can gain access to on a pay as you go basis... I guess we are looking for something very much like what Starbucks and Airports offer, but in a block... i assume this would make a big difference in terms of ease of installation and more importantly cost?

    Appreciate any assistance on this

    Cheers,
    MrP

  • By (Deleted User)

    if you are going to have pure wireless, it will be cheaper, but some tie point, a backbone, will need to exist throughout the building to take it all to the commercial pop. certainly makes the setup easier. now you just have to phyically tie the floors together back to the pop.

    security seems like the biggest issue.

    are there going to be tennants? will they have their own servers (small ones) for their business? do they need protection of a firewall or is it just up to them? will they need dedicated pipes?

    if just end users, great. i would still segment the building out, with a vlan on each floor, and provide a firewall at the pop. if something goes wrong, your damage should be limited and the whole network does not go down.

    is user authentication an issue? people coming and going, understood. how will they pay? how will their times be tracked for billing? port-level/user authentication could help there in tracking who is logged on for how long.

    lots of possibilities. the site survey should at least give you the physical. before that is done, be as specific as you can with the one doing the work as far as your requirements. once you have the survey, you can kick the can with security, tennants and billing.

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