IT Employment

Ask something
Discussion Locked

wireless networking on a large scale.

0 helpful
1 reply

by ray f

Closed to new repliesThis discussion is closed. It stays readable, but it takes no new replies.

I am the Dir. of Information Systems at a small college. The college moved to a new building under new ownership in May. This meant a change in management, 3rd party support, public IP?s, and the LAN?s physical layer in particular. I?m seeking advice on wireless networking on a large scale.

The new building has 4 floors. The main wiring closet is on the first floor, and has 1.5m T1 Internet connection through a Netopia router, with fiber running vertically to Intel Express 510T switches on the other floors. The 2nd floor is cabled with Cat5. The 3rd and 4th floors are dormitories with switches and patch panels fed by fiber, but very little Cat5 to the dorm rooms.

To avoid the costs of cabling the dorm rooms, D-Link DWL-900AP+ wireless access points and repeaters were installed. This decision was made before I came on board, and was proposed by 3rd party support with which I have basic philosophical differences, essentially over Novell vs. Windows 2003 server, Cisco vs. Netopia, Netgear etc. I?m in Novell?s and Cisco?s corner.

My opinion is that wireless networking is fine for small businesses but not for larger LANs. This building is built like a fortress with thick concrete walls and ceilings, and old fluorescent lighting fixtures with magnetic ballisters. The wireless works in some places some of time, but needs constant attention as well as end users needing help with configuring their wireless network adapters. I?ve done some research into wireless switches, and long-range antennas for the D-link access points, but I am hesitant to recommend expenditures on better equipment or improvements to what we already have, because I?m doubtful about wireless in this building.

1 reply

by timwalsh

I'm in agreement that wireless probably wasn't the best of solutions for the environment you have.

However, you now have a quandry. Do you trash what is already in place and replace it with a more reliable (but possibly more costly) infrastructure? Or do you try to make what is in place work more reliably? Which ever way you go, you will need to justify monetarily why your way is the best choice. Make sure you lay out both the short-term (purchase and installation)and long-term (support)costs involved. I'm thinking that whoever recommended the wireless solution sold it based only on the short-term costs.

As a third possibility (to wireless and Ethernet), you might want to take a look at a network media that is already installed- power lines. Take a look at www.homeplug.org. While this might not be a suitable technology to replace your entire infrastructure, you might consider continuing to use wireless in those areas where it works reliably, and using powerline networking in those areas that are "RF-challenged."

Downsides to this technology are: it is still an emerging technology, designed mainly for the home environment (although I might argue that a dorm environment is very similar), maximum speed transfer is limited to 14Mbps.

Hope this helps.

This discussion is closed to new replies.