[talk] Wireless Setup in New Office

[Isaac (.ike) Levy]

> On Nov 3, 2016, at 11:41 PM, Cody Hess <cody.hess at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I've been tasked with quality control on our office's wifi setup (no experience).
> 
> We'll be serving less than 100 people in a 2500 square foot space with one significant wall.
> 
> We've got a 1Gbps connection running into a Nokia 7368 ISAM ONT G-240G-C -- http://www.alfa2mil9.com/_InfPDF/Nokia/pol.pdf -- connected to a Ubiquiti EdgeRouter Lite -- https://www.ubnt.com/edgemax/edgerouter-lite/ -- connected to a Ubiquiti wifi access point -- https://www.amazon.com/Enterprise-System-UBIQUITI-NETWORKS-UAP-LR/dp/B00HXT8S9G .
> 
> We're getting another access point today and my initial thought is that this will be sufficient. I want to tell my people, "Thumbs up. This is good internet."
> 
> ​Has anyone got suggestions or criticism, or am I good to go?​
> 
> ​-Cody​


One big suggestion: for that many people, more access points may be necessary…  (If I read this right, you'll have 2x AP’s).

Wireless in an NYC office is really challenging, and mileage varies greatly depending on neighbors, the composition of the glass for your windows and exterior walls, how close you are to the street (all those smartphones trying to connect to your AP’s), etc…

With that, I’d really suggest figuring out how to solicit as much continued easy feedback from people as possible, to find dead spots, or bad times of day, etc.

Also: be careful to set people’s expectations on 802.11ac speeds- the Ubiquiti gear is good for a few users at the new hot speeds, but in my experience they collapse at 15 users.  If stability is your aim, be sure there’s both 802.11b (using 2.4ghz radio) and 802.11g (using 2.4 and 5ghz radio) all in the mix!

—
One last thing, I hate recommending vendors- but if the Ubiquiti gear starts to collapse under load, I just had an awesome experience with the Engenius lineup, using their POE managed controller switches, to cover 9 access points (802.11ac was important).  For the price, their latest 2016 gear was shockingly on par with the high end stuff.  We actually tested AP's against Rukus and Meraki, and the Engenius gear held up with the big brands- albeit a few rough edges, more annoying firmware update process, and less sexy package.)  In this office btw, new Ubiquiti gear was the incumbent- and straight up couldn’t handle the load.

Good luck slinging those packets!

Best,
.ike