Wireless APs for a small office?

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KaosDG

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A client of mine is looking to setup a small wireless "Guest Access" network.
Nothing too complicated, just wireless internet access.

What APs would you guys use for this?

I'm looking to keep the price down, say about $500 - $600 for all the equipment necessary.

I figure they'd need 2 APs to provide decent coverage in their offices (Mainly conference rooms, and a training area). I'd probably lose the default antennas and look at some ceiling mounted omni-directionals also.

I was looking at either D-link's 7100ap/7200ap (7200ap has PoE, that I don't need)
or Linksys Wap4400N (again, useless PoE)


I don't feel it necessary to go for hi-level Cisco/3com/etc since this is going to be minimally used and only for browsing / e-mail.

Let me know
 
Why is POE useless? Do you have outlets in the ceiling, or feel like running other wire for power?
 
First why get a pre-n access point? I would just get some 802.11g ones.

Second POE is something to look into as it makes hooking them up easy and you don't really have an issue with getting a ac jack somewhere that one may note be.

Thrid how are these things being hooked into the cust network? Ie are you putting them on the cust network will full access or do you have a router that will already seperate them to another vlan, or do you need a router as well to drive these seperate.
 
swatbat said:
First why get a pre-n access point? I would just get some 802.11g ones.

Second POE is something to look into as it makes hooking them up easy and you don't really have an issue with getting a ac jack somewhere that one may note be.

Thrid how are these things being hooked into the cust network? Ie are you putting them on the cust network will full access or do you have a router that will already seperate them to another vlan, or do you need a router as well to drive these seperate.
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There's really no need for a Pre-N AP, just picked something that looked decent, really.
I was looking at it more for the radio coverage i suppose.

Right now PoE is useless because they don't have any other PoE device (sure, they could use an injector).
BUT, there are also outlets where I'm going to be putting them. (lucked out on that)


No router necessary, they already have a wired guest network (basically just a LAN with a small watchguard Soho router/fw that goes out their T1 on a second IP).
 
Just get some basic access points that look good then. External antenna points would be something to look for as well. Let the router handle everything. Personaly I have seen compatability issues with older dlink suff so I would recomend against them.
 
If coverage is any concern at all...I would indeed look at none other than Pre-N. It's all I've been dealing with for over a year. Blows the doors off of old G as far as range/coverage. Makes life SOOOOO much easier for me, less setup, less hassle, and less calls from clients whining that they can't connect from here or there or when the walk down the hall..

For an inexpensive AP...I really like the Linksys WAP54GX4.

For now, stick with Pre-N..not the newer Draft-N units. The Linksys and Belkin Pre-N units are built on the Airgo True MIMO chipset..which is pretty much all the comparison articles (and quite a bit of personal experience) has out performed all other MIMO wireless chipsets. It's matured over the past year and a half, is on it's third revision. Draft-N is still going through growing pains on the first revisions..and so far performs only about 80% of what Pre-N units did.
 
YeOldeStonecat said:
If coverage is any concern at all...I would indeed look at none other than Pre-N. It's all I've been dealing with for over a year. Blows the doors off of old G as far as range/coverage. Makes life SOOOOO much easier for me, less setup, less hassle, and less calls from clients whining that they can't connect from here or there or when the walk down the hall..

For an inexpensive AP...I really like the Linksys WAP54GX4.

For now, stick with Pre-N..not the newer Draft-N units. The Linksys and Belkin Pre-N units are built on the Airgo True MIMO chipset..which is pretty much all the comparison articles (and quite a bit of personal experience) has out performed all other MIMO wireless chipsets. It's matured over the past year and a half, is on it's third revision. Draft-N is still going through growing pains on the first revisions..and so far performs only about 80% of what Pre-N units did.
Click to expand...

I agree with ye, i would go with pre-N i would go with that linksys or a netgaer.
 
Haven't there been a lot of compatibility issues with the pre-N stuff?
I thought most industry analysts recommend waiting for the final release to avoid problems.
 
mobiux said:
Haven't there been a lot of compatibility issues with the pre-N stuff?
I thought most industry analysts recommend waiting for the final release to avoid problems.
Click to expand...

I have not head much, but than again i have not read into alot. At work we are still using G we wont upgrade till N is fully released and tested, in a work enviorment you never want to roll something out thats Pre anything or beta...
 
mobiux said:
Haven't there been a lot of compatibility issues with the pre-N stuff?
I thought most industry analysts recommend waiting for the final release to avoid problems.
Click to expand...

No...you still benefit from a vast increase in range even if using old G and B adapters.

Industry analysts almost always say "wait".

The reality is..we're at least 2 years away from it becoming officially adopted. But I don't see why people say "wait..it's not official yet". Who cares? I don't! They fully support B and G right now..today..this very minute. You get the increase in range..right now, today, this very minute. They will keep supporting these products with warranties. They will come out with updated firmware at their standard intervals.

It's not like when "N" becomes officially adopted and on the market..suddenly these Pre-N units will stop working! Why do some people think that?

And look at how often most people upgrade network hardware. Especially at these low prices these days. 2 or so years when N is officially out and on the market...many people will be ready to spend a measly hundred bucks again.
 
If I went with the Pre-N, could I functionally disable the Pre-N, and force people to use B/G, and still get the range? (Forgive me, i've really ignored wireless for the most part).



Thanks for the input everyone
 
Pre-n stuff is all compatible with b and g, it's the pre-n to pre-n stuff that doesn't always work well.
If you are going to buy pre-n stuff, make sure it's all from the same manufacturer, that way if something does break, you don't have finger pointing between companies.

As far as why analysts say to wait, they figure new technology will always have quirks, especially, pre release stuff. So why not let some other person take the lumps of be a first adopter when you can wait 6-12 months and get a much more refined product.
 
KaosDG said:
If I went with the Pre-N, could I functionally disable the Pre-N, and force people to use B/G, and still get the range? (Forgive me, i've really ignored wireless for the most part).
Click to expand...

It's really irrelevant, you don't have to think of it that way. It's the same frequency...just let the AP work as normal...there's no difference from the point of view of B or G clients.

Of all the wireless setups I've done..I've not used a single Pre-N NIC on the clients..I just use whatever B or G they already have..which is usually Centrino built into the laptops..mostly IBM Stinkpads or SMell Latitudes.
 
YeOldeStonecat said:
It's really irrelevant, you don't have to think of it that way. It's the same frequency...just let the AP work as normal...there's no difference from the point of view of B or G clients.

Of all the wireless setups I've done..I've not used a single Pre-N NIC on the clients..I just use whatever B or G they already have..which is usually Centrino built into the laptops..mostly IBM Stinkpads or SMell Latitudes.
Click to expand...


Well, I wouldn't be able to control the client-side of this, since these will all be guests.

Basically it could be a Dell, Lenovo, Apple, PocketPC... whatever.
 
YeOldeStonecat said:
It's really irrelevant, you don't have to think of it that way. It's the same frequency...just let the AP work as normal...there's no difference from the point of view of B or G clients.

Of all the wireless setups I've done..I've not used a single Pre-N NIC on the clients..I just use whatever B or G they already have..which is usually Centrino built into the laptops..mostly IBM Stinkpads or SMell Latitudes.
Click to expand...
You got my respect for certain with your labeling of the Thinkpads and Dell laptops.

I'll look into some MIMO stuff next time I get a job calling for wireless, but its still going to take some convincing over the ability to configure everything with DD-WRT.
 
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