Most cost-effective internet access for 12 rooms?

Seanchai

I'm in a school which needs some twelve rooms to be set up for internet access. 8 of the rooms are in the one area, while four are 40 -50 metres away. There's UPC cable in a nearby, related, house, but we need to set up a separate UPC billing account that can service these classrooms.

We're wondering how much this will cost. In my own home the one internet access (Eircom broadband) supplies the entire house for the one price. Money is not plentiful so cost will be the deciding factor. Does UPC, for instance, charge for each separate room?

If they do, does anybody know of the most cost effective way to get internet into each of these rooms? Thanks.

Cuddlesworth

What's your current cabling situation? Any Ethernet patching in the buildings, ducting or lowered ceilings with trunking?

TBH, it sounds like you haven't a clue what your getting into. Ignoring the obvious problems like cabling and equipment have you considered access rights, you can't just give a internet connection out to a school and leave it alone. You will need a decent hardware firewall and monitoring system. All it takes is one letter from the RIRA or Garda Child crimes unit to put your school in the courts.

bricks

UPC don't really care if you hook up a load of rooms with it.
You might be safer getting their business broadband since its a school.
50Euros a month for 10Mbits.
Don't know if you are allowed to use home broadband in a school.

Nothingbetter2d

easy setup

install broadband connection in the centre point of the cluster of 8 rooms

disable wireless on the upc cisco router (its fail at best) and invest in a good "N" type wireless router from Netgear, Linksys, or Dlink

invest in a good wireless access point (or another wireless router B set it access point mode) for the cluster of 4 rooms 50 metres away

option 1

setup router A in the cluster of 8 rooms as the main dhcp router and set its default gateway to the address of the cisco modem (192.168.1.1)

connect all computers in the 8 room cluster to this router

setup router B in the 4 room cluster and set it to access point mode. and set it's default access to router A (note u will need a physic link between router A and router B to connect them together).

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option 2

(wireless router C linked wirelessly to Wireless router A requires a 3rd linksys router with either dd-wrt or tomato firmware installed on it. (this firmware allows u wirelessly link two routers together) and thus no need for a physical link between buildings.

it would look like this where "---" = wired link and ")))" = wireless link
modem --- router A ))) router C --- router B

the reason for a 3rd router is because when u wirelessly bridge two routers together the router C with the bridging config setup cannot then relay via wireless to computers at full throughput (hence why the short physical link to router B which handles the computers in the 4 room cluster.

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option 3

is to replace the antennae on router A with higher gain antennae and thus remove the need for routers B and C

as its only 50 metres option 3 would be the better option imo
(note to get the most out of this each pc will also need an "N" type wifi card installed in it) especially the ones in the 4 room cluster.

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as for security, a good firewall, anti virus, remote pc monitoring software (real vnc for example so u can see what your students are looking at) and net filtering software should keep ya good. also use wpa pk passwords for wireless NEVER use WEP its too easy to hack

watty

Wireless is useless for this number of rooms and distance unless you have about 12 WiFi points (one in each room) and cables back to Modem. Also WiFi is generally unsuitable for more than 5 to 6 simultaneous users. Wireless N (802.11n) quickly drops to same performance as 802.11g with distance or use of multiple WiFi points in the same area. In reality the 2.4GHz band only has space for 3 simultaneous 802.11g WiFi Points near each other.

java

OP does your school not fall under the Broadband for Schools scheme?

http://www.ncte.ie/Broadband/

IRCA

java wrote: »

OP does your school not fall under the Broadband for Schools scheme?

http://www.ncte.ie/Broadband/

100% Correct - quite aside form the technical issues when children are in volved you MUST have certain prescribed content filtering etc.. in place as you have a legal duty of care to all who will access the internet from the school.

Moonbeam

I can't make much sense out of what you said.
The UPC cable is in a nearby house..?