Suggestion for good wireless access point

[TechSupp]

As technology romps along one of my schools now wants to get a trolley of about 15 netbooks so I will need a good access point on the trolley. Any suggestions? Not a perfect situation but one that will do the job for what they will be using it for as they will not be having a wireless system to cover a large area and only needs wireless from desk to trolley in the same room.

 

Have used one of these on a trolley before:

Netgear WNR834M 270Mbps Wireless Router N Draft

 

But have had one of these suggested as well:

netgear-prosafe-dual-band-wireless-fwag114

[m25man]

I doubt if your netbook support N natively anyway - as you are clearly out of the Managed Wireless League why not look at the Zyxel units I have had very good results with these lately and they scale up to a mini managed system if you want.

[SimpleSi]

For single AP Buffalo WHR-HP-G54 is the answer - accept no subsitutions

 

(Latest ones come with DD-WRT (WHR-HP-G54DD) which I've just installed 7 of them at one school - so don't know if they'll be as good as previous ones yet )

 

They just do the job with 15 laptops - I use them in all my schools except the one with Ruckus (which is a slight overkill for 1 AP - but would probably work very well BTW )

 

regards

 

Simon

[SimpleSi]

PS rolling AP on trolley is so 2000's

 

Cable gets snagged/connectors get broken/teachers forget to plug it in

 

One AP/class at £50/throw is way forward

 

regards

 

Simon

[leco]

Have to agree with SimpleSi on this one. Used to have an AP on the trolley - now have one AP serving two adjacent classrooms, works a treat. However, have to add the I have a managed solution of Netgear controller and APs. Before that I had Zyxels which worked well in the places they served.

[Jose]

make sure you purchase laptops with dual band 11n cards to enable you to use 5ghz, solves all problems with interference.

Acer do good cheap laptops that come with intel 4965 cards.

 

if you insist on using a AP on a trolley then I would recommend using a Ruckus MediaFlex 7811, its a 11n 5ghz AP with some serious fire power for under 130 pounds.

 

You could then use two of these Linksys PLE200 PowerLine AV Ethernet Adapter to get back to a core switch.

 

So you plug your AP into the powerline AV ethernet adapter which plugs into your laptop trolley, you have a instruction sheet on the top of the trolley to tell staff to plug the trolley into the wall, saving them from the confusing task of fiddling around trying to plug APs into walls.

 

To help us help you could you tell us how many rooms you will be using them in and how far apart the rooms are from each other. If your going to be using four different rooms but they are located near to each other then a managed Ruckus system would offer good value

Edited February 5, 2010 by Jose

[TechSupp]

Some interesting ideas there, the classrooms are in one corridor so could possibly put an ap in each class, any suggestions?, although would that make me any better off than using just one on the trolley apart from the cable damage issue? The Ruckus option looks extremely good from the reviews I've just googled. As said can't really justify going to a managed system at the moment, maybe later if it proves that the staff really use the system.

 

Will be using the Samsung N130 which says its 802.11bg/n Compliant (not up to speed on wireless spec. so not sure how good this is and compatible to the suggestions).

 

SimpleSi, seen that you are using the n130's and a Ruckus environment, any more problems or did the ruckus update solve them?

Edited February 5, 2010 by TechSupp

[Edu-IT]

Just wondering.. do you always need a ZD in a Ruckus setup or can you use the AP's on their own?

[SimpleSi]

Will be using the Samsung N130

 

JFI I know your probably not going Ruckus - but at the moment mine are not playing with a bank of 20 NC130s I deployed last week - I've upgrade the firmware on the Ruckus - waiting to get reports back this week.

 

regards

 

Simon

[TechSupp]

Thanks, thats interesting and would certainly swing which way I would go. Please keep us informed on how its going as it may be a few of weeks before I get it all sorted to be ordered etc. May go Ruckus (single point) due to its performance but not if its going to be problematic.