Hi, I think the best way to address your questions, would be to pit them against the major prerequisites mandatory for any efficient LAN. 1. Scalability: As you say, the nework has grown from 4 to 55 users. Can you forecast its growth say in the next 3 years or so? And thus establishing the same, determining a Network Topology to cater for the same, relative to network expansion and subsequently the necessary network distribution equipment, switches, access points. 2. Traffic Prioritization: Perhaps the most important factor. Ability to identify various kinds of network traffic on your LAN and giving precedence to the most important as well as establishing bandwidth policies for the same. Cisco routers as per my experience handle traffic shaping excellently. (For instance, one would expect those accessing e.g cloud services to have priority over front desk/ reception personel. Handling primarily mail) also, do you employ VOIP services? Requires high but short persistent bursts of existing bandwidth at a time etc. All that primarily hinged on the kind of bandwidth assigned by your ISP, also the very important factor as to its nature, is it a Dedicated or Shared connection? 3. 'End User' Equipment vs Office Topography: a) What devices are mostly employed to access connectivity? Mostly wireless or wired devices? b) Are work areas fixed or do employees move around the office? c) What kind of strucural density are you looking at? Thicker Denser walls partitioning office space result in less wireless signal permeation due to signal loss through interferance. d) Was the building constructed with networking cabling in mind? e) If NO to (d) and assuming structured cabling should be done professionally as opposed to "cyber cafe standards" cables conspicuously visible every where and/or metal/pvc trunking? What authorization/permition from building owners is needed to retrofit conduit pipes into walls to hide everything and maintain office aesthetics? Lastly, with regard to Wi-Fi equipment, 1. Access Points vary in signal strength (measured in dbm) and thus performance ergo price. 2. They operate in various modes, popular among which is acting as a proxy router i.e able to assign upto a maximum of 253 dynamic IPs each, ergo 253 max users per access point. On the same, note that if more than one AP is used on the network, they either share the same pool i.e 253 IPs amongst themselves to assign end user devices or... The network may be subnetted and each on a different subnet has it's own pool of 253 IPs per network block. Alternatively, each access point may operate in pure bridge mode and your router will solely be responsible for all IP assignments. On the issue of interference from masts and dishes on the roof, note that Wi-Fi Access Points mostly operate on what is refered to as "unlicensed frequencies" usually either 2.4 (Most common) or 5 Ghz. Cell towers on the other hand operate in the 3.2 - 3.5 Ghz range etc. (licensed frequencies) In essence the difference in frequency range making it very unlikely to cause interference but not improbable. On 6/14/12, Kevin Omondi <kevin.ouma@gmail.com> wrote:
Skunks,
I happen to work for an organization that has grown from 4 users to over 55 users.
As a result our connectivity (internal ) has been strained and in my opinion needs to be done properly ( it has been a patch job) of adding extra access points.
I heard that beyond certain throughputs wifi tends to be unreliabel. Is that true ? Isnt there a commercial wireless access point that can handle hundreds of users or is structured cabling the way to go.
Another issue is that our office is on a top floor with masts and sattelite dishes. Could there be some interference ?
If you are an experienced network consultant ( designing corporate LAN / Structured cabling/ ISP connectivity) do contact me I may have work for you.
Thanks Kevin Omondi
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