outdoor networking - where do I start?

Hi

I'm involved in running a festival in the UK - we have around 5000
attendees in a large (50+ acres) site.

We're considering offering some kind of free wi-fi connectivity on
site, and I would be grateful for a little guidance.

I know that we're not going to get coverage across such a wide area
and I'm happy to operate a small 'wi-fi' zone.

My initial thoughts are that once we get the broadband line in, all
I'll need to do is set up a wireless router without any WEP and allow
people to access our wi-fi.

Is this the best way to implement free connectivity?, and if it is can
anyone recommend a suitable router than has a good range and will be
able to handle a fair amount of wi-fi connections without too much
trouble.

If I'm way off the mark with my thoughts, then any help would be
really appreciated.

thanks in advance
Neil

This is an interesting question, definetly many considerations. You
need overlap in the wireless coverage, yes a dedicated area, although
50+acres, seems considerable. 5000, eh? Are we talking 10% or so, 25%
of possible users? Without any WEP sounds fine I guess, but you may
just add an easy to remember Wep key just to give the feel that there
access is confidential and encrypted. Regarding coverage again, just
read about coverage distances, remember that foilage, buildings,
lakes, etc will reduce this coverage effectivness. Also if you have
one dedicated area it'll be much easier than getting into bridging
areas of coverage that are far apart. That may get tricky in terms of
performance of the wireless bridge. Also G is stronger and farther
coverage but slower and A is faster but shorter coverage. Just keep it
simple or else you may get into a mess of other technical issues.

LC