Office expanding to space upstairs... best way to extend network?

[hungarianhc]

Hi All,

I work for a small company with about 25 people in one office. We actually have the basement of an offie building, and we're now growing to also inhabit the space above. I get assigned to be the network guy at the office... Right now our basic setup is an Asus AC3200 router downstairs hooked up to a Comcast modem. We also have a set of AV500 powerline adapters so we can have a network phone in our primary conference room.

We have grown to expand into the floor above, which doesn't get a great wireless signal. My initial thought was to switch to AV2 1200 products and put one upstairs and run an access point to it. I tried the AV500 adapter first, to make sure I could get a signal - nope. They must be on completely different "lines" or whatever, when it comes to power. Powerline networking won't work to connect the two floors. I thought there was one corner of the office where I could put a wifi extender, but that doesn't seem to work either.

Other than drilling holes and wiring ethernet, does anyone have any suggestions for a good way to get wireless access going upstairs? Thanks!

 

[System Error Message]

You can try putting one AP on the ceiling and one on the floor and using directional / point to point antennas between them than distributing it via ethernet to another AP. With directional you can use high powered APs that only some brands have. This may not work if there is a lot of metal grates between the floors.

 

[RMerlin]

When talking about office space, I always go with Ethernet. Wifi is too unreliable to be used in any serious production environment. One morning your floor neighbour might decide to set a router on channel 2, and move their 20 years old microwave oven right next to the wall where your own router is, and totally screw your entire network.

There's most likely already some kind of duct through which the phone lines are being run between floors.

 

[htismaqe]

There's most likely already some kind of duct through which the phone lines are being run between floors.

And if you don't own the building, this will likely be the only option allowed by your landlord.

 

[stevech]

IP over powerline or MoCA.
See section by that title.

Or cat5 fire-rated in the air return space going vertically.

 

[htismaqe]

He tried power line, it didn't work.

 

[stevech]

He tried power line, it didn't work.

it can work

 

[htismaqe]

While it can work, recommending it as a solution for a multi-story office building (especially when the OP said he already tried it and it didn't work) doesn't seem prudent.

 

[sfx2000]

Best thing to do here - talk with the building manager - there might already be connectivity to the new suite at the building level...

just saying... based on some experience...

 

[stevech]

Oh, I didn't realize it was not a residence.
Yeah, I wouldn't try IP on power line in a multi-story office building. MoCA is out (no coax).
A very old building would lack cat5 in the inter-floor risers.

 

[coxhaus]

You need to go with wire or fiber. I would talk with the landlord to see if something already exists which can be utilized.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

What I do for a living is provide IT services for SMBs (small to medium businesses) First (of many) question I'd have when someone asks me similar to the OP here, is "How do you use your network? Do you have any servers? Networked printers? If you have servers, what types of applications do you run? Or typical file usage, size, etc?"

I see you mention ~25 users, makes me think there is probably a server involved (I sure as hell wouldn't want to manage a 25 user workgroup!).

I then read about residential grade equipment, both being used (such as the Asus router), and suggested (such as ethernet over powerline,)..and that makes me cringe...badly!

If all you have is a workgroup and a bunch of laptops or something..heck, stick with wireless and light duty equipment. But if you have a server(s)...I'd want solid copper from business grade switches like HP ProCurves...and the server(s) wired to that via gigabit, and a proper business grade router to handle the loads of an SMB network....better yet, a UTM appliance instead of just a plain NAT router..since this is a business (think about security).