Questions about setting up a WiFi Hotspot for a small hotel

[hawk82]

I've got a potential client who owns a small inn. He wants to set up free WiFi service for his customers. He doesn't want to charge for it. I took a tour of his inn and got a good layout of the two buildings. The main building has the office where there is a DSL connection, currently connected to an older linksys befsr41 wired router. He has one front desk computer wired, his laptop that he occasionally brings and hooks direct to the router, and his manager who has an apartment in the inn. The main building also has a couple dozen apartment style rooms for long term stays, in a two story design. Office is on a wing off the main building.

There is a second building separated by a paved driveway about 40'. There is a PVC pipe underground going from the main building to the second building that I have access to for bringing a cable from the main building to the 2nd building. As far as I could tell, the second building gets its power from the main building. I saw no overhead power feeds to the 2nd building. The 2nd building has about two to three dozen rooms. Single story.

My thoughts are this:
1. One access point either in the office/checkin area, or put the access point in the manager's apt.
2. Run a cable from the main building (either directly from the router, or from the manager's apt which is the shorter run) to the 2nd building.
3. Put a switch in the 2nd building, feed network cable from the switch to two access points.

Questions:
1. He doesn't want to go wireless between the two buildings. He'd rather have a wire of some sort. Now my friend tells me about grounds between the building could be different, thus carry minute voltage across the cable going between the two buildings and blow out a port on the switch. He witnessed this numerous times at a school he works at. His solution was to replace the cable with fiber. Can I justify the cost of running fiber, getting two fiber-to-ethernet media converters for a short cable run? What brand fiber converters should I go with? What type of fiber? Connectors? I've only terminated fiber once at a trade college, probably 4 yrs ago. I don't have the tools, but my friend does.

2. I was thinking of using Linksys WRT54GL routers, flash them to DD-WRT and use the Sputnik Express Agent, since it gives a nice little Captive Portal that we could use to advertise his inn. Does this sound good? I don't expect he'd have more than a dozen people using his WiFi hotspots at one time.

3. I need some type of enclosure to the put the access points in. I want to mount them on the wall in the hallway of the 2nd building, but want it in a locked enclosure to prevent theft and tampering with. I can't seem to find anything good. What would work nicely is those plastic enclosures used on heating/AC controls, but they are small. I do have the wallmount brackets for the Linksys routers, if that helps.

4. Should I set the SSID to be the same on all of the access points? I don't expect people to be moving around with laptops, where they would need to maintain connectivity between the access points.

I am familiar with wireless, running cables, etc, but just had those couple of questions.

[jodynicH]

Edit: NM


I would initially say just run cable and if it blows, switch to fiber. I know there is the "do it right the first time" motto, but price wise, fiber would be hella expensive compared to a cable. The client may just want to test out the cheaper route first.

[hawk82]

I was thinking of drawing up two proposals: one with just cat5e and two cheapie switches and the other with fiber + two media converters.

[Thantos]

responses to questions:

1. I don't see how this could be a factor as long as both buildings (or at the very least the outlets the network gear is on) are grounded. either you're grounded or you're not.

2. Don't use routers as access points. Buy access points. Linksys or otherwise I don't care, but you'll kick yourself in the ass later if you don't.

3. why not put them in the ceiling? do the buildings have have the ever-present removable ceiling tiles?

4. if you set the SSID to be the same, make sure they are on different channels so you don't get interference problems. also, set up some APs and actually go around and test the signal. there may be range limitations or dead spots you did not anticipate.

[hawk82]

Originally Posted by Thantos

responses to questions:

1. I don't see how this could be a factor as long as both buildings (or at the very least the outlets the network gear is on) are grounded. either you're grounded or you're not.

2. Don't use routers as access points. Buy access points. Linksys or otherwise I don't care, but you'll kick yourself in the ass later if you don't.

3. why not put them in the ceiling? do the buildings have have the ever-present removable ceiling tiles?

4. if you set the SSID to be the same, make sure they are on different channels so you don't get interference problems. also, set up some APs and actually go around and test the signal. there may be range limitations or dead spots you did not anticipate.

I plan on checking for grounded outlets prior to putting the equipment in.

I'd buy access points, but they are a bit more expensive, and I am not sure if DD-WRT can be put on them. I plan on just daisy chaining the routers anyway, not actually using the router portion. Just connecting network cables to lan ports, and setting them on the same logical network (i.e. 192.168.1.x etc).

The ceilings are finished drywall. Above the ceiling is an unheated and uncooled attic space. Enough for me to walk in. But winters get cold here and summers hot. I figured the network gear would lock up and/or die.

I plan on testing for dead spots as I go. Hopefully get access to each room or every other room to see the signal strengths.

On another note, I want this to be simple to maintain. The inn staff are technophobic. The simpler I keep this, the better. I am thinking of giving the staff a couple of wifi signal meters, so they can tell a customer "hey signal is coming to the room, so the problem resides on your computer" kind of deal. I'll write up also how to powercycle the equipment as well.