Wifi coverage for a large B&B

Slat3

Hello and thank you in advance if you can help me. I met up with a local person looking to improve there indoor wireless signal throughout all of his home. The house is a two-storey with 18 bedrooms (yes 18) and anywhere between 400 - 550 sq meters in size (excuse the rough estimate) with solid block walls and concrete floors.

Currently there is only two independent routers setup down stairs . Any advise as to what equipment indoor/outdoor that you would use to cover such an area will be much appreciated. Thanks for your time.

MichealKenny

if 2 covers all of downstairs then i guess 2 would cover upstairs? what I would do is name all four routers the same for example "B&B_Broadband" and give all routers the same password, I don't know if it will all show up as one big network or if it wont, but either way, you dont have to enter 4 different ssids and 4 different passwords on each device that connects, now comes the tricky part, connecting the routers to the main switch/modem, you could hard-wire or you could use internet over power to connect them to the main switch/modem this would be the easier option, but it is more expensive, a lot more expensive, you're looking at around €200/€400 for 8 of these things (one near the router, one near the switch/modem for each router) I'm not 100% on the information I just gave you, its coming from the top of my head, if anything is wrong, I'm sure the people of boards would point it out best of luck!

Kinky Slinky

I think an easy option would be to get power line adapters and connect them to routers. Don't quote me on this as I'm not completely sure about that.

Powerline Adapter

Router

These two products have free shipping , I recently placed an order for that router so I can let you know what I think about it when I get it in the next day or two.

Gadgetman496

What about using Netgear Universal WIFI Range Extenders

BailMeOut

Another good option. All in one Ethernet over power and wireless N access point.

http://www.devolo.com/consumer/77_dlan-200-av-wireless-n_starter-kit_product-presentation_1.html?l=en

Slat3

Thanks for all the replies. I was talking to the customer and he is willing to test out a wireless repeater, so I will purchase one and try it out and let you know how I get on.

The wireless repeater I will be using is :

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Edimax-EW-7416APN-Wireless-802-11n-Access/dp/B001HW0JVU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1308054232&sr=1-1

Timfy

Slat3 wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies. I was talking to the customer and he is willing to test out a wireless repeater, so I will purchase one and try it out and let you know how I get on.

The wireless repeater I will be using is :

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Edimax-EW-7416APN-Wireless-802-11n-Access/dp/B001HW0JVU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1308054232&sr=1-1

Hi, I've just installed two of these in a small hotel. They work perfectly and give great coverage. The only thing to remember is that a repeater will effectively half the available bandwidth.

Dardania

MichealKenny wrote: »

if 2 covers all of downstairs then i guess 2 would cover upstairs? what I would do is name all four routers the same for example "B&B_Broadband" and give all routers the same password, I don't know if it will all show up as one big network or if it wont, but either way, you dont have to enter 4 different ssids and 4 different passwords on each device that connects, now comes the tricky part, connecting the routers to the main switch/modem, you could hard-wire or you could use internet over power to connect them to the main switch/modem this would be the easier option, but it is more expensive, a lot more expensive, you're looking at around €200/€400 for 8 of these things (one near the router, one near the switch/modem for each router) I'm not 100% on the information I just gave you, its coming from the top of my head, if anything is wrong, I'm sure the people of boards would point it out best of luck!

Just one thing to note with this approach (and I would've suggested this approach anyway!): make sure adjoining / adjacent wifi points are operating on different channels, so that they won't interfere with each other

here's a spiel on it: http://superuser.com/questions/122441/multiple-access-points-for-the-same-ssid

and with channels 1 - 13, channels 1, 5 & 13 are non-overlapping (so set the WAPs to those channels...

Timfy

Re: the Edimax solution...

The primary connection to the internet is an adsl modem with wireless capabilities situated near the centre of the premises. Lets call that SSID A.
It serves the bar area and reception. The First Edimax is some 50m away and set up as a simple repeater. It connects wirelessly to A and retransmits as B, serving the front bedrooms. The second Edimax Connects to B and retransmits as C, serving the rear bedrooms.

Three separate SSIDs are used to differentiate the zones. (They could all be set up as the same SSID if you prefer)

The Edimax units are very simple to set up, there is even a wizard available for download at the Edimax website that pretty much does all the configuration for you.

Note from experience: When you set up the first Edimax, be sure to change the default IP address because if you don't there will be IP clashes when you set up the second causing mayhem!!!

Timfy

Forgot to mention that these units have a really good range. I mounted them at ceiling level on the ground floor and they offer 5 bar service on the first floor and 3 bar service in the attic room.