w00t!!! Wireless network time!!!

[stev0]

I work for a small realestate company, acutally I work for the owner on his 'little' home network. Well anyway, he just came back from comdex and has all this info about wireless networking... Well he just told me that I'm going to be setting up the wireless network for his new house.. no big deal. He's got his mind set on equipment from Zcomax, specifically the xi-3000 access point with an omni directional antenna. The xi-600 pci adapter and the xi-300 wireless pc cards would be used... I have been looking around on the net and didn't really find all that much information about this companys products.. Have any of you at'ers heard of Zcomax? Worked with their products? I always thought of using cisco products... but then again I don't know much about wireless netoworking...

Any suggestions? Maybe a new company? I guess that cash flow isn't a problem so it could be as elaborate as I wanted to make it, I just want to be safe and not have equipment from a company that might go under in a year. Thanks for reading, any input would be appreciated.

edit: Oh yea, this new network will be setup between two houses, roughly 1/4 mile from eachother and the connection is a 1 meg dsl line. (if that should matter) Personally I think they should put fiber between the houses and spend the money on a faster connection... but that idea didn't go over. Thanks again!

 

[ktwebb]

ZComax must had some good salesman. The website looks very rinky dink. Certainly not tier one products. If money is not an issue then you were on the right track. Go Cisco, except I would go Point to Point with the 350 series bridges and then use a 350 AP at the remote site for wireless connectivity. That would basically connect two LAN's. Bridge one would link into a switch at the main site and communicate with the Bridge at the remote site, which would also be plugged into a switch, giving connectivity to any node that plugged into that switch including an AP, or plug directly into AP via a crossover. That allows expansion without having to worry about future line of sight issues with the AP at the home site. If that is overkill then using a AP350 at the main site and 350 wireless NIC with external antenna at the remote site is still viable. At 1/4 mile you will obviously need line of sight and I would not be using an Omni at all. Bad choice upfront. Use two directional antennas. At that distance you can use Yagi's. Even low db Yagi's. Omnis, unless very high gain might struggle to get even an 11 Mb connection, not to mention broadcast your boss's LAN in a 360 degree circle to your neighbors. Personally, again if money is not the issue, for security reasons, I would use very narrow beamwidth Parabolic dishs. Grid dishs would work, but solid state would be better. Your also going to need some coax. If the transmission calble is more than 7 or 8 feet your gonna want to use some decent coax. LMR400 will work nicely up to 40+ feet. You'll also need connectors, TNC or Type N and a crimper. Not sure if your boss really understood what goes into link of 1/4 mile. Having said all that. If you have window to window line of sight, you might be able to get away without doing any of this, but a decent test, site survey would be prudent.

 

[stev0]

When you say line of site I'm assuming being able to see the other dish/antenna from where the ap is at...? I looked at the dishes, and kind of turned away from it because of price, but I suppose a little looking around and they could be had for a better price. The reason I said the omni is because I also live about 1/4 mile to 1/2 of a mile away, I was hoping that the signal would be able to get that far, the Zcomax rep I talked to on the phone said that their one of their omni's would be able to cover a 4 mile area, how true that is I'm not sure. Security isn't a huge issue, it's a very rural area, with few neighbors.

Yes your right, their site is pretty weak, and since I was already planning for a cisco 2501 router and a catalyst switch (Catalyst WS-C1924-EN), might as well get everything from them.

Since the house isn't finished yet it will be easy to run some coax.

Thanks for all the info ktwebb, although he covered most of what I needed to know, if anyone knows something about Zcomax, link to their site it would be greatly appreciated. Now I think I'm going to go and call up a local networking company to see what they have to say, and have someone come out to the site.

Thanks!!!

 

[ktwebb]

Omni at the main site would be cool. You could use yagis at the remote sites. I might use a panel 180 degree panel at the main site depending on where your place is located, but those are expensive as well. 4 Mile area. Not without being amped up. Perhaps with very good transmission equipment and in a desert you might could get 1 Mb in a 4 mile square unamped. Chuckle. Salesman. Gotta love em.

 

[SaigonK]

Cisco! Cisco! Cisco!
I use an AP4800 and would use nothing else...just my 2-cents!

 

[stev0]

yea, I've been calling around and eveyone in town is saying cisco too... Thanks! Anyone else???

 

[Tallgeese]

My mnemonic for the OSI model (read from bottom up) seems very appropriate here:

7 = A = Advice = Application
6 = P = People's = Presentation
5 = S = Sales = Session
4 = T = Take = Transport
3 = N = Not = Network
2 = D = Do = Datalink
1 = P = Please = Physical

 

[ktwebb]

"I use an AP4800"

Your using an Aironet product before Cisco bought them actually. Frankly, I liked em better when it was just Aironet, however, Cisco did give us some firmware updates that increased the overall bandwidth significantly. Get the most currect firmware if you have not already.

 

[stev0]

What about lucent wireless equipment?

 

[SaigonK]

Your using an Aironet product before Cisco bought them actually. Frankly, I liked em better when it was just Aironet, however, Cisco did give us some firmware updates that increased the overall bandwidth significantly. Get the most currect firmware if you have not already.


Cisco actually packaged the 4800 and sold it with the Aironet lable, and the chips inside are the same as the Aironet as in the Cisco branded models....how do i know you ask? Because Intersil makes them...which is now owned by the company I work for =)

Firmwar eupgrades did make a big difference in thru put!

 

[ktwebb]

Thats interesting. I looked around. Those are the B series apparantly. Interesing because that just seems confusing. THe literature says they have the same hardware as the 340's and to use that firmware, which is on a completely different numbering series than the 4800 series on the software page. Its really odd. Says its the same hardware yet the footprint looks just like the older 4800 non b seriess. No mystery they all use the prizm chipset as Aironet has from the beginning. Oh well, good to know. I woulda chosen those everytime over the 340 and its silly 30 mWatt power before the 350 came out. Just curious. Do they have the changed Cisco speudo IOS via a telnet session or a physical serial connection through Hyperterminal session or do they have the older, and much easier to navigate Aironet, number menu based interface? We sold hundreds and hundreds of the Aironet product before the buyout and the interface change was a big deal for us. Really pissed me off personally. Not that I cant navigate the Ciscocentric AP interface version but the number menu based system was so much easier than typing in the first couple of characters. Visually as well. The 340 and later series interface crashes way to much as well. But the GUI was improved over the older version. Give and take I suppose. OK now I am just rambling. cheers