Need WiFi Router Buying Advice for Small Business

[evlgamer]

Good morning,

I have been asked to help a friend upgrade the network at her bar, here are the goals we have:

• Three logically separate WiFi networks
  • Management Network: This would be for the managers and staff to use, would have the point-of-sale machines on it, as well as office printers and the NAS appliance. I should note that both the PoS registers as well as the NAS are wired, so the management WiFi network should be the same one that services the wired ports on the router. It is very important that this network not be accessible by anyone on either of the other two networks.
  • Audio Network: As you'd expect, this one is for the audio hardware which is sub-contracted out.
  • Customer / Guest Network: For patrons of the bar to connect to. Important that no users connected to this one be able to see anything on either of the other two. It is also important that we be able to restrict the bandwidth usage of the customer network so that it can't ever crowd out either the Audio or Management networks.
• Ability to create subnets
  • An odd requirement of the point of sale hardware is that the receipt printers be on a different subnet from the registers themselves. No clue why, but its' how they are designed. So I need to be able to create a subnet for the printers, they are in fact wired rather than wireless if that matters.

I hope that all makes sense. I am no expert, and so some searching around on Amazon I found two models that seem like they would serve our purposes? Looking for any advice you guys have!

1. NETGEAR Nighthawk X6 AC3200
   
   
2. ASUS RT-AC3200
   

 

[degrub]

Good morning,

I have been asked to help a friend upgrade the network at her bar, here are the goals we have:

• Three logically separate WiFi networks
  • Management Network: This would be for the managers and staff to use, would have the point-of-sale machines on it, as well as office printers and the NAS appliance. I should note that both the PoS registers as well as the NAS are wired, so the management WiFi network should be the same one that services the wired ports on the router. It is very important that this network not be accessible by anyone on either of the other two networks.
  • Audio Network: As you'd expect, this one is for the audio hardware which is sub-contracted out.
  • Customer / Guest Network: For patrons of the bar to connect to. Important that no users connected to this one be able to see anything on either of the other two. It is also important that we be able to restrict the bandwidth usage of the customer network so that it can't ever crowd out either the Audio or Management networks.
• Ability to create subnets
  • An odd requirement of the point of sale hardware is that the receipt printers be on a different subnet from the registers themselves. No clue why, but its' how they are designed. So I need to be able to create a subnet for the printers, they are in fact wired rather than wireless if that matters.

I hope that all makes sense. I am no expert, and so some searching around on Amazon I found two models that seem like they would serve our purposes? Looking for any advice you guys have!

1. NETGEAR Nighthawk X6 AC3200
   
   
2. ASUS RT-AC3200

Hire a network design/install professional who will guarantee meeting the specs. It will save time, reduce reliability and security issues, and keep you home at night ;-)

 

[thiggins]

Consumer Wi-Fi routers won't do. You need a router capable of multiple VLANs with DHCP servers for each. You will probably need multiple access points, especially if you are going to offer Wi-Fi to patrons.

If you're not comfortable with this, urge her to hire a pro. You really don't want to be on the hook if things are incorrectly set up and someone gets into the "management" LAN, hacks the PoS and financial record systems.

 

[sfx2000]

Consumer Wi-Fi routers won't do. You need a router capable of multiple VLANs with DHCP servers for each. You will probably need multiple access points, especially if you are going to offer Wi-Fi to patrons.

If you're not comfortable with this, urge her to hire a pro. You really don't want to be on the hook if things are incorrectly set up and someone gets into the "management" LAN, hacks the PoS and financial record systems.

The registers (POS terminals) are the primary concern - Payment Card Compliance is fairly strict here with most card processors.

Like @thiggins mentions - at least three VLAN's, one for the registers, one for the backoffice, and then the customer/patron WLAN...

Find a pro - in most areas, there will be domain experts that have the qualifications and certificates to support small businesses like this..