Wireless networking is still largely a black art. The Kennedy Center had a consulting company survey the facility and they determined it would take 512 APs to fully light the building; public spaces, the houses and office space. That's going to take them a while.
Your APs are what the clients use to connect to the network, but what are the APs connecting to? It may be that that is your weak link, literally, in the chain. But, I have to say that 2 APs sounds very light for a 3 story, concrete (reinforced with steel rebar inside) building. I would have at least one per floor and even then, with all the interfering building structures, it's going to be ad-hoc from there. You really need a competent consultant to do that kind of survey for you to see what you really need. This is your backbone. Don't cheap out. There are a lot of variables, the least of which is the equipment and how much it can handle at one time. Is everyone getting an IP address? It sounds like it can't handle large file transfers easily. 16 MB down should be plenty for 50 users. I run with far less for more users (2 bonded T1s), but we do need more bandwidth (or we need to start blocking streaming sites). Can you post more technical specifics of the equipment? Are you using a RADIUS server? > -----Original Message----- > We have a contractor who has set up a wifi network in our large 3 > story art center which is an old building filled with concrete walls > and columns. He has used a Sonic Wall router and so far 2 access > points. The signal seems strong most of the time, at least if measured > by the bars showing on the individual computers. The problem is that > there are times when individuals cannot connect to the internet even > with a strong signal. These users have connected in the past so the > settings must be correct. I am pretty sure that my settings are > correct and often I have no problem at all for an entire day. But > then I have lost the connection sometimes for hours until I finally > realized that if I turn the airport on my macbook off and on, that I > am sometimes able to connect again. But even this doesn't work all the > time. > > Since I am in charge of setting up this network, I have artists who > are complaining that we need more access points. My response is that > if you are standing next to an access point and you are not able to > connect that it isn't the number of access points but something else > which is the problem. Am I correct? Am I wrong in assuming that the > signal strength indicates that we are getting the signal everywhere > but the response time and the lengthy hanging is another issue > altogether? I know that some of the problems with response time might > be explained by one artist uploading a large photo. Even on my Fios > at home I sometimes have a slow response time when I am the only > user. But I have used many wifi networks in hotels and elsewhere > and don't ever remember having this hanging problem which is only > corrected by turning off and on the wireless on my computer. > > We are connected to a cable internet system which is currently running > 16/2. We had assumed that there might be 50 users at one time and were > assured that this would be sufficient. Do we need a second line? > > THanks for any help you all can give me. > Cindy Brandt ************************************************************************* ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *************************************************************************
