Wireless network in a school

Hello

I've been asked to set up a wireless network in a school, with access in
30 classrooms.
So what are my choices?
Do I choose 802.11g or 802.11a?

How many accesspoints will I need? Some specs say 100m range, but that's
not always true. In very old buildings with large walls, range drops
very fast.
When I search for AccessPoints, I notice a huge price difference between
products. For example:

3Com Wireless Lan Access Point 8250 802.11g 100m 3CRWE825075AME (440 EUR)
3Com Wireless Lan Access Point Officeconnect 11g Indoor-100m
Outdoor-457m 3CRWE454G72ME (81 EUR)
Cisco Aironet 1231 Access Point 802.11g (550 EUR)

Why this difference? Do I need the expensive ones, or can I do it with
the cheap ones? Or maybe I need more cheap AP's to do the same with 1
expensive? Which brand is best? Cisco is more expensive, but is it better?

I hope somebody can help!

Best regards

Peter

It's not a school, but we use Wireless AP's at work. Right now, we're using
generic Linksys APs (Wireless B) and are about to swap out for Wireless B.
For around US$100 for an AP, we decided to go cheap and just buy more of
them. They may not reach 100m, but they do seem to cover about 50-75 m
pretty easily. We have 2-3 per floor.

Tom
"Peter Fastré" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:4001c33e$0$1131$(E-Mail Removed) t.net...
> Hello
>
> I've been asked to set up a wireless network in a school, with access in
> 30 classrooms.
> So what are my choices?
> Do I choose 802.11g or 802.11a?
>
> How many accesspoints will I need? Some specs say 100m range, but that's
> not always true. In very old buildings with large walls, range drops
> very fast.
> When I search for AccessPoints, I notice a huge price difference between
> products. For example:
>
> 3Com Wireless Lan Access Point 8250 802.11g 100m 3CRWE825075AME (440 EUR)
> 3Com Wireless Lan Access Point Officeconnect 11g Indoor-100m
> Outdoor-457m 3CRWE454G72ME (81 EUR)
> Cisco Aironet 1231 Access Point 802.11g (550 EUR)
>
> Why this difference? Do I need the expensive ones, or can I do it with
> the cheap ones? Or maybe I need more cheap AP's to do the same with 1
> expensive? Which brand is best? Cisco is more expensive, but is it better?
>
> I hope somebody can help!
>
> Best regards
>
> Peter
>

This may be of use. It's written with UK schools in mind:

http://www.rm.com/_RMVirtual/Media/D..._54Mb_Wireless
_Networking.pdf

Peter Fastré wrote:

> Hello
>
> I've been asked to set up a wireless network in a school, with access in
> 30 classrooms.
> So what are my choices?
> Do I choose 802.11g or 802.11a?

At least g, though a would be nice. I suspect most users will be b/g.

>
> How many accesspoints will I need? Some specs say 100m range, but that's
> not always true. In very old buildings with large walls, range drops
> very fast.

That's impossible to say. All you can do is experiment. Also you'll have
to bear in mind how many similtaneous connections you'll be supporting.

> When I search for AccessPoints, I notice a huge price difference between
> products. For example:
>
> 3Com Wireless Lan Access Point 8250 802.11g 100m 3CRWE825075AME (440 EUR)
> 3Com Wireless Lan Access Point Officeconnect 11g Indoor-100m
> Outdoor-457m 3CRWE454G72ME (81 EUR)
> Cisco Aironet 1231 Access Point 802.11g (550 EUR)
>
> Why this difference? Do I need the expensive ones, or can I do it with
> the cheap ones? Or maybe I need more cheap AP's to do the same with 1
> expensive? Which brand is best? Cisco is more expensive, but is it better?

That depends on your priorities and budget. Home stuff will be cheaper, but
possibly not as reliable.

>
> I hope somebody can help!
>
> Best regards
>
> Peter
>

--

Fundamentalism is fundamentally wrong.

To reply to this message, replace everything to the left of "@" with
james.knott.

