wireless network at work

[bodypilot90 0]

At my work, a school bus garage all our repair manuals are on line. I've asked that we get a wireless network so we can have the manual were we work. I was told that it can't be done by my boss. What would a system like that cost. we have 2 shops. One with 3 bays and a 2ed with 12 bays. We have a T1 conection at work. Help!!

[hookitt 1]

The heck it can't. I'm on a laptop right now using wireless... it's easy.

Buy somthing like THIS and plug it in to the data jack in the wall and read the instruction manual.

If you have a desktop computer, then buy something like This

You'll need at least one router per shop ... and a network card for each computer.

That's the easy way. Give it a shot.

My grammar sometimes resembles that of magnetic refrigerator poetry... Ghetto

[bodypilot90 0]

well they are saying the range is to small. I think he's full of something and it's not information

[flyangel2 2]

I have one of those things that Hook posted a link to. It's downstairs in my son's room and I'm covered all over the house.

I do lose the signal for just a second sometimes, but only in the evenings, not sure why that happens.

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds. - Edward Abbey

[cvfd1399 0]

They make "high gain" antennas for range problems. Some of them such as the LINKSYS are as simple as unplugging the included antenna on the router and plugging in a taller fatter one top boost range. The more complicated ones can get thousands of feet of range. It is possible, it is all a matter of wanting change, and money.

[bob.dino 1]

What are the dimensions of the shops? Are the internal walls solid brick or plaster on a wooden frame? Ditto the external walls? Are the shops side by side or some distance apart?

[RevJim 0]

Quote

I do lose the signal for just a second sometimes, but only in the evenings, not sure why that happens.

Do you have a cordless phone?

If so, is it 2.4 ghz?

In IT on campus, we had wireless issues constantly. The router would just shut down on its own, and we would have to manually reset it every time. I finally figured out it happened every time one of us used the cordless phone in support. Swapped the phones to the new 5.8 ghz's and the problem went away.

Might/might not be your problem, but easy to look into.

It's your life, live it!
Karma
RB#684 "Corcho", ASK#60, Muff#3520, NCB#398, NHDZ#4, C-33989, DG#1

[champu 1]

If range is a big issue, and you're buying all new hardware, I'd look into products adopting 802.11n technologies.

While the speed of the standard will be bumped up ~2x from g->n, range is the biggest issue being addressed.

[flyangel2 2]

Nope, the wirless phone is not being used when I lose the connection. It really isn't an issue if I'm not in the pub.

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds. - Edward Abbey

[RevJim 0]

mmmmmm, n.... Range increases, handy in large venues too, like the WFFC.

Mar, you actually don't need to be using the phone for it to interfere. Just having it plugged in can cause enough collisions to kill a connection. Plug in a regular phone for a while, and see how your connection does. Like I said, easy to rule out.

It's your life, live it!
Karma
RB#684 "Corcho", ASK#60, Muff#3520, NCB#398, NHDZ#4, C-33989, DG#1

[ChasingBlueSky 0]

Quote

Nope, the wirless phone is not being used when I lose the connection. It really isn't an issue if I'm not in the pub.

A microwave in use in the area will also cause a signal to drop.

_________________________________________
you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me....
I WILL fly again.....

[PhreeZone 20]

N has its own set of issues.

BIG deal for employers is making sure the wireless network is encrypted. If not any joe on the street can read all the data on the network and that includes confidential data like emails and other internal data. The issue is that once you start introducing encrytion keys it makes it a whole lot harder to troubleshoot issues.

I actually wrote company policy that said that wireless networks were not permitted and anyone found running one would be terminated.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[aftermid 0]

Some thing like this http://www.dealtime.com/xPF-Linksys_Wireless_G_Access_Point_WAP54G would probably be a bit more effective, because it doesn't have a router built-in. The T1 line should have a Cisco type professional router managed by the T1 provider. You should also be able to effecivly cluster/bridge multiple ones of these. It also offers some pretty descent security settings i.e. MAC address authtenication.

[flyangel2 2]

Nope, it's just me at home in the evenings most of the time when the signal gets dropped.

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds. - Edward Abbey

[ChasingBlueSky 0]

Quote

Nope, it's just me at home in the evenings most of the time when the signal gets dropped.

I have a similar problem - what I have found in my research is that Windows XP has some issues with rotating the encryption keys and a signal can be dropped. It seems to happen the least with WEP and the most with WPA. One way I made it less annoying was extending the length of time before it has to change keys.

Before I found this out I tried anything from unplugging the phone and microwave and adding on a -6db high gain. I was even tempted to purchase a new wireless card that allowed me to add a directional antennae on it.

_________________________________________
you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me....
I WILL fly again.....

[flyangel2 2]

Yea, like I understand any of what you said

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds. - Edward Abbey

[RevJim 0]

Quote

Yea, like I understand any of what you said

But geek is soooo sexy.

Basically, run a wire to fix the boo boos.

It's your life, live it!
Karma
RB#684 "Corcho", ASK#60, Muff#3520, NCB#398, NHDZ#4, C-33989, DG#1

[op5e 0]

I think the largest cost would be the computers/laptops in each of the bays. You can get cheap access points now days, and there are a number of wireless cards available just go to the local computer shop.

The biggest thing I would worry about is having an open network, so get someone who knows what they are doing to make sure that only your computers can access the network/internet. Else you might get into trouble if people access illegal sites etc.. Also as suggested depending on your information encryption may be needed.

Feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions.

[bodypilot90 0]

we already have the laptops with wireless cards

[bodypilot90 0]

it's a metal shop with 12 bays big enough for school busses. No walls between bays. The shops are 15 miles apart but both have T1 hook ups

[op5e 0]

I think you will have some problems of loss. If you look at the links I PMd you metal and glass create large amounts of loss for the RF signal (hence why some wardrivers placed antennas outside the car). Some of these can be overcome by having multiple antennas (or APs) or position of antennas. If you PM me more details how you envision (sp?) using the laptops (ie fully mobile or just on one desk). Possibily you could find a friend who already has an AP and test how the strength/loss is. Please let me know how you go and PM me if you have any further questions.