Temporary Wirless LAN at Hotel

[MikeD727]

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?

 

[thetoad30]

Are you set on your routers you're choosing?

I have a couple of other ideas for you if not:

1) Can you buy a white or beige cable and then run that cable along the ceiling to prevent safety issues? Using painter's tape or 3M command strips or something of the like?

2) Have you taken a look at the Engenius products? They are definitely good products and would last you a while. Using a dedicated link would be preferrable here, as it will reduce the load on the wireless part of the communication, and allow the APs to do their job serving the clients, while the bridges do their job of transmitting the traffic.

And no laughing here - I used to (and still have) my WRT54G with DD-WRT on it. Those were the days where DD-WRT actually worked and did a good job with all the additional features. Back in the days where they remembered they were there for the enthusiast, not the big corporation. Anyway...

 

[MikeD727]

Any equipment suggestions are appreciated! Keep em coming! Our "Company" is only 2 people...and neither one of us is a networking pro. We just do the best we can and learn from our mistakes on a shoestring budget.

Running a physical cable is not normally an option at the hotel...we have been in lobbies with super high ceilings and the hotel won't allow us to run cable for safety reasons....so the wireless bridge is the best option for us.

Would using our Linksys WET610N bridge plugged into the LAN port of the 2nd router reduce the load on the wirlessly bridged LAN?

 

[jdabbs]

Wireless backhaul is risky--what are you going to do if a trade show has a competing wireless deployment? I've done a handful of conferences, and every hotel has given us access to their wiring closet. Have them dedicate a few ports on their switch(es) to a new VLAN, patch in your sites, and you're done.

 

[thetoad30]

Any equipment suggestions are appreciated! Keep em coming! Our "Company" is only 2 people...and neither one of us is a networking pro. We just do the best we can and learn from our mistakes on a shoestring budget.

Running a physical cable is not normally an option at the hotel...we have been in lobbies with super high ceilings and the hotel won't allow us to run cable for safety reasons....so the wireless bridge is the best option for us.

Would using our Linksys WET610N bridge plugged into the LAN port of the 2nd router reduce the load on the wirlessly bridged LAN?

I would actually use the bridge as the bridge, and then the wireless router as the AP. This then lets the devices serve their purpose instead of trying to do something they weren't really meant to do.

I would definitely look into a dedicated bridge system for your setup. If you find the bridge working with the WET610, then you might be okay. However, I would be very nervous that this will eventually fail you. You really want to have a dual-band bridge system (use 5GHz when you can, and if you're going through too many walls, default back to 2.4GHz) and then APs to serve up your clients.

It's a shame you can't run a wire, but I also understand the safety constraints.

Is there a way to do a kind of local wire system? Where you wire up the APs to the hotel wire system? This way your APs are all connected via wire, but you still get the benefits of having the wireless clients in the individual areas?

So the reception area would have an AP wired to an Ethernet jack, that then goes to the closet, that then is on the same switch/VLAN for your wireless AP in the ballroom? This would eliminate the wireless backhaul and provide you with the same benefits as running your own wire.

Another option might be to try Powerline devices. This would again allow data to flow through wires instead of wireless, and could save you some cash over the Engenius solutions.