Looking for enterprise grade 802.11g access point: Suggestions plz?

[DonBlack]

I'm looking for an enterprise grade 802.11g (also b preferrable) access point that can break through 3 house floors while still maintaining an excellent signal strength. I'm currently running an old Cisco 340 Series 802.11b access point which only does a mediocre job. Can anyone recommend anything in the >$750 range please?

Thanks.

 

[JackMDS]

Originally posted by: DonBlack
Access point that can break through 3 house floors while still maintaining an excellent signal strength.

I doubt that such an Animal exists.

 

[spidey07]

cisco 1200 series ap would have no problem with this.

I'm using a 350 (802.11b) and go thru three floors and full coverage in a concrete basement.

 

[InlineFive]

Wow, that's quite a budget for a simple WAP. I'm a bit shocked at spending $55 on a new Linksys WRT54g...

 

[cmetz]

Cisco Aironet 1121G.

3 floors is tough, though. If your 340 is having trouble, I doubt the 1121G will do much better. On both the 1100 and 1200 series, if you configure the radio to B-only mode I believe it can do higher power (100mW vs. 30mW).

At the price scale you're talking, why not use multiple APs? For example, if one AP won't get you the signal strength you need end to end, you might be able to get two APs with VLAN capability, connect them to each other wirelessly and chain to get the coverage you need. The 1121G should be able to do that.

spidey07 - I recently evaled 1121G and 1231 with various high-gain antenna options; surprisingly enough, it made almost no difference in range. In the interior environments I tested, there are things that just kill your signal, no matter how good it is on one side of it. I was a little surprised by that result, I expected the 1231 with the external 5.2dB omni diversity antenna to buy me something over the 1121G with it's built-in 2.2dB omni diversity antenna, namely 3dB (that's double the power, for those who don't know this stuff... which will not double the range but you'd think that should make a difference)

 

[spidey07]

yeah, I'm not much of a wireless guy. got a 350 in the 2nd floor and have full strength in the basement.

 

[ScottMac]

I've got a Cisco 1231 (a/b/g) at home in a three floor townhome. It sits in a closet on the middle floor at one end and covers the entire place with "Excellent" signals (using G), and "good" (using A) - all using the standard antennas (2.2db duckies and the "A" paddle).

I'm also using the Cisco a/b/g cards, but have had good strengths and qualities with the 3COM "Cigar Cutter" NICs (both the a/b/g and the old b-only).

Before the 1231, I was using (and still have and use) a 3COM 8000 which also provided excellent coverage. The only problem I had was the the best security (at the time) was the 3COM Dynamic Security Link ("DSL" - rotating keys, proprietary). I bought spare 3COM nics for when friends came over and needed to use the system.

Now I run the '1231 in WPA / TKIP / EAP-TLS with some guest IDs ... a little less hassle.

I set up a similar unit at work. The building is roughly 200 ft square with an elevator core, the AP is roughly in one corner and covers all but the farthest diagonal corner (through the elevator core) with no-less-than "Good" strength and quality. This unit is only about six feet above floor level (mounted on a rack rail in the Lab) and is (temporarily) using the standard 2.2db duckies. I'll be hanging the AP and a pair of 3db omnis from the drop-ceiling tiles when whoever borrowed our ladder returns it.

I like the Cisco units alot ... "they got good lungs" and the NICs have "good ears." The IOS GUI interface is LEAPs (pun intentional) and bounds waaaaaaaaaaay better than the VxWorks GUI, and having the option of going to the CLI (like, a real CLI, not that VxWorks atrocity) has made admin much easier.

I'd recommend 'em anytime.

FWIW

Scott

 

[cmetz]

ScottMac makes a good point - CLI = good. Any product that claims to be "enterprise class" and doesn't have a decent CLI, thank you for playing.

The Cisco gear also has a WEP->WPA migration mode (enc ciphers tkip wep128 / auth wpa optional) that I haven't seen in any other vendor's gear yet. Very handy for when you want to improve security but not all your gear can do that yet.

 

[Boscoh]

I recommend the Cisco 1231 as well.

We use the 1220 (the earlier B model) in a high-rise building with lots of steel, lots of flourescent lights, and lots of concrete. We can make it up about 4 floors with an 350-series card...the signal quality is better though with a lot of these integrated wireless solutions in laptops, especially if it's running a broadcom chipset. The signal quality isnt excellent 4 floors up, its a little bit below halfway on the strength bar. The "Excellent" signal drops off after we go two floors up. This is all using the standard rubber duckies they send with the unit.

I've seen the 1231 in action in a similar environment, with similar results. It's definitely good stuff.

I have also setup a 1220-based network in a huge (probably 9000sq ft) 3-story house. We had to use two AP's there, but not because the signal wouldnt reach all the floors, it was because the kitchen and the laundry room were in the LOS from the AP to a certain section of the house, and whenever the washers/dryers (yes, plural...this man had many children) would turn on it was like a brick wall going up in front of the signal and it would just die. We had to install a second AP closer to this section of the house so the signal was strong enough to penetrate. Just something for you to keep in mind. It ended up working out better in the end because when we redesigned the placement positions of the AP's, we covered more area outside the house...which the homeowner took advantage of in the form of a laptop, a lawn chair, and a lot of beer. He was pretty satisfied.

 

[nightowl]

The Cisco APs are some of the best you can buy. We have about 1,200 1200 series APs were I work right now. I worked on upgrading all of them to IOS, talk about time consuming. Anyway, with the Cisco APs you can transmit at 100mw but if you have a client card that cannot talk back at 100mw you will have range problems. This is because most client cards only transmit at 30mw. So, if you use Cisco wireless cards you will be ok (I am not sure about other vendors that have 100mw cards). I my case all of the APs are set to 30mw and coverage is still great.

 

[InlineFive]

That's really interesting nightowl. Any links on what cards transmit using how much power?

 

[DonBlack]

Thanks for all of the suggestions. What I would up doing is moving the access point to the middle of the basement. I then bought a bridge which I wired into an upstairs hub. Combined, I get a 40% signal which is good enough for Internet traffic. Meanwhile, I will look into the new 12xx series of Cisco APs.... Thanks again!

 

[lobadobadingdong]

hehe, get a pair of rubber duckies (outdoor wireless bridge) stick one out the 1st floor window, one out the 3rd floor window and have an AP upstairs and downstairs attached to the bridge. (set them up to use different frequency spectrums of course)