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Good WAP's to cover a small building?

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itpromike

Occasional Visitor
So I'm finally fed up with the WiFi at my local church and I'm going to fix it. I have a good idea of what I'd like to do, but I'm not sure what WAP's I need to do this with. Right now they have a Verizon Fios router running to a switch and 1 UniFi AP connected to that. It covers a few rooms and you can get some connectivity in the sanctuary but it can't cover the entire church plus it's just one AP so it can't handle 200 clients at one time on a given Sunday. So here's what I'm thinking:

1.) Replace the switch with a easy to use POE switch. But which would I get? A UniFi unit?
2.) Replace the 1 UniFi AP with 4 WAP's that should be able to cover the space. I'm looking for easy to manage WAP's - I'm not really the most experienced when it comes to networking. What WAP's would I choose for this?

I was thinking of just adding more UniFi WAP's but I've read that they don't support true 'client handoff'? Again I'm not an experienced networking guy but from what I understand the UniFi WAP's won't seamlessly hand off the client from what to the other when you walk around the building so once you get in range of another AP with stronger signal, you're client may/may not disconnect from the current AP and join the AP with the stronger signal and it will cause it to lose connectivity for a moment while it renegotiates IP address etc... I'm not exactly sure the correct terminology for this so I just call it client handoff lol.

Anyhow I'm looking for the simplest and cheapest solution to cover this building and support maybe 230 clients at peak and 15 and non peak times. What do you guys suggest?

Thanks a million in advance for any help you can provide! :)
 
Need a budget amount to help you.
 
Okay, so $500 total then, right?

With that low of a budget, I don't think your choices are many? Buy what you can and hopefully you can make it work.
 
Okay, so $500 total then, right?

With that low of a budget, I don't think your choices are many? Buy what you can and hopefully you can make it work.
If I increased the budget to $150 per device does that afford me some better options? If so what would you choose?
 
I would say your budget is still too low.

What I would be doing in this situation is three or more RT-AC5300's instead of AP's (I think AP's are a waste of money).

With effectively 9 radios (or more, with additional units) and three routers, you should be able to connect all the devices you need and have room to grow too. (Yes, I am assuming that all devices can connect to either the 2.4GHz or the 5GHz bands).

What you will gain from the (wired) routers is the ability to have 'staff' and 'guest' isolation on each router (double natted). What you will also gain are the OpenVPN client and server capabilities that the Asus routers are very good at too.

Setup the guest network with a single ssid and password. Setup the 'staff'/main network with individually identified ssid's (passwords can be the same if you want) so that the best performing (not necessarily the closest) router is the one that stays connected for the staff/main devices.

You can get simple and cheap. But that won't guarantee it will match your requirements though (230 clients peak), now or in the fast approaching future.

The reason I do not like, use or recommend AP's is because you are (usually) tied to a single vendor. With a router, not only can it continue being useful elsewhere (when it gets upgraded), even if used as 'just' a switch. But you can buy any router in the future and know it will just work with your existing infrastructure.


With 3 routers (as above), this is how I might set them up.

R1= LAN IP: 192.168.1.1 DHCP scope: 192.168.1.10 to 192.168.1.111

(Replaces Verizon FIOS router (or put FIOS router in bridge mode with radios off if needed to connect to ISP).

R2= LAN IP: 192.168.2.1 DHCP scope: 192.168.2.10 to 192.168.2.111

R3= LAN IP: 192.168.3.1 DHCP scope: 192.168.3.10 to 192.168.3.111

Plug R2 and R3 into the LAN ports on R1 and you should be good to go.

Place each router 10 feet above ground level in an open area (not a closet, bookcase, etc.) with at least 3 feet of space in all directions (as possible).

Place the routers such that two will be able to provide coverage for each main area of your church (main areas where the most devices will be present and used). Try to set them up so that for the most used area, all three will be able to provide a single to some of the clients present.

If you can provide a diagram of the church layout, it would help. :)
 
To get it right, are you trying to provide wifi for a church? Or being an ISP for a building?

There are many ways to distribute wifi and networking. Consumer wifi as APs give you a 4 port switch as well but not POE. Non consumer is usually a single port with POE. Many different possibilities. What you can do is get an AP, place it around the building and see how reception is like before you start buying a bunch. Test them around to see where you need to place APs and how many you will need.
 
You do need more access points. But you also need the ability to band steer, limit bandwidth per client and load balance.

Ubiquiti APs can work fine and they have models in your price range. But you need to do more than throw more APs up and expect that all problems will be solved.

If you really want to handle 200 simultaneous users, you need a professional to help you assess the situation and design a solution.

I would not worry about "seamless handoff". If you set the APs up correctly and manage transmit power levels, most devices will switch fine. There will always be a few that don't.
 

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