Meetinghouse "commercial" WAP installations

[Mikerowaved]

Nope. But some of us might be trying to do seamless coverage of one or more buildings. One of those guys would be me.

If you are ever in the area, you are cordially invited to tour our building in Layton with your notebook PC and see if it meets your standard.

Please help me, Mr. Moderator. I'm simply asking that we stick to commercial installs here. Is that possible?

You are asking for anyone with experience with a full blown commercial wireless install in a church building and I'm trying to point out you might not find one. What stake has that kind of excess money?

As an engineer I was constantly faced with the old challenge of, "Do I buy it or build it?" At some breaking point DIY makes sense. Absolutely, other times it doesn't. The phrase, "Why buy it for $10 when you can build it for $100?" was unfortunately true in some cases. We learned the hard way not to be focused on one solution to the exclusion of the other.

How about someone starting another thread called Meetinghouse "DIY" WAP installations? The intriguing discussions about clever homebrew antennas and $59 WAPS could go on over there. Here we could just have the boring, commercial stuff ...

I don't mind. I'm just surprised you seem to not be very flexible to alternative solutions.

Can we have a show of hands, who has hired professional wireless installers to survey and map out a church building, then perform the installation? (I'm not being facetious, I'm very much interested in others experiences as well.)

[eyoungberg-p40]

Thanks for the query!

If you are ever in the area, you are cordially invited to tour our building in Layton with your notebook PC and see if it meets your standard.

Thank you! Gas prices being what they are I will likely not be making that trip anytime soon, but I do appreciate the offer.

You are asking for anyone with experience with a full blown commercial wireless install in a church building and I'm trying to point out you might not find one. What stake has that kind of excess money?

I am asking (and I will never get there unless I do ask) for a little more than that. Not only am I encouraging responders to the call for commercial installs, but I would like a place here at the forum where we can post them, for all to see. I continue to maintain that a commerial wireless installation is a valid approach, preferable in some instances. And in many cases, it is not exess money, but a planned expense that underlies a greater purpose.

It is not inflexibility. It is more options, and more information. Once we (the stake presidency and I) make the choice about what to do, then it gets much more inflexible.

[eyoungberg-p40]

I also appreciate the need to learn from one another of what basically works, and what works very well, so we can help those soon to follow.

We just completed the WiFi installation into the three buildings in our stake using commercial equipment. The documentation for setup in each of the buildings, including signal coverage reports, is available here.

The system has been up and operating for more than 8 months now. I wanted to get some time on it before making the docuemntation available.

All the best!

Eric

[pilling]

In our business of Emergency Offices with Satellite Internet for remote camps, we use the
BelAir20 Access Point
BelAir100 Wireless Multi-Service Node
http://belairnetworks.com/products/
If we were to use this in our Stake Center, run cat5e wire from the Stake Offices down in the return air tunnels, then up the return air columns to the Chapel/Gym furnaces over the foyer to locate this access point. There are also air tunnels that would allow hard wire to the Sat room for another access point at that end of the building if still needed. That would also give us a network location for the camera for Stake Conference.
In a Ward meeting house they would be located over the gym/Chapel Furnaces also.
These are the systems used in hotels to get them Wi-FI.
Wireless Mesh for Hotels and Resorts
http://belairnetworks.com/resources/pdf ... mall%2Epdf
see their webcast link
http://belairnetworks.com/webcasts/

[danpass]

If we were to use this in our Stake Center, run cat5e wire from the Stake Offices down in the return air tunnels, then up the return air columns to the Chapel/Gym furnaces over the foyer to locate this access point. There are also air tunnels that would allow hard wire to the Sat room for another access point at that end of the building if still needed. That would also give us a network location for the camera for Stake Conference.
In a Ward meeting house they would be located over the gym/Chapel Furnaces also.

A word of caution when pulling cable through air tunnels. In most areas, building codes require the use of plenum cable and/or conduit when the cable runs through any part of the building's HVAC system. Also, care should be taken when pulling cable between non-plenum and plenum spaces to avoid compromising barriers between those spaces. As always, this kind of work should only be performed with authorization from your Facilities Management group supervisor.

[kylejhunt-p40]

I'm in the process of cabling 3 of our Ward buildings for WiFi, and after completing the first one I vowed to never do it again! Unless you can get a group of knowledgeable guys there to help, it takes WAY too long and is WAY too involved for one person. Sure it can be done, but it's a lot of work....and then the maintenance begins. From my perspective the church doesn't call a "Stake Air Conditioning Expert" to install/repair the air conditioning, so why should they burden someone for all their "technology" installations/repairs. I have no problem helping when I can, but now that we have 2 of our 5 buildings equipped w/ internet I get 1-5 calls per week w/ questions/problems. I have a full-time job and a young family so my time is already limited. I understand why we are asked to do it (it's MUCH cheaper), but I don't think it's fair. I highly recommend you plan your installs carefully, and if getting it done by a professional isn't an option, make sure you have help!

[applestamps-p40]

Does anyone have any suggestions for wireless hardware? I see that Wireless routers are significantly less than WAPs, so I will likely be buying those.

I am concerned about the concrete walls in some of our older buildings in the stake and would like to get the best coverage possible.

Are there any brands or models that might work better than others?

I'm open to any and all suggestions, and I won't hold it against anyone if I buy something and it doesn't work for me.

Thanks for your help.

[natedavis]

Our Stake uses these:

http://www.ubnt.com/products/picostation.php

I purchased some of the Nano stations to setup a WiFi Bridge for work and loved the simple nature of these products. The web interface is amazing and really allows for all sorts of options.

The Range is great, and they run about $60...

I purchased them from here:
http://www.streakwave.com/Itemdesc.asp?ic=Pico2

They run over PoE, and come with a PoE Adapter. The PicoStation doesn't use the standard 48v PoE though, so you do have to use their custom adapter.

[mrusson-p40]

Dear gang,
We recently wired 3 of our buildings for broadband internet, and ended up using the Cisco WAP200 http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10048/index.html access points for those areas that needed wireless. They can be set up to broadcast multiple SSID's as well if you want to have a private and public connection at the same time from the WAP. They have been very nice and have good range.
The Stake Center we installed them in was built in 1976 and as such has block walls throughout. This generally causes issues with WIFI, so we elected to place them above the areas in the attic space.
The ASA5505 Church Managed Firewall has two POE (power over ethernet) ports which are ports 7 and 8 on the rear of the firewall. The Cisco WAP200 access points can be powered by either DC current if you have a plug close by, or you can connect them to the POE ports on the back of the ASA5505 in order to power them. They are priced at about 115 to 130 depending on your area. Power over ethernet is a great way to get equipment in the attic space without worrying about electrical cords or wiring up there. Hope this helps someone.

[brayl-p40]

Does anyone have any suggestions for wireless hardware? I see that Wireless routers are significantly less than WAPs, so I will likely be buying those.

Check my page

http://www.brayl.com/church/wireless/

I use the Buffalo WHR-HP-G54 it's vary versatile and cheap.