Wireless network design

[00Buck]

At the company I work for they are considering putting up a wireless network for maybe about 15 - 30 users(but upgradeable). Access will need to be on 2 floors and the network will be encrypted. I think for starters there will be 2 APs but we might require 4 to get the coverage needed. This isn't even factoring in throughput.

My wireless networking experience goes as far as plugging a single Dlink router into the wall, setting WPA-PSK and locking down MAC addresses in a home environment. I'm not sure this would be all the practicle for an office environment with mutiple APs. How do would I go about centralizing management of the access points?

 

[Harvey]

Your company may want to reconsider going wireless. Most contemporary offices are in spaces having floating ceilings and ducting for routing communications, utilities, etc. Even with the most secure encrtption, wired networks are more faster and more secure than even the best of wireless setups, and they have fewer failure modes.

Just a thought. 🙂

 

[00Buck]

The WLAN isn't a replacement for the existing LAN. There are times people from other offices come to this office and finding a working jack isnt easy and running any new drops will require a total rewire of the entire building(the cabling is screwed up enough without adding new drops)

 

[her209]

Originally posted by: 00Buck
How do would I go about centralizing management of the access points?

Look into the a Cisco Aironet APs. The APs are dumb and get their configuration from a Wireless LAN Controller

Granted, this may be overkill for a 4 AP setup, it will allow you to scale later on should you choose to.

 

[JackMDS]

Welcome to ATnetwork Forum.

I hope you would stay and enjoy the forums.

However, you first post is ?Tricky?, deploying Wireless in business environment is rather complicated issue.

First there is a need for survey and decision about extend of converge.

Past the hardware, there are serious considerations of Network security.

Such issues cannot be resolved by interaction on public forums, you would be better served by hiring a consultant that specializes in such installations.