WiFi dead at school Need a quick temp workaround

[Tinribs]

HI All

We're patiently waiting for a replacement WiFi controller to get the school up and wireless again.

Several people have asked about enabling hot-spots on the school desktops so student laptops (which are actually school devices) can get to the net using teachers' mobiles. I said no to that straightaway for obvious reasons.

The next proposal was to install a wireless hub in the classroom and connect to the school network via the hub. That has got me stuck. Most cheap home hubs are their own DHCP servers so that when any school device connects they will be given an IP from the hub and not the school's DHCP setup.

Is there a way to get IP addresses from our school's DHCP server to devices that are connected to a wifi hub and therefore allow school laptops to talk to our domain etc as if they were connected to a network point in the room?

Is this do-able with NAT or some other clever way of translating IPs?

Never even thought of doing this before so no idea where to start.

[andy_b]

Cheap Access Point? https://www.amazon.co.uk/NETGEAR-Wireless-Access-Business-WAC104-100UKS/dp/B01LWUJU8H

[LeMarchand]

Whenever I've plugged a "domestic" wireless device into the school network it has worked the way you want it to, i.e. just farmed out school IPs. Judging by the sound of traffic that you're likely to get I'd be surprised if a "home" device will cope, though.

[chazzy2501]

with the Unifi system if the controller fails most things keep working. (you loose portal stuff) but connected devices stay connected and policies stay in affect.

 

What system do you have that if the controller fails you loose all connectivity?

[Norphy]

I think you're conflating two types of wireless devices:

 

1) Wireless routers/gateways, the things most people have in their homes which act as a wireless access point, a switch, a device which connects to the internet and routes traffic between its local network and the internet

2) A wireless access point which connects to an existing wired network and provides wireless coverage.

 

The first type of device acts like you say, has NAT, a DHCP server etc. The second type generally acts as a dumb network device.

 

There are a few cheap wireless access points out there which don't act as routers and don't need controllers to manage them, but they're not too common these days as most home networks use all in one devices and most enterprise networks use more powerful, expensive access points. However, there are a few like this, which will do what you want. I put an older version of that in my in-law's house and it works fine, it can work with or without a controller and doesn't do NATing or DHCP.

 

Whether it's worth spending the money then just dumping after your controller is replaced is another question. What wireless system do you have at the moment?

[Tinribs]

Thanks for all the replies. We have/had an ancient MERU MC4200 that has turned into a Norwegian Blue. We do have warranty on it and a replacement is being sought by Fortinet but this could take a while as they are a very old piece of kit. All our WAPs are MERU and will only work through the MERU controller. We can't even access them directly or find out what IP they have with the controller down (afaik). I do know the VLAN they are on and the range of IPs that they should have and haven't actually considered trying to get them on a different VLAN to allow connectivity. There are 68 though so it may not be worth it.

WE are starting a project to upgrade the entire wifi setup which is why we need a cheap temp solution rather than forking out for a new setup immediately.

This is, at the moment, just a request from one department to allow 6th formers to use their school networks...

Norphy - that WAP does look to be a possibility and I don't think the school would have an issue paying for a couple of those as a fallback. I assume config is pretty simple?

[jmak]

You mentioned phones as hotspots. Does that mean you're also missing internet access from your site or do wired devices still have access?

[Tinribs]

All wired stuff works fine. We just can't connect twenty laptops in a classroom to cables.... Not enough points, desks not situated to allow safe cable trailing across the floor etc.

[Norphy]

Norphy - that WAP does look to be a possibility and I don't think the school would have an issue paying for a couple of those as a fallback. I assume config is pretty simple?

 

Yeah, dead easy. Plug them into the network, access their web interface (if I remember right, I think they have a static IP assigned to them out of the factory so you may need work around that somehow), create a SSID and assign it a VLAN number and that's pretty much it. There isn't much to it.

 

If you'd said "Aruba" instead of "Meru" there, I'd have suggested that you'd gone out and bought an IAP. At least then, you'd be able to convert it to a standard campus AP when you're finished with it and connect it to your controller but I don't know if there's a similar option for Meru networks.

[Tinribs]

Thanks Norphy

I've proposed getting a couple of these to the BM. They can always sit unused as a fallback in the event something similar happens again. We are getting a completely new Wifi system at some point in the future so the MERU dinosaur will go along with all his little MERU compy WAPS. I suspect MARAKI will be the choice (or Ruckus) but that's above my paygrade.

I don't suppose you know what kind of coverage this device gives? Would be good to know how many we would need to get to provide skeleton coverage in key locations.

[psydii]

This is how we ended up with an Aruba wireless system. Bought a few IAPs in an emergency, and then built the rest of the network off the back of them! The 315 was the sweet spot for schools when we did it, so the 515 is probably the best long term bet right now, though if budget is tight the 315 is still a damn fine AP.

[simpsonj]

Sounds like an opportunity to trial out some different manufacturers. Might be worth getting on contact with a reseller who can arrange a trial or free AP unit. Or, whilst I personally wouldn't recommend it, Unifi equipment is pretty cheap, you get the controller part for free and other people on here use it quite happily.

[Koldov]

Do those WAPs just work as something like a Wi-Fi extender?

 

Bit hard to get around the consumer terminology when searching, like WiFi Network Extender, Range Booster, Wi-Fi repeater, Wireless Range Extenders, some are what they say they are, some aren't...

 

A while ago I had to get Wi-Fi to the end of the back garden and had an old Belkin 802.11g Wireless G Range Extender/Access Point - F5D7130uk, luckily I had a powerline adapter at the back of the house to plug in the ethernet, but it worked (just). There must be modern versions of this?

[Roberto]

We are getting a completely new Wifi system at some point in the future

 

I would suggest you ask for a requirement that failure of the controller does not mean failure of the system.

IMO, this means either a system like Unifii where the controller just pushes config and isn't required for functionality or a cloud service like Meraki. It's possible to get dual-controller systems where the failure of one controller doesn't mean the service fails (Aruba do this for example) but its not cheap.

[mavhc]

A wireless access point is a box with radios and an ethernet cable, converts between wifi and ethernet. Layer 1/2 stuff. It might have an IP address for configuring, but the clients don't care about that.

 

You could buy any random wifi router, disable dhcp, and plug your ethernet cable for the unusable WAPs into a non WAN port on it.

 

That gets you going in about an hour for a limited number of people, including driving to the shop

[Clifton]

We've an old MC3200 you can have, you'd have to factory reset etc, but you're welcome to it. DM me if you want collection info.

[Scifigirl]

We have an old Ruckus system and a boat load of access points we have replaced-- OK at a push -- give me a message if interested --- Kent based

[psydii]

I would suggest you ask for a requirement that failure of the controller does not mean failure of the system.

IMO, this means either a system like Unifii where the controller just pushes config and isn't required for functionality or a cloud service like Meraki. It's possible to get dual-controller systems where the failure of one controller doesn't mean the service fails (Aruba do this for example) but its not cheap.

 

Aruba IAP’s elect an IAP to be the controller, so are also highly resilient at a lower cost than the traditional controller based APs.

[Roberto]

Aruba IAP’s elect an IAP to be the controller, so are also highly resilient at a lower cost than the traditional controller based APs.

 

Yup. My Aruba experience is all with the traditional model so I didn’t think of the IAp model, but you’re quite right. These days I’m in a ‘meraki all the things’ kinda place, they are better imo but expensive ongoing costs.