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    Need help finding a harden Access point

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Wireless
    14 Posts 8 Posters 7.6k Views
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    • jahonixJ
      jahonix
      last edited by

      NOT to stirr up something here…
      Beware of products with the Netg... brand on it!

      Several forum users (including me) had nothing but trouble with APs and switches from that company.
      For a cheap W-LAN AP use a Linksys WRT54GL. Works 99% of the time.
      You can easily get rid of the housing and put that device in an outdoor housing on a pole somewhere.

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      • H
        hoba
        last edited by

        I personally really never had any issues with netgear products. However dlink didn't work very good for me. In fact I'll never buy anything from dlink again ;-)

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        • F
          fastcon68
          last edited by

          Great looking products.  How many per building would you you recommend?
          RC

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          • GruensFroeschliG
            GruensFroeschli
            last edited by

            Depends on your building.
            If you're in a bunker you'll need one for every room.

            I'd take a look at where the WLAN is needed and plan from there how you might have best connectivity.

            We do what we must, because we can.

            Asking questions the smart way: http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

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            • jahonixJ
              jahonix
              last edited by

              Another important part is the antenna, of course!
              A high gain omni might be well suited, but WLAN coverage basically is YOUR homework and largely depends on building structure and area to cover.
              Sectoral antennas are another possibility.

              Having said that, if you have to design coverage patterns and need flawless handover between the cells nothing beats Cisco Aeronets.
              I have home owners with wireless Crestron touchpanels that need seemless handover urgently. The touchpanels cannot cope with it otherwise…

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              • R
                rsw686
                last edited by

                @jahonix:

                For a cheap W-LAN AP use a Linksys WRT54GL. Works 99% of the time.
                You can easily get rid of the housing and put that device in an outdoor housing on a pole somewhere.

                Guess everyone has something bad to say about every company. My WRT54G wireless will randomly crap out. I have unplug / plug it in to get it working again. With DD-WRT firmware it does this once every couple of months. Still unacceptable in my opinion.

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                • B
                  b00gz
                  last edited by

                  Use Tomato instead of DD-WRT it won't lock up on you.

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                  • jahonixJ
                    jahonix
                    last edited by

                    The hardware of the different versions slightly differs. WRT54GL has more flash and ram like the old WRT54G v1 had.

                    We use DD-WRT on it in a mil. environment acting as APs for Crestron touchpanels. Those panels are known to be quite picky about APs but work flawlessly ever since. (Well, once Crestron sorted out their W-Lan problems…)

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                    • F
                      fastcon68
                      last edited by

                      Has anyone taken a business grade access oing and put it in a exteral housing?  Also does any know of a N class device with removable antenna's.

                      RC

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                      • L
                        lsf
                        last edited by

                        You might want to check out wilibox.com, they have boards, firmware, cards and outdoor enclosures, as well as PSU with builtin PoE feeder. Expect to pay 500$ + for such a solution, it's better then most other stuff tho.

                        -lsf

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                        • jahonixJ
                          jahonix
                          last edited by

                          @fastcon68:

                          Has anyone taken a business grade access oing and put it in a exteral housing?

                          What about an ALIX3c3  http://www.pcengines.ch/alix3c3.htm  with appropriate W-LAN card
                          and put it into an outdoor housing  http://www.pcengines.ch/case2c.htm

                          Don't know if one can call it business grade but I'd suspect that. Are draft-N mini-PCI W-Lan cards available?

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                          • dotdashD
                            dotdash
                            last edited by

                            @jahonix:

                            Are draft-N mini-PCI W-Lan cards available?

                            They're starting to show up. Here's a rebranded Wistron draft-n card with an Atheros chipset:
                            http://discountechnology.com/Netegriti-802-11n-802-11g-802-11b-802-11a-Turbo-Mini-PCI-Wireless-Card
                            By the time there is software support for N, they should be pretty easy to find.

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