req adv: commercial grade wlan access point

I need advice about commercial grade wlan access points.
I've done many an installation of a wireless router in an ordinary
home, but I have a friend who owns a big mansion (no kidding) and he's
asked me to rig him up with a wlan system. I'm in unchartered
territory here so I'd appreciate any advice or tips about what would
be good to get. I would rather buy something 2nd hand from ebay
because if I get it wrong and it doesn't do the trick I'll have to
keep the gear myself and take the loss. I've seen cisco AP's on ebay
but not sure what model would be right for my needs and I may need to
connect a bigger antenna to it. The location of the office relative to
the router is about 30 meters away through several thick brick walls
so I need something really strong.
Thanks for any advice.

"tg" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:4814d1b4$0$26087$(E-Mail Removed)...
>I need advice about commercial grade wlan access points.
> I've done many an installation of a wireless router in an ordinary
> home, but I have a friend who owns a big mansion (no kidding) and he's
> asked me to rig him up with a wlan system. I'm in unchartered
> territory here so I'd appreciate any advice or tips about what would
> be good to get. I would rather buy something 2nd hand from ebay
> because if I get it wrong and it doesn't do the trick I'll have to
> keep the gear myself and take the loss. I've seen cisco AP's on ebay
> but not sure what model would be right for my needs and I may need to
> connect a bigger antenna to it. The location of the office relative to
> the router is about 30 meters away through several thick brick walls
> so I need something really strong.
> Thanks for any advice.
>
>
> ##########################

Firstly I have set up Cisco wireless routers previously, we have a customer
that sends us these to configure for him and he then puts them in schools to
enable wireless access for the whole school. I realy dont know why he
doesn't do these himself but ..... hey its money in my pocket.

Anyway, there have been no complaints about lack of access or these routers
dropping out or any other anomolies. Cisco are a brand name and they
provide very good hardware for the commercial sector, however they are not
cheap !!! But as I say we have not had any complaints.

As for your "environmental conditions" I would suggest maybe one wireless
router and then follow that with a wireless access point or maybe two.
Regardless of the product you buy, you will have to make sure the router
will support "WDS" which will allow an access point to connect to it and
'relay' the signal again further away.

If you really dont want to fork out for cisco hardware, I could recommend
belkin or dlink as an alternative but you may have to get a couple of access
points to connect to the original router as these tend to be a little lower
on transmission power. But again as you correctly say you can fit arials
with a better 'DB gain', just remember to explain to your friend the
potential problems that could arise and how they can be over come by fitting
more hardware.
>
>
>
>

thanks for your feedback Is there a particular cisco model you would
recommend for the task described? I don't know one model from the
next...

"tg" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:4814fa2c$0$26080$(E-Mail Removed)...
> thanks for your feedback Is there a particular cisco model you would
> recommend for the task described? I don't know one model from the next...
>
>###################

Joe,

For the wireless router I would probably go for (also have used) something
from the wireless 800 series routers, and also a 500 series access point
(appears to be a square box with circular led) both of these have proven to
be (by myself at least) "fit and forget". I have never been called out to
reconfigure or replace either of them and have certainly had no complaints
about wireless access (or lack of it).

Please note, as I mentioned earlier .... these are not cheap items but I
feel that you will not go far wrong with Cisco.

Sorry, my bad.

I addressed you by the wrong name

Appologies.
>

tg wrote:
> I need advice about commercial grade wlan access points.
> I've done many an installation of a wireless router in an ordinary
> home, but I have a friend who owns a big mansion (no kidding) and he's
> asked me to rig him up with a wlan system. I'm in unchartered
> territory here so I'd appreciate any advice or tips about what would
> be good to get. I would rather buy something 2nd hand from ebay
> because if I get it wrong and it doesn't do the trick I'll have to
> keep the gear myself and take the loss. I've seen cisco AP's on ebay
> but not sure what model would be right for my needs and I may need to
> connect a bigger antenna to it. The location of the office relative to
> the router is about 30 meters away through several thick brick walls
> so I need something really strong.
> Thanks for any advice.

Well, I don't own a mansion, but that hasn't stopped me from installing
a dual wireless router system in my hovel. One router which is connected
to the broadband modem is the main router. The second one has had all of
it routing functions and dhcp functions turned off, so it acts basically
like a hub or a bridge only.

The routers are connected to each other through a set of Powerline
Ethernet adapters. The powerline ethernet adapters send data over the
house's electrical powerplugs. As long as the house doesn't have two or
more main breaker boxes, data can flow through all of the house's
electrical plugs; if there are more than one break box, then it's
possible that this solution won't work for you.

Yousuf Khan

"Yousuf Khan" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> tg wrote:

<snip>
> The routers are connected to each other through a set of Powerline Ethernet adapters.
> The powerline ethernet adapters send data over the house's electrical powerplugs. As
> long as the house doesn't have two or more main breaker boxes, data can flow through all
> of the house's electrical plugs; if there are more than one break box, then it's
> possible that this solution won't work for you.
>
> Yousuf Khan

belated reply but thanks for your advice Yousuf. I took your advice and went for the
network-over-mains adaptors and was very pleased that a) it worked and b) it really was
plug and play - no set-up, nothing, it just worked straight away. In the eyes of the
property owner and the staff this meant I was an instant hero and that the whole mansion
from end to end could now be networked with ease. Thanks again.

On Jun 4, 5:26 pm, "tg" <t...@nospamevereverever.net> wrote:
> belated reply but thanks for your advice Yousuf. I took your advice and went for the
> network-over-mains adaptors and was very pleased that a) it worked and b) it really was
> plug and play - no set-up, nothing, it just worked straight away. In the eyes of the
> property owner and the staff this meant I was an instant hero and that the whole mansion
> from end to end could now be networked with ease. Thanks again.

Yes, it's a very good solution, although it's not utilized quite often
enough. The signal is faster than a WiFi connection, especially at
large distances away from the router. And of course, it is not
mutually exclusive to WiFi, you can use it in aid of WiFi for large
houses such as your example.

Yousuf Khan