Tom Scales wrote:
> Right now, we're using generic Linksys APs (Wireless B)
> and are about to swap out for Wireless B.

Come again?

--
John Miller
My email address: domain, n4vu.com; username, jsm

Slang is language that takes off its coat, spits on its hands, and goes to
work.

Yeah, just like extra work.

Make that "swap out for Wireless G"

Tom
"John Miller" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:btsr1v$ni5$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Tom Scales wrote:
> > Right now, we're using generic Linksys APs (Wireless B)
> > and are about to swap out for Wireless B.
>
> Come again?
>
> --
> John Miller
> My email address: domain, n4vu.com; username, jsm
>
> Slang is language that takes off its coat, spits on its hands, and goes to
> work.
>

Peter Fastré wrote:

> Hello
>
> I've been asked to set up a wireless network in a school, with access in
> 30 classrooms.
> So what are my choices?
> Do I choose 802.11g or 802.11a?
>
> How many accesspoints will I need? Some specs say 100m range, but that's
> not always true. In very old buildings with large walls, range drops
> very fast.
> When I search for AccessPoints, I notice a huge price difference between
> products. For example:
>
> 3Com Wireless Lan Access Point 8250 802.11g 100m 3CRWE825075AME (440 EUR)
> 3Com Wireless Lan Access Point Officeconnect 11g Indoor-100m
> Outdoor-457m 3CRWE454G72ME (81 EUR)
> Cisco Aironet 1231 Access Point 802.11g (550 EUR)
>
> Why this difference? Do I need the expensive ones, or can I do it with
> the cheap ones? Or maybe I need more cheap AP's to do the same with 1
> expensive? Which brand is best? Cisco is more expensive, but is it better?
>
> I hope somebody can help!
>
> Best regards
>
> Peter
>

IMHO -- for many classroom applications, 802.11b offers adequate datarate
and (for now) much lower prices. So, I suggest one 802.11b WAP in each
classroom - with no worry about signal loss due to walls.
--
Cheers, Bob

You might be able to get by with one Access Point serving multiple class
rooms. It's very dependent on the construction of the building and the
location of the access points.

The only way to figure this out is to buy a couple of access points and
experiment.

My suggestion is to buy something inexpensive. 802.11b Access Points should
be available for about $50 each. For some strange reason, a lot of times, a
wireless router, which includes an access point and a 4 port LAN switch
might actually be cheaper. It is possible to use a router like this as a
pure access point, but people have had mixed results with stability, so if
the price were identical, I would probably use pure access points.

Mike Schumann

"Bob Willard" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:mfxMb.33571$I06.222444@attbi_s01...
> Peter Fastré wrote:
>
> > Hello
> >
> > I've been asked to set up a wireless network in a school, with access in
> > 30 classrooms.
> > So what are my choices?
> > Do I choose 802.11g or 802.11a?
> >
> > How many accesspoints will I need? Some specs say 100m range, but that's
> > not always true. In very old buildings with large walls, range drops
> > very fast.
> > When I search for AccessPoints, I notice a huge price difference between
> > products. For example:
> >
> > 3Com Wireless Lan Access Point 8250 802.11g 100m 3CRWE825075AME (440
EUR)
> > 3Com Wireless Lan Access Point Officeconnect 11g Indoor-100m
> > Outdoor-457m 3CRWE454G72ME (81 EUR)
> > Cisco Aironet 1231 Access Point 802.11g (550 EUR)
> >
> > Why this difference? Do I need the expensive ones, or can I do it with
> > the cheap ones? Or maybe I need more cheap AP's to do the same with 1
> > expensive? Which brand is best? Cisco is more expensive, but is it
better?
> >
> > I hope somebody can help!
> >
> > Best regards
> >
> > Peter
> >
>
> IMHO -- for many classroom applications, 802.11b offers adequate datarate
> and (for now) much lower prices. So, I suggest one 802.11b WAP in each
> classroom - with no worry about signal loss due to walls.
> --
> Cheers, Bob
>