Question

How to establish Wireless Networking in a Hotel

Wireless Internet, WAP, Wireless networking, Wireless roaming, Network design, Wireless Application Protocol, .

Hello,
I am new in Wireless Networking and i have to implement Wireless Internet in a hotel which has rooms on two floors. I understand that i have to put WAPs in different locations in hotel. But i want that laptop users not need to connect to WAP individualy as the move around. Once the laptop is connected it should automatically use the nearest WAP. So please guide me on doing this task.

Regards

Sher Shah

Most access points (AP) support roaming from AP to AP if the access points have the same SSID & are on the same subnet. There are exceptions, but most or all of those are APs intended for the home or small office market and not suitable for hotel use.

There are other areas of potential difficulty:

1. You should make sure though that they are on non-overlapping channels. Here in the US, those would be channels 1, 6 & 11.

2. You should protect your guests from each other. Most guests do not have firewalls in place to protect their computers from access by other guests. This protection can be implemented in the APs and network switches. It goes by various brand-specific names usually carrying the idea of port isolation.

3. This is probably the hardest one. You should provide adequate coverage for all of your clients regardless of what equipment the have. Many wireless networks are installed after a site survey in which someone places a sample AP at proposed locations and goes around the nearby parts of the hotel with a laptop to see if they can remain connected. Unfortunately, this technique is responsible for WiFi having a reputation of being unreliable. I have a draft of a paper on the subject. It is not yet completely ready for publication, but if you would like to see it, please e-mail me at sh256@stanfordalumni.org or better yet call me at 408 255 2090 (my e-mail gets overloaded.)