Anyway to set up a wireless network for apartment complex?

[BKSinAZ]

I just had a owner of an apartment complex that caters to the University of Arizona students call me to ask if I could setup a wireless network so all 50 apartments could access the internet. There are about 25 apartments downstairs and the same upstairs. Apartment complex has been completly built for some years now so I think it would be nearly impossible to wire it for a wired network; however the manager want wireless.

Anyway this could be done? How and what equiptment? Other recommendations?

 

[RyanS]

Yes it can be done. What is your budget? I would recommend looking at 3Com wireless equipment for that many users. If you have the money, you could get Cisco which tends to be more reliable and has more features than 3 Com products, but you do pay for it. Does the Apartment complex already have an ISP or will you be setting this up as well?

 

[BKSinAZ]

Yes, I beleive the apartment complex has a single high speed cable internet connection.

Tell me...I never set this type of system up. Exactly what equiptment would I need. Is there a list that you can give me? If not, what would be the ball park price for the equiptment alone?

 

[technogab]

First of all 50 apartments sharing 1 cable internet connection is not going to cut it. Technically it can be done, but there will not be enough bandwidth available depending on what your download/upload speeds are.

If people are just using it for email and IM, then it would probably be fine. But you get 1 kid playing Gears of War on Xbox live, and 49 other people trying to surf the web, you will bring it down to it's knees.

Also it is most likely against your cable companies terms of service, and when they see the bandwidth maxing out, they are going to red flag you and think something is up. If they find out you are sharing a connection with 50 apartments, they will either cap your bandwidth or cancel your account. Or of course they will offer you a business account with the appropriate bandwidth to handle that amount of nodes.

 

[BKSinAZ]

I took everyone's advice and instructed customer that this is not going to work for her with her limited budget.

thanks everyone

 

[ZtoQ]

>First of all 50 apartments sharing 1 cable internet connection is not going to cut it. >Technically it can be done, but there will not be enough bandwidth available depending >on what your download/upload speeds are.


Sure, it could work. It depends on the size of his pipe, but assuming its a T1, you could put something on it (I know Edward Rose and many universities use the NetEqualizer) to make it all flow smoothly. And there are Wireless Access Points which aren't that expensive.

Business advice: first get the figures to make it work. Don't go back to a customer with a vague blanket statement like "it can't be done within your budget" say, "it can be done, but it will cost XXX"

 

[technogab]

I didn't say it couldn't work, it just would be terribly slow. A broadband cable connection is going to be anywhere up to 10Mbs down at most (unless you subscribe to the higher levels which I doubt this person is). But it's not even the download speed that's the problem. Most cable broadbands cap out at about 1.5Mbps upload and that's generous. Think of 50 people trying to send out an email on that kind of speed? And what if someone is using Skype or Vonage, or worse, playing an online game. No way is that 1.5 upstream going to handle 50 people. And forget about it if someone is using Bittorrent and sharing files to upload.

Yes, technically it can work, but would be so slow that it would not even be useable.

 

[Law]

There are cheap wireless routers and access point you can buy at newegg.com that will do just this for you, most wireless routers have port filtering in place so you can restrict all but what you need essentially (Web, Email). Of course you can't let everyone use the Internet connection for gaming, that would kill the bandwidth for other users.

This can be done, wireless routers and AP go for $50 each for what you need to do.

Cable modem connects to wireless routers, and add more access points to cover up the apartment. They do have a cell range of about 100 feet indoor.

Get a good Internet connection speed, I know FiOS or Cable right now are at 15Mbps down for residential.

Only problem is, everyone needs a wireless card. But that's their problem.