Comments on: Wireless LAN roaming

By: mtburke

mtburke — Mon, 23 May 2005 16:47:39 +0000

Check out Lucid Link software. The software could configure your access points and provide RADIUS level security.

http://www.lucidlink.com/

By: victoriano

victoriano — Mon, 23 May 2005 03:47:08 +0000

I’d suggest using Cisco/Linksys WRT54G. They can be setup as wireless repeaters with one antenna talking to the ADLS router AP and the oter antena acting as AP for the roaming PCs. There is a lot of information about that all over the Internet (just enter wrt54g in Google). It is one of the most hacker friendly pieces of hardware that I have ever seen. My team has set up a configuration like the one you are looking for in a condo with several buildings.

By: benbje

benbje — Mon, 23 May 2005 01:31:58 +0000

I was asked for further clarification:

The site is a big house, approx. 400 sq. metes, 2 storeys. They want to have internet access throughout the house, and be able to move around without interruption. They have an ADSL line. My test shows, that 1 access point will not cover 1 floor. I need to suggest ADSL modem/router, Access Points etc. I would like some recommendations about which brand/model numbers you recommend for this scenario. Thanks.

By: computab

computab — Sun, 22 May 2005 13:29:05 +0000

Get a Belkin ADSL router, model F5D7630. Its easy to setup. If the secondary PCs connected by wireless have 2 or more brick walls between, or there are steel joists around, the signal will be reduced. Enable encryption for wireless.

By: mousejn

mousejn — Sun, 22 May 2005 12:39:40 +0000

SonicWALL has a solution if you use their access points. They issue you a Virtual IP so even when your access point has a different subnet the servers see them as the same IP.

3 to 4 AP would require a PRO 2040

By: techtone

techtone — Sun, 22 May 2005 04:30:10 +0000

Hold on. I have a question or 2 or 3. You have a large house, What house, Software house? There are no servers?
How do you access internet at the moment? Detail your response pls.

By: benbje

benbje — Sat, 21 May 2005 14:27:54 +0000

Thanks for suggestions.
More info: It’s a very large house, No servers, No Radius authentication, no need for local encryption. They just need to be able to move around the house without loosing the internet connection. Any suggestions?

By: tfreestone

tfreestone — Sat, 21 May 2005 12:55:53 +0000

There are a couple of other solutions you could consider as well. Is this going to be a stand-alone WLAN with no Windows Server 2000/2003 Active Directory and separate RADIUS server to go along with it? If so you could also use the Gateway 7001 AP’s, because they offer a built-in RADIUS server in addition to enterprise-level encryption and authentication. They also work well with Active Directory and external RADIUS authentication.

Here’s the link.

http://www.gateway.com/products/GConfig/proddetails.asp?system_id=gtwy7001_ag_wap&seg=sb

They sell for $300-$500 with a 3 year warranty depending on the sale running at the moment. They have been recommended by various IT periodicals for their enterprise feature list while being priced at 1/4 to 1/3 of say Cisco or other enterprise-class wireless solutions. Being able to get clustering (up to 8 AP’s share settings to make administration a breeze), built-in RADIUS or external RADIUS, Power-over-Ethernet, WPA with AES encryption, 802.11 a/b/g compatibility, guest interface using a separate LAN or VLAN’s, etc. at that price point was very attractive. This worked well when we used an external Windows 2000 RADIUS server with EAP/PEAP certificates and Active Directory group policy for authentication and WPA/AES or WPA/TKIP for encryption.

Another great choice that is also enterprise quality but much more attractively priced that Cisco is Proxim. Their AP4000 runs about $470 at CDW and is loaded with all of the encryption and authentication offered by Cisco AP’s. Here’s some links for it.

http://www.proxim.com/products/wifi/ap/ap4000/index.html

http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC=588065

That’s my 2 cents and then some.

By: ramheka

ramheka — Sat, 21 May 2005 09:26:50 +0000

depends on the distance between the access points and what in between them you can set one as an access points and the others as signal boosters which means you will have a greater coverage I did a setup with the same senario and 3com products seemed doing the job nicely

RAM
No qualifications just first hand experience