I am excited about my first post in SmallNetBuilder. I have been reading the great articles in Wireless Basics and want to share my plan for building a wireless network at a hotel to get your feedback before purchasing the new equipment. Thank you for your suggestions or comments.
SETUP
Currently, we setup a wireless LAN at hotels across the country over the weekend for event registration. We typically have 12-20 laptops/tablets wirelessly connected to the main registration router (about 15 feet away) in the registration area. We extend the network between 100 and 300 feet depending on the hotel layout to the hotel ballroom where we have another 20 laptop/tablets wirelessly connected to a wireless access point. All the laptops/tablets are relatively close to their respective wireless access points...the big distance is between the registration router and ballroom access point. The primary purpose of the network is to share registration information across the different devices. A few of the laptops may need basic web surfing but nothing more. The wireless speeds we see with our existing a/b/g network have been OK but we would like to get closer to a wired 100 Mbps Ethernet connection which is more than sufficient.
CURRENT NETWORK
Don't laugh but we currently use two WRT54GL routers with DD-WRT so the second router can act as a wireless bridge. The range is not all that great when trying to extend the network from registration to the ballroom...and the hotels don't often allow us to connect the two points by an Ethernet cable because of foot traffic / safety. We use identical routers and have a third as a backup in case one router is broken during shipping or setup.
PROPOSED NETWORK
* ROUTERS: Two ASUS RT-N66U Routers connected as a wireless bridge. The extended range and throughput of these routers will hopefully be superior to our current network. Any suggestions/comments about these routers as the core of our wireless LAN?
* WIRELESS BRIDGE: Worst case we can use our Linksys WET610N in the ballroom LAN port to bridge the two routers. Best case the Asus software supports bridge mode. Middle of the road I can explore Tomato or DD-WRT. Any suggestions/comments about the wireless bridge?
* CLIENT ADAPTERS: The SmallNetBuilder articles point out that to prevent a throughput drop the older XP laptops will need N band adapters. Any suggestions on N band USB LAN adapters to purchase?
* ANTENNAS: While keeping things small and light is idea for shipping, what antennas for the ASUS RT-N66Y, if any, are worth considering to extend the effective range between registration and the ballroom?
SETUP
Currently, we setup a wireless LAN at hotels across the country over the weekend for event registration. We typically have 12-20 laptops/tablets wirelessly connected to the main registration router (about 15 feet away) in the registration area. We extend the network between 100 and 300 feet depending on the hotel layout to the hotel ballroom where we have another 20 laptop/tablets wirelessly connected to a wireless access point. All the laptops/tablets are relatively close to their respective wireless access points...the big distance is between the registration router and ballroom access point. The primary purpose of the network is to share registration information across the different devices. A few of the laptops may need basic web surfing but nothing more. The wireless speeds we see with our existing a/b/g network have been OK but we would like to get closer to a wired 100 Mbps Ethernet connection which is more than sufficient.
CURRENT NETWORK
Don't laugh but we currently use two WRT54GL routers with DD-WRT so the second router can act as a wireless bridge. The range is not all that great when trying to extend the network from registration to the ballroom...and the hotels don't often allow us to connect the two points by an Ethernet cable because of foot traffic / safety. We use identical routers and have a third as a backup in case one router is broken during shipping or setup.
PROPOSED NETWORK
* ROUTERS: Two ASUS RT-N66U Routers connected as a wireless bridge. The extended range and throughput of these routers will hopefully be superior to our current network. Any suggestions/comments about these routers as the core of our wireless LAN?
* WIRELESS BRIDGE: Worst case we can use our Linksys WET610N in the ballroom LAN port to bridge the two routers. Best case the Asus software supports bridge mode. Middle of the road I can explore Tomato or DD-WRT. Any suggestions/comments about the wireless bridge?
* CLIENT ADAPTERS: The SmallNetBuilder articles point out that to prevent a throughput drop the older XP laptops will need N band adapters. Any suggestions on N band USB LAN adapters to purchase?
* ANTENNAS: While keeping things small and light is idea for shipping, what antennas for the ASUS RT-N66Y, if any, are worth considering to extend the effective range between registration and the ballroom?