Setting up a wireless network for a 7 story building

[zeeeeeeek]

Hi All, a friend of mine has asked me to setup a wireless network in a building he owns. The building is a 7 floor building which includes the ground floor. At first he has asked me to setup a wireless connection because he didn’t want wires sticking out everywhere so I have purchased 4 access points to turn them into repeaters that would extend the connection to every floor (please see setup 1 photo for a better idea). After I have set this up I took my laptop and phone to every single corner of the building and the connection was very strong and working great. I even went up to the roof and the signal was strong. I walked outside of the building for about 20 feet till finally it was disconnected, so he was very happy with the job I’ve done until about a day later when people in the building were complaining they were not getting connected. I dropped by to see what was going on and they were right, there was no connection except for the 3rd floor where the modem/router was

. I had to take out all the access points from their metal protection box insert them back to the laptop and set them up once again to get a connection. The connection worked for another day or two then again same problem

. The hardware I used is on the bottom and I will attach photos to give you a better idea on how my setup looked liked. The modem alone could provide a signal to the whole 3rd floor as well as some areas in the 2nd and 4th floor but not all. The d-link repeater was setup on auto channel and I’m unable to edit any ip settings unless I turn it into an access point. So it was setup as DHCP. I decided to use setup 2 (photo below) where I connected the modem to a switch and there was a wired access point on the 2nd floor and 4th floor but for some reason I don’t seem to get any connection on those floors. The access points were setup on auto channel then I changed 2nd floor to ch6 and 4th floor to ch11, yet still did not work. The modem/router ip is setup as 192.168.1.1 and the access point on 2nd floor is 192.168.1.2 and 4th floor its 192.168.1.3. Access points are setup as Static IP but modem/router is setup as DHCP. I’m not exactly why I’m not getting a signal someone please help out, I really tried everything and don’t know what I’m doing wrong.

please see pictures below


http://imgur.com/a/kSazV


HARDWARE

• D-LINK DAP 1360 ACCESS POINT
• MODEM SAGEMECOM 2704 N
• SWTICH D-LINK DES-1008A

 

[Fardringle]

For a setup like that, you really need to use proper commercial equipment like Ubiquiti Unifi. Cheap consumer access points aren't going to cut it.

 

[sdifox]

Wifi gear don't like to be inside metal boxes.

 

[kevnich2]

For this type of installation, you really need commercial gear throughout. You seem to be trying to use residential/SOHO gear and that isn't going to cut it. You need a proper router, switches and WAP's. You also need a business grade internet connection with enough bandwidth to handle the load.

For the router - look at a ubiquiti edgerouter. The ER Lite may do just fine for this. For the WAP's - either ubiqitui unifi or open-mesh. Open mesh may work better for this simply because you can more easily set restrictions on things allowed but either would work.

Considering this is a 7 floor building, you likely need one IDF switch per floor, centrally located so the network cabling has as short of distance between each WAP and the switch as possible. Then have your main router in the MDF communications room where the internet is located. A better option is to run fiber between all the switches.

 

[sdifox]

For this type of installation, you really need commercial gear throughout. You seem to be trying to use residential/SOHO gear and that isn't going to cut it. You need a proper router, switches and WAP's. You also need a business grade internet connection with enough bandwidth to handle the load.

For the router - look at a ubiquiti edgerouter. The ER Lite may do just fine for this. For the WAP's - either ubiqitui unifi or open-mesh. Open mesh may work better for this simply because you can more easily set restrictions on things allowed but either would work.

Considering this is a 7 floor building, you likely need one IDF switch per floor, centrally located so the network cabling has as short of distance between each WAP and the switch as possible. Then have your main router in the MDF communications room where the internet is located. A better option is to run fiber between all the switches.

I dont think the op's friend was willing to spend that kind of money.

 

[Mushkins]

Four repeaters off of a cheapo D-link SOHO wireless router? Placed in metal boxes?

I mean this in the nicest way possible, you need to tell your friend to hire someone who knows how to do this properly. There's so many fundamental things wrong with this design that it's not even worth troubleshooting.

 

[kevnich2]

I dont think the op's friend was willing to spend that kind of money.

It's the OP's job to set the correct expectations with the friend as far as cost and quality. If you want that kind of building setup with wifi, correctly, you have to pay the money and setup decent equipment for the job.

A job like this that isn't done correctly will mean ALOT of customer service headaches later when it doesn't work. So far, both the OP and the friend are out the money and time that's been involved so far because it wasn't setup correctly to begin with.

 

[Minerva]

Four repeaters off of a cheapo D-link SOHO wireless router? Placed in metal boxes?

I mean this in the nicest way possible, you need to tell your friend to hire someone who knows how to do this properly. There's so many fundamental things wrong with this design that it's not even worth troubleshooting.

This x 1000!

We run a large marina and it takes enterprise grade APs to get density and coverage to keep people happy. And that kind of plan isn't cheap either.

We did use repeaters on the ranch but they didn't work very well and when lightning took them out we ran fiber with media converters and powered everything on the remote side with 150W solar panels and li-poly cells. It's nice having 200Mbps on the trail where LTE barely reaches.

 

[sdifox]

This x 1000!

We run a large marina and it takes enterprise grade APs to get density and coverage to keep people happy. And that kind of plan isn't cheap either.

We did use repeaters on the ranch but they didn't work very well and when lightning took them out we ran fiber with media converters and powered everything on the remote side with 150W solar panels and li-poly cells. It's nice having 200Mbps on the trail where LTE barely reaches.

You provide wifi to your cattle? :awe:

 

[Kaido]

My advice? Purchase Enterprise-grade equipment & do a proper hardline install. I pretty much exclusively use Dell Aruba hotspots (around $800/ea) & highly recommend them. The controller is virtualized & they all failover as masters so you never run into issues like you're experiencing. And run Ethernet (PoE preferably, although A/C adapters or PoE injectors are available if you must) to each of the hotspots. You should also upgrade the switches from 10/100 unmanaged to a Gigabit Managed switch. Seems odd that someone who could afford a 7-story building would cheap out on $65 hotspots...

 

[lakedude]

A happy medium should be possible. The wireless repeaters should work in theory but in practice they are just not reliable. I don't think the hardware matters as much as some other say but you are going to need at least a hardline daisy-chained to each floor that has a wireless access point and some reliable access points.

That stuff about metal boxes... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday_cage

"The reception or transmission of radio waves, a form of electromagnetic radiation, to or from an antenna within a Faraday cage is heavily attenuated or blocked by the cage."

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Four repeaters off of a cheapo D-link SOHO wireless router? Placed in metal boxes?

I mean this in the nicest way possible, you need to tell your friend to hire someone who knows how to do this properly. There's so many fundamental things wrong with this design that it's not even worth troubleshooting.

I have to second this, will it work? Maybe, will it work well? Absolutely not, you really need a much better design than this. Personally, I wouldnt even use this sort of setup in my home due to its poor reliability.

 

[Mir96TA]

First do a site survey
Second get a Gig a bit managed swtich (cisco)
Get Airnot or Aruba AP
Also WiFi is best effort technology
It is a half duplex broadcast domain technology.
WiFi is not even match for 10 mbit full duplex (switch) Ethernet technology.

 

[SeanFL]

Another brand to consider: http://www.open-mesh.com/

I've used open mesh gear a few places and find the AP's to be very good (as long as 30 people per AP is a reasonable expectation...if you need much higher density, then the above suggestions of much more expensive gear will be your next step). They are a step up from trying to use consumer grade routers and string them together.

Hard wire all the ap's. Even though they will automatically form a repeater setup if they are not plugged in, when you start repeating, you are cutting your usable bandwidth in half. Hard wire them all up.

The Cloud Trax web management system that goes along with these is quite good. One school where I've installed 6 ap's, serves 100+ kids and 30+ teachers very well. You'll want an AP on each floor, maybe more if the building is large.

Sean