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Great piece of advice, but remember, we're in the UK and we have access to 13 channels. So channels 1, 7 and 13 are also non-overlapping!!! Nearly. Yes the data rate is shared, but the data throughput is roughly half of the available data rate. So you might be lucky to get about 2 Mbps. Both Cisco and Trapeze recommend no more than 20 authenticated sessions/clients per ap, but each ap will support alot more unauthenticated sessions/clients. Getting back on topic... Are you using roaming profiles? What are the users authenticating against? AD? NDS? Local Account? Where is the authentication server? is it onsite or is it at a remote site? How many authentication servers are you using? Have you checked the logs on the servers & client laptops? Do your AP's have the ability to adjust the transmit power? When you got your survey done, did they check for interference?

The company that installed our wireless are based near Basingstoke, they came out and did a live survey of our building and then did a great job of installing the AP's and setting everything up. When it was done they did another survey to ensure that we had the 100% coverage that we wanted. The Trapeze Wireless allows us to have multiple SSID's, we have one for allowing the staff to have secure access, one for wireless voice and one for guests. The guests SSID uses a great peice of software, called SmartPass, that allows us to create users (without having to add them to AD) that have specific limits on the times that they can use the wireless network for and when that time expires, they get automatically removed from the network. Our wireless voice SSID is locally switched, that means that all the traffic does not get sent back to the wireless controller. It gets placed directly on the VLAN, which reduces latency. Thus improving the quality of the voice call. Our secure staff SSID uses bonded 802.1x authentication, which im sure you're all aware is currently the most secure method for allowing wireless access, as both the user and the laptop have got to be authenticated. PM me if you would like me to forward you some contact information.

I agree with the idea of a wireless bridge link, if you Ruckus stuff doesnt do it then buy something that would. You'll still be able to have a Ruckus access point in the maintenance teams hut/office offering all your usual SSIDs. You could do this with a couple of Trapeze access points (or other manufacturer), 2 external antennas and a small wireless PoE switch. The bridge link would have its own dedicated SSID. You've not said what kind of distance is involved? You will also need a clear line of sight, trees will disrupt the fresnel zone.

I remember watching a program on the TV about graduates and their expectations for when they finnished their course. Paticularly it had a guy that had just finnished a degree in management. Now that he had his degree he wanted to be a senior manager, but like you, he couldnt even get an interview. So the TV company arranged for an careers advisor to offer some advice. She said that he needed to lower his expectations quite a bit. So he applied for a job, lower down the ladder, as a trainee manager in a supermarket getting minimum wage - which he got! Obviously this is not what he wants to do, but its a stepping stone for where he wants to get too. While I was studying at Uni, I helped out at a local college. Then got offered a full time job. If it was not for that I would not be where I am now. Also, I have found that alot of companies will not want to bother with the hassle of advertising for people. So it is worth while contacting IT mangers and asking if they have any vacancies. Hope this helps... and good luck!!!

What debugging have your tried? I dont have any experience with BlueSocket, but I do have lots with Trapeze and they also use a captive portal. So it should be a similar process. Is there a spare port on the wireless controller? If so, set the port to use the same VLAN that would be used for your captive portal. Plug a laptop into it and see what happens. Can you access the Internet? Do you get DHCP?

Also, you would be better sticking with 3Com, as you might be able to get your licences from