Wireless clients issue at a small school

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Lepard

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Jul 28, 2004
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I am assisting at a school and they are having some wireless connectivity issues.

They currently have a Belkin F9K1001 N150 Wireless Router (http://www.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=543384) and LAN is distributed by 2-32 port unmanaged switch (don't have the model numbers handy).

The problem occurs when the students are tasked to do work on their laptops. There are approximately 15 laptops and 30 smartphones/tablets within the environment at any given time. As soon as 10 or so of the laptops boot and connect to the wireless, none of the other wireless devices are able to connect. LAN/Ethernet is unaffected.

I was thinking of replacing the Belkin F9K1001 with a DIR-655 and adding a WRT54G as a WAP.

Will this be necessary? If so, is this a good route to take?
Also, a refresher, what should the DHCP Lease be set to?

Thanks.
 
What sort of ghetto school is this? Get a proper router and a proper AP, none of this Dlink/Belkin junk. Sure they are fine for 3 people in a home, but not a school. How many wired computers are there? What's the internet speed like?

Look into the new Ubiquiti router paired with a Unifi or multiple depending on coverage area. You could do it for 3-400 dollars and have a decent network.
 
I'd setup a decent mesh network with a decent portal, anything 150 Megabit would be more then nominal.
Also whats the coverage distance and is there any metal in the walls? (802.11 does not like this)
 
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/usr/home said:
What sort of ghetto school is this? Get a proper router and a proper AP, none of this Dlink/Belkin junk. Sure they are fine for 3 people in a home, but not a school. How many wired computers are there? What's the internet speed like?

Look into the new Ubiquiti router paired with a Unifi or multiple depending on coverage area. You could do it for 3-400 dollars and have a decent network.
Click to expand...

It's a small school for children with autism.

There are 40 wired computers right now, they are looking to add a few more in the near future though.

Thanks for the tips... I'm thinking an AirRouter and one Unifi should suffice for now. These are getting great reviews! I wasn't even aware of them.

Globox said:
I'd setup a decent mesh network with a decent portal, anything 150 Megabit would be more then nominal.
Also whats the coverage distance and is there any metal in the walls? (802.11 does not like this)
Click to expand...

Approximately 1800 square feet, I'd have to confirm. I've only visited once.
 
No, don't go with an Air Router. I recommend against them actually. I had one and was not impressed. What you could do is maybe wait for the EdgeRouters to be available and in the meantime turn off the wireless on the current router and use a Unifi for wireless access instead and then swap routers once they are available.
 
Why do you need to replace the router? Is the Belkin doing the routing for the entire network?

As others have said, yes you simply need an appropriate wireless network. Ubiquiti will be great for your budget.
 
If the Belkin is doing the routing it definitely needs replacing IMO... Belkin are complete POS.
 
Lepard said:
It's a small school for children with autism.

There are 40 wired computers right now, they are looking to add a few more in the near future though.

Thanks for the tips... I'm thinking an AirRouter and one Unifi should suffice for now. These are getting great reviews! I wasn't even aware of them.



Approximately 1800 square feet, I'd have to confirm. I've only visited once.
Click to expand...


wire a chain mesh together with a bunch of buffalo routers and make sure they're n, you shouldn't have any issues
2cdy61v.jpg
 
yes that stuff shoudl be thrown away.

Router - ZyXEL USG Line or some firewall that you can get through TechSoup or some other charity. I would go with USG100,200

Switch - Run to Dell Switches with Lifetime warranty, can get away with unmaged depending on needs.

Wireless - Unifi, Have a cheap workstation or server running the controller. All these hard wired back to main. Or run Ruckus if hte school can afford it.
 
The Belkin is the one doing the routing, which is what's mind boggling to me, but regardless.

So looks like the plan is to turn off the Wireless on the Belkin and connect the Unifi to one of the LAN ports and allow it to serve as the wireless AP.

Now to confirm, and I appreciate all the help, how many wireless clients can one Unifi serve simultaneously? Based on what you guys are detailing I will definitely need more than one.
 
There's no guaranteed number but I'd be surprised if you can get forty people on one AP consistently. You could get two but they are sold cheapest in a three pack. :)

Good luck and nice to see you're at least able to upgrade the network.

Someone else here will chime in on router options.
 
I've seen 30 people on a Unifi AP at once. No issues. I believe on the Ubiquiti forums there's guys that have seen even more.
 
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