Note that there two different types of locks that don’t require individual cabling, usually referred to wireless or wi-fi.
These comments are related to Wi-Fi vs Wireless: Advantages: 1. Cheaper installation (due to being able to use the existing Wi-Fi network instead of installing access control specific infrastructure). 2. Lower probability of interference – but note that the locks transmit very little data (and the Wi-Fi ones generally only come on periodically, often only once a day). Disadvantages: 1. The locks are offline most of the time (they come online on a periodic basis). That means that updates are slower (as the locks only update periodically), so you can’t do lock-downs with them, lost card updates don’t take effect right away, etc. 2. It’s harder to diagnose certain types of lock problems (since it’s offline most of the time, you don’t see updates right away, and checking whether the lock is online or offline doesn’t matter since it’s offline most of the time). 3. Battery life is often worse (especially if you turn up the update frequency to deal with the other problems). Wi-Fi locks can be great for locks that don’t need updates very often and where you don’t need lockdown functionality. I would personally recommend going with wireless over wi-fi whenever possible, but there are times Wi-Fi is absolutely more practical. If you have specific questions on the above feel free to ask (I manage the electronic access control locks at Otis College as well as the Wi-Fi network). Matthew Ballard Director of Technology Infrasture Otis College of Art and Design [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This electronic message transmission contains information from Otis College of Art and Design, which may be confidential. If you are not the intedned recipient, be aware that any disclosure, copying, distribution or use of the content of this information is prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by e-mail an delete the original message any any attachment without reading or saving in any manner. From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Chuck Enfield Sent: Monday, November 6, 2017 6:47 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Wireless Door Locks? Hi Greg, Locks tend to have a very low network duty-cycle, so interference between the 802.15.4 network and 2.4GHz Wi-Fi will be minimal. That said, it may be worth considering Wi-Fi locks instead. That will ensure that they play well with other Wi-Fi devices and will spare the institution the cost of installing and managing a separate network for locks. On the down side of using Wi-Fi locks, the refresh cycle for Wi-Fi is shorter than for locks. If you have a bunch of locks reliant on outdated features it could hamper Wi-Fi performance down the road. The refresh cycle would have to be discussed with your facilities management, and/or security people. To the group, can you think of any other advantages/disadvantages of putting the locks on Wi-Fi? Chuck From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Lee H Badman Sent: Monday, November 6, 2017 9:09 AM To: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> Subject: Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Wireless Door Locks? It’s not what you’re asking, but we are using ASSA-ABLOY .11n locks. Fairly easy to support. Lee Badman (mobile) On Nov 6, 2017, at 8:32 AM, Gregory Fuller <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: Haven't seen any recent discussion here about wireless door locks. Our physical access team is looking to install some wireless door locks in an administrative building. I can see it growing past this building pretty rapidly and want to make sure they aren't putting in something that is going to cause us headaches. They are looking to install Aperio "HUB's" as they call them: https://vo-general.s3.amazonaws.com/53aee5c6-9690-4c74-a82a-09f1d0f1ec68/d0vBYdO5QWWKURZqvp0w_AA%20Aperio%20Family%20Brochure.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJ3YBR5GY2XF7YLGQ&Expires=1582662909&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DAA%20Aperio%20Family%20Brochure.pdf&response-content-type=application%2Fpdf&Signature=920fJFxmRxXi9vkJ7zrIVHZao9o%3D This appears to be using some variant of 802.15.4, which has the ability to run between our 802.11g/n 2.4Ghz channels, but will cause co-channel interference. I'm a bit concerned that there will be some impact to our 2.4Ghz clients (we have a ton of them out there still). Anyone else out there have these or something similar and can speak for how they work and if there are any issues in your environment? --greg Gregory A. Fuller - CCNP R&S, CCNP Security, CCNA Wireless Network Manager State University of New York at Oswego Phone: (315) 312-5750 http://www.oswego.edu/~gfuller _____________________________________________________ Campus Technology Services will never ask you to email us sensitive personal information such as a password. Please contact us if you are unsure if an email is genuine. 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