Setting up new network for the church (HELP!)

[Twanks]

I don't think anyone actually understands what I'm saying.

Router->switch->access point
->access point

Of course Wireless N can perform well, look above. This is what I've been trying to say. If you don't think this is how well designed networks are put together, then I'm wasting my time. I'll refrain from commenting on the boards. Everyone go link up Airport Extremes from the beginning of your network.

[Gracetech]

Twanks i don't think anyone is disagreeing that a wired backbone is a good idea on any network. I'll take a wire any day when i'm doing my real work at a desktop. When you are doing office work wireless is completely fine.

Reality of 802.11n is that it tops out around 150megabits per the specification. Manufactures will ofcourse add in some secret spice to rev it up in pulses but will ignore that for now. The important thing to remember when adding in wireless coverage to your area is not everyone is going to have an 802.11n radio in their device so the next two points are important to follow at minimum the 802.11g spec. So in deciding in role out you want to keep in mind both range and traffic. You want to make sure your devices are overlapping enough to have good coverage. You will also want to make sure that if you have any high traffic areas that you know devices you have can support that many connections at once, if not add another at the same location. Access points can only carry a limited number of simultaneous connections so if you are wanting to say add public wifi for a church that might be easy if you just think about normal work day needs but if you have a congregation over a 1000 then it becomes a challenge. You may need 2 to 3 access point in close proximity just to handle volume of connections not to mention traffic.

I'm sure there are some better primers than that out on the web but i felt like throwing that out there.

crt

[rkresge]

Originally Posted by Twanks

I don't think anyone actually understands what I'm saying.

Router->switch->access point
->access point

Of course Wireless N can perform well, look above. This is what I've been trying to say. If you don't think this is how well designed networks are put together, then I'm wasting my time. I'll refrain from commenting on the boards. Everyone go link up Airport Extremes from the beginning of your network.

I'm sorry if I have offended you, which was not my intention. I did see what appeared to be some technical issues with your post, and pointed out that my experience does not agree with some of what I thought you were saying. Should I not do that?

Blessings,

Roger

[rkresge]

Griffin,

I've reviewed your posts several times and I'm still not totally sure what you were saying, although you were very clear about not building around a wireless core.

Back to the main topic in general. FWIW, I manage the network of a public school district - when we do wireless it's an entirely separate VLAN and we use Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers, but that gets expensive in a hurry when you start looking at if for a church network. However, a small router can do a very nice job of isolating a wireless network. Some WAPs can also support multiple SSIDs and VLANs, which can help you keep internal secure traffic isolated from public nonsecure traffic.

Some people at my own church have been asking for public WIFI, which won't happen until I have the budget to COMPLETELY isolate it from our existing office network. Financials, membership, payroll - all kinds of stuff is on our internal network and that must remain secure no matter what.

One early suggestion in this thread was to put a firewall between the public WIFI and the internal network. That may be a bit of overkill, depending on the capabilities of the wireless router/WAP you use.

In doing wireless today for my church I would do 802.11n, and while I'm at it provide 802.11g. At school we still need to support both n and g because we still have a number of older laptops with internal wireless.

Blessings!

Roger

[blonborg]

That's what I've done in my church.

Originally Posted by rkresge

One early suggestion in this thread was to put a firewall between the public WIFI and the internal network.

I have a separate VLAN for WIFI and a firewall that prevents traffic from that VLAN to access the office network.

Bill

[SLJ Audio]

The issue with wireless is 3 fold V.S. a wired option, to slow and not so secure.

1. Wireless is a single collision domain.
2. Wireless is not full duplex (it is half)
3. Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection (CSMA/CD) protocol.
Like waiting at a 4 way stop sign for other cars to make the decision to go, or not.

Also using many AP on Channels 1 6 and 11 only.

If your area has someone else on any of the channels, you also suffer bandwidth loss.

so in the short and long, Adding a wire is secure and faster (And easily scalable)

[rkresge]

Originally Posted by SLJ Audio

3. Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection (CSMA/CD) protocol.

Just a quick note: I'm fairly certain that wireless is CSMA/CA (Collision Avoidance). Wired is CSMA/CD. Collision detection really does not work in a wireless environment.

Unless you meant to say that wired is CSMA/CD but wireless is not.

Blessings!

Roger

[EricE]

I think it's crazy to go wifi only, but not everyone can run cable right away so I understand. I would still at least have longer-term plans to eventually hardwire all your workstation locations.

For wifi - I highly recommend Ubiquiti Unify: Looking for a great wifi solution that won't cost a fortune?

It doesn't cost much more than consumer grade gear - and it definitely is much more manageable!

For your general network setup I would recommend:

CableModem -> Router/Firewall -> Switches/Network infrastructure

For a router/firewall, I use and love pfSense. You can setup and configure a basic configuration from wizards and a GUI. My recent post about pfSense: Forcing Intranet Traffic to use specific WAN provider

If you want to partition off on a separate segment for your financial people, you can come off a second interface on your pfSense box, or use VLANs - but you will require more than an unmanaged switch. Luckily managed switches are very affordable these days so it's not as big a deal as it once was.

Unifi supports multiple physical networks or VLANS as well as SSIDs so you could even have a separate wifi network just for your financial people.