This week I'll try to shed some light on another user-submitted question:
What's the easiest (maybe cheapest) way to get wi-fi into the
further parts of our building? With concrete walls and steel
infrastructure, the LinkSys wireless-G 2.4 GHz system never worked even
between our offices which are all in a row on one side of a hallway. So
we went to hard-wiring. I'd love it if I could use my laptop in the
youth room which is in the basement of another wing of the building --
but even better would be if anyone could use their laptops in whatever
part of the building we were in.
Wireless
networking is one of my favorite additions to the world of technology.
We all are happy to have fewer cords, cables, and wires in our lives.
We're even happier when they really do what we want them to, which can
be a challenge!
I
want to start with a couple of assumptions. I write these posts
assuming that you don't have an Information Technology department at
your beck and call. I also write from the standpoint of someone who
wants to get a good value solution, maybe not the cheapest, but
certainly frugal. Finally, there is an art to getting these things to
work and there probably isn't one right answer, but I'll take a stab at
passing along some information that I hope is helpful. If you want to
have an excellent wireless network and money is no object, consult a
company which installs networks and will use commercial
enterprise-grade equipment. They will set something up that will work
extremely well. It will also probably be extremely expensive.
At
the same time, you do get what you pay for. Buying the cheapest
available wireless router will get you a piece of equipment that does
not perform as well as something that was not $9.95 after rebate. I
have bought lots of these cheap blue boxes and they generally work
alright, for awhile, but then they fail. This give me an excuse to go
out and buy newer technology, but it can also be inconvenient. As with
just about all technology, price continues to drop while features
increase.
In researching some options, I
came across this page
(http://wirelessinfo-r-us.blogspot.com/2007/11/basic-service-set-bss-vs-extended.html)
which provides a good overview of how to use multiple wireless Access
Points (APs) in order to provide broad coverage. The assumption is,
however, that these APs will be connected via a wire to the network. By
using the same ESSID, you will be able to roam throughout the building
and maintain coverage because you are always in the reach of a radio
signal.
Each AP needs to be set on a different channels, but
use the same SSID. The wireless security needs to be the same on each AP as well.
This is the solution recommended by my friend at Pacific Lutheran University, David Allen:
do
wired whenever you have a fixed office (Pastor, Secretary, etc.) and
supplement that connection with wireless for mobility in meeting rooms,
visitor areas (even visitors in the fixed offices), but unless you're
willing to invest time and money it's generally cheaper to use the
cables than the wireless for your average building/installation area.
It
is also possible to add stronger antennas to a wireless router or AP so
that the signal reaches farther. I have experimented with this myself,
however, and I was not particularly impressed with the results,
especially considering that the antennas were quite expensive. Compared
to pulling network cables through the wall, it might be worth a try.
I
spent much of the week scratching my head as to how to get the signal
down to that youth room in the basement of another wing of the building
without drilling holes in the wall to run new wires. Then it finally
hit me, don't run new wires, use ones that are already there. It may
not work in some church buildings because of the way churches tend to
be built in phases, but it may also be worth a try. Use your existing
power lines to carry the signal from one area to another. It's called
powerline networking and all the networking gear manufacturers carry
some equipment that will help you to do it. C|Net.com has an article in
their Do-It-Yourself section entitled
Set Up a power-line network.
You can go to cnet.com and enter powerline into the Search Box to find
more information. They will also give you a list of current products
from a variety of vendors. Another option, which I'm not going to go
into in depth, would be to use the existing phone lines
(www.homepna.org) to carry the data.
P.S. - I hope to see you at the Extravaganza!net
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