Re: OT: setting up public wifi

["John L. Ries" <jries@salford-systems.com>]

I actually had a similar job when my wife asked me to set up public WiFi
for her yarn shop (her office and mine are also on site).  What I ended up 
doing was to use two routers; the "outer" (public) router being connected 
directly to the Internet, and the inner (private) one connected to the 
outer one using NAS.  It works fine, except that my VOIP box has to be 
outside of both routers.

It might work better, however, to connect each router separately to the 
ISP's interface if that's supported.

--------------------------|
John L. Ries              |
Salford Systems           |
Phone: (619)543-8880 x107 |
or     (435)867-8885      |
--------------------------|


On Tue, 28 Jan 2014, Rob Owens wrote:

> I need to set up wifi in a church, and share the wifi with the rectory (a
> separate building).  I've been doing some research, but am looking advice to
> help me get through this quicker.
>
> Here's what I'm thinking about so far:
>
> 1)  Get a router that has a "guest" account, or some other internet-only
> connection mode.  The church offices will be using the same network, so I
> want to keep the general public from doing things like accessing file
> shares, using printers, etc.  I probably want one with dual antennas, and at
> least one must be detachable so I can hook up an outdoor antenna (see #2,
> below).
>
> 2)  Use an outdoor antenna to send signal to the rectory.  I'm not sure of
> the exact distance yet (because I'm not sure where it will be possible to
> mount the antenna), but it should be no more than 150 feet.  Here's a link
> to the antenna I've been thinking about: 
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833995096
>
> 3)  If signal in the rectory is weak, use a range extender in the rectory,
> possibly with an outdoor antenna.  The rectory is small and won't need more
> than a single access point.
>
> 4)  In the church I will need to use either range extenders or multiple
> access points.  Maximum bandwidth is not as high a priority as being able to
> handle many users.  So I'm not sure if it makes sense to go with the 802.11n
> 150 mbps or 300 mbps.  And I'm not sure if I should go the easy route and
> use range extenders or if I should hard wire multiple access points to the
> router.
>
> Here are some of the range extenders and access points I've been looking at:
>
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833704192
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833704187
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833704048
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA24G1732603
>
> 5)  The church has concrete floors and outside walls.  An addition was
> recently built, and a couple of the old concrete outside walls are now
> inside walls.  The rest of the inside walls are sheetrock.  The addition has
> drop ceiling tiles, so I can run some wires up there.  That won't be
> possible in the old part of the church.  The rectory is wood frame
> construction with vinyl siding over plywood, and sheetrock interior walls. 
>
> I'd appreciate any advice you guys can give. 
>
> -Rob