Need help with a Wi-Fi setup.

Hello all. This is my first post to this forum and thanks for the help
in advance.

I am trying to setup Wi-Fi at a friends auto shop for his customers.
He would like to provide free Wi-Fi for his customers while they wait
for their cars to be serviced. He wants to provide this service from
his existing Cable, but wants to ensure that his present office network
stays secure. He just has the basic office network with several PC's
connected to a Router/Switch to Cable. How can I set this up with
minimal cost.

Can you recommend a possible setup? I know I will need a AP, but will
I need a firewall between the office network and the Router/Switch that
is connected to the cable?


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On Wed, 14 Nov 2007 12:15:05 -0500, computerjunkie
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Hello all. This is my first post to this forum and thanks for the help
>in advance.
>
>I am trying to setup Wi-Fi at a friends auto shop for his customers.
>He would like to provide free Wi-Fi for his customers while they wait
>for their cars to be serviced. He wants to provide this service from
>his existing Cable, but wants to ensure that his present office network
>stays secure. He just has the basic office network with several PC's
>connected to a Router/Switch to Cable. How can I set this up with
>minimal cost.

Oh, you want it cheap? Sigh.

The easiest way is to get the shops DSL or cable provider to provide a
2nd IP address. That's usually about $5/month extra depending on ISP.
From the DSL or cable modem, connect a cheap ($20) 5 port ethernet
switch, which goes to two seperate routers. One for the shop, and one
for the customers. I've done that many times and find that it works
well. The customer wireless router can be setup as a wireless hotspot
with passwords and splash screen.

There are other ways. Two routers in series will work with some
limitations due to the double NAT. I don't expect your customers to
be running VoIP or anything that requires port forwarding, so that's
not going to be an issue. The IP layout is a bit tricky, so bug me if
you want details.

There are also routers that do multiple wireless SSID's on a single
router. You want cheap, so I suggest a Buffalo WHR-HP-G54 or similar
cheap router running DD-WRT v24.
<http://www.geek-pages.com/articles/latest/dd-wrt_-_multiple_ssids_-_1_for_fon_-_1_for_private_network.html>

There are also ways to do it using VLAN's. I won't pretend to
understand how.

>Can you recommend a possible setup? I know I will need a AP, but will
>I need a firewall between the office network and the Router/Switch that
>is connected to the cable?
--
# Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
# 831-336-2558 (E-Mail Removed)
# http://802.11junk.com (E-Mail Removed)
# http://www.LearnByDestroying.com AE6KS