advice on implementing a wireless solution

[Blisster]

I need some advice, including hardware recommendations and confioguration suggestions. A current client who already has a mid-sized Ethernet network infrastructure set up wants to implement wireless access for the Corporate Executives in the office to access with their laptops. Currently there are 5 or 6 WAP's set up in the office, each broadcasting there own wireless connection, which is creating conflicts and causing dropped connections.
We want to eliminate all the redundant access points and perhaps equip the office with a few repeaters in order to blanket the floor with one contiguous wireless access hot-spot.
Does this seem like the right way to handle this? One WAP and several repeaters placed throuout the office? and if so, what hardware / configuration would you recommend to achieve this?

Thanks

Jack

[Joint Chiefs of Staff]

Give this (http://www.symbol.com/) site a look over. I've been dealing with symbol products for well over a year now and thus far have been amazed.

Most specifically, here (http://www.symbol.com/products/wireless/ws5000_wireless_switch.html) is what I install more than any other symbol product.

[YeOldeStonecat]

Give these guys a look, located in Florida.

http://www.buffalotech.com/

[Blisster]

Thanks for the hardware links guys.
As far as the setup is concerned, is there really anything more involved then jsut setting up a WAP and a few repeaters? Will this work fine or are there any other factors I should consider besides the amount of office area we want to cover? I've never done this before so I jsut want to make sure I don't frag it all up.

[Blisster]

Okay, I have some more info. They've alread got a few Cisco WAP's so we're going to go with one of those (I don't know the model number yet, will post when I get the info) but what we are looking to do unow is to just deploy enough repeaters throuout the office (approx. 13,000 sq ft.) to blanket the entire office with wireless access. security will be handleed by a combineation of 128-bit WEP encyption as well as MAC filtering on the WAP side of things. We are also looking to insure that the WLAN can handle both 802.11b and G clients simultaneously, without bringing the entire WLAN down to the B speeds.

so any more suggestions based on this new info? I think we are just looking to install enough Cisco Wireless repeaters to blanket the office.

J


Here is the Wireless hardware they have already:

One Linksys WAP54G fitted with a WSB24 signal booster
two Linksys WAP11 access points
and Two Cisco Aironet 1100 AP's


my thoughts are to use the WAP54g/WSB24 as the primary access point, and to then set up the two Aironet's as repeaters elsewhere in the office, and perhaps pick up another repeater or more as necessary to cover all the important areas.

Is there a problem with daisy-chaining repeaters? IE finding the distant range of the signal from a repeater and then using another repeater to extend the range even further?

I think I am overthink this just a bit, but htis company is pretty big and I'm just trying to look sharp and pull this off right the first time in the hopes of getting more work fo rhtem.

Jack

[cyberskye]

combineation of 128-bit WEP encyption as well as MAC filtering
Make sure you test the outside area with a scanner - the sidewalkl in front, whatever. By creating such a wide area, you may have as much coverage outside as inside hte building.

128bit WEP is no where near secure. MAC filtering helps, but you can intercept/fake those too. It's much better if people can only do this from inside the building :)

[Blisster]

Its an office on the 3rd or 4th floor of a secured downtown office building, so hopefully that will make it difficult for anyone to get access without getting into the building.
What sort of security measures would you recommend, and also what do you think of the AP/repeater strategy?

[Ghosthunter]

I have a few questions first. What is their budget for doing this? Do they want to do it right and spend the money or really being cheap? I know how mid to large size companies work most want it as cheap as possible, but you have to have someone sell it why you need to spend the bucks and get the right equiment and plan it right.

One thing I would do is drop the linksys wireless..or drop the cisco..having a mixture can cause conflicts and issues I found especially in a wireless environment.

Here is a good diagram I found:

http://members.speedguide.net/ghosthunter/casap_d3.jpg

In all honesty I have never setup that large of a Wireless environment before so knowledge is not as strong. I would love to do it at work, but they are still paranoid of security and who can blame them I would be too. Now that we all got blackberrys the need for it has been less, because 95% of the work the mgmt needs is email.

[Blisster]

well im deploying this solution tomorrw, One Linksys WAP54G with a signal booster and 2 Cisco Aironet 1100 access points set as repeaters. Hope it works