Student Flats network, any advice appreciated!

[Fl3tch]

I've taken on a small project for a friend networking his new block of flats. Its going to be rented to students (7 flats, 13 people). I met with the electrician who has just installed the cat 5 cabling. I think there will be a single connection in each flat which all merges in an electrical room.

My idea so far is to get a 100Mb connection into the building from which I'll set up a switch distributing the connection to each flat and whack a wireless extender on the end.

My main concerns are:
1) Is a broadband package like this going to suffice.
2) Is there anything I can do to prevent one user hogging to much bandwidth?
3) Am I missing anything glaringly obvious?

any feedback would be hugely appreciated. Thanks

 

[thiggins]

1) Is a broadband package like this going to suffice.

Assuming you can keep a cap on Torrenting and other P2P usage, it should. Or put another way, consumption will rise to whatever level you provide.

2) Is there anything I can do to prevent one user hogging to much bandwidth?

Yes. Choose a router with bandwidth management features. See Taming Your Network's Bandwidth Hogs - Part 1 and Taming Your Network's Bandwidth Hogs - Part 2.

Also, use the Router Finder and look for products with QoS Type and Direction set to Both.

 

[Jesse B]

As long as you use some sort of QoS you should be alright. Managed 100Mbit switches are dirt cheap, and generally have QoS options. You may want to consider this route.