The router is a SonicWall TZ190W the access points are EnGenius
ECB-3220. THe access points are both located on the second floor
which only has studios around the perimeter of the building so it is
mostly open over the first floor in the center. There is a very large
open staircase in the middle of the building up to the third floor
studios. But I don't think that is the problem. My studio is on an
outside wall on the third floor and if my connection is not frozen (or
hung) it can be fine for hours.
On Jul 14, 2009, at 10:17 PM, Jeff Wright wrote:
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
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