Wireless solution for a large workshop

Rossin

Hi All,

I've got a few quotes for a wireless solution for our workshop(think a workshop big enough to repair trucks etc), the quotes are all Cisco equipment and coming in at big bucks.

now Cisco equipment would be lovely but all we want is wireless so mechanics can use tablets, we don't need it to be super secure, just work... think along the lines of having wireless in your house, but just a big warehouse

Can standard wireless routers use the dsl off our lan?

Any other suggestions?

ressem

Who will be installing and maintaining the hardware?
Do you know how many access points you'll require? Will it be possible to give all of them a wired network connection, or will some need to bridge to another point wirelessly?
I guess that you won't be using a radius server for authentication.

A cheap and tolerable setup would be Unifi Pros at €200 for the basic access point and Power over ethernet adapter.
http://www.ubnt.com/unifi#appro
Manual
http://www.ubnt.com/download#doc:UniFi:AP:Pro

You can install a Java based wifi controller program on a cheap PC for configuring and monitoring. The network can operate without it, but it facilitates handover between access points as clients move around.

And if management insist, you can set-up a guest hotspot for their iphones that prevents access to internal resources.

Rossin

Hi Ressem,

thanks for replying.

That unifi looks good, i'll do some reading on it now

Is it possible to just use a few belkin wifi access points? would the difference between them and inifi be the centralised management?

Rossin

Read a good bit about inifi, seems perfect for us, thanks Ressem

sgealbhain

Check out Dell Sonicwall & Sonic Points.. They are pretty good and much less expensive than Cisco. You can centrally manage the WAPS directly from the Firewall.

ressem

sgealbhain wrote: »

Check out Dell Sonicwall & Sonic Points.. They are pretty good and much less expensive than Cisco. You can centrally manage the WAPS directly from the Firewall.

Sorry I'd disagree Sonicwall and sonicpoints.
I'm going off topic as the OP wasn't looking at a new firewall but...

Maybe I've just had bad luck with the TZ models in this price band I've worked with, but in the past they
a) limit the number of access points that a firewall can manage, necessitating a firewall upgrade when only another access point is wanted.
b) small business versions of their firewalls tend to be underpowered to work with fiber / upc connections.
c) newer sonicpoint APs to support newer wireless standards do not work with older firewalls. Again, you're expected to throw out everything.
d) they look for annual support payments for maintenance and you are asked to pay extra for the nicer firewall features.
e) they have been less reliable than a good software firewall running on an old desktop. If paying that Sonicwall price a Mikrotik solution would be my preferred choice.

I'm sure the enterprise versions + redundancy are free from some of these issues, but that's another price league away.

Rossin

We have installed the unifi wifi system and I have to say I think it's great. So easy to install and is doing exactly what we want. I got the long range unit which cost about £100 and it's covering our whole workshop(we were quoted 15k for a Cisco solution!). We're going to add a few more around the building now.

Thanks for your help Ressem