Wireless AP/Bridge with Gigabit uplink?

[NewBlackDak]

Anybody know of one?

Right now we're using a D-Link DWL-7100AP with Gigabyte GN-WPEAG 108Mbps cards. The reception and range are great, and when the workload is small it's good for everyone. The problem is when we have ~30 people in that area using that AP. The speeds are fine up to about 10 people, but too many more, and we notice a pretty bad slowdown. My boss thinks it's just the nature of wireless, but I think it's the same as having 30 heavy users sharing a single 100Mbps connection to the backbone. He's just forgotten how it was since we're all stacked gigabit now(other than the wireless). We could buy another AP, and split the workload, but that's a little sloppy, and starting to defeat the point of wireless if you ask me.

I'm welcome to any other suggestions anyone might have aswell.

 

[promposive]

Deffinately the wireless will crap out before your 100Mbps wired connection.

With 30 people that is a lot of overhead, especially if you are using encryption. Just because the wireless says it is "108mbps" doesnt mean you will EVER see the same speed as a wired 100Mbps connection, even with just 1 computer on the wireless.

 

[petey117]

you could get a few more access points. if people are scattered around it would help things

 

[NewBlackDak]

I know 108 wireless will not be as good as a 100Mbps wired, but it's enough for these users. They're mostly angry at the end of the day crew/beginning of the night crew(when everyone is there), but that's part of the day when most of the work is being done.

They're not all that scattered. We did an expansion/addition, and I didn't want to pull 42 new wires. Is there a corporate level device capable of handling that much overhead? At this point we have to spend more money, so I want to spend the best money possible. I could buy 2 more AP's and effectively split the workload so noone notices any slowdown, but if we could do it with one better device I'd be more happy. Then we could rotate the current AP down to a conference room that has no wireless.

 

[Gillbot]

Originally posted by: petey117
you could get a few more access points. if people are scattered around it would help things

 

[NewBlackDak]

Well I'm ditching the wireless up there, and just running 5e to go gigabit all the way. If I have to pull 2 more lines I might as well pull them all. I'll just buy 10 boxes of cable, and do it in fewer pulls.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

 

[nweaver]

2 Cisco 1200 series AP's setup w/WDS and cckm fast roaming. You could even setup load balancing on the AP's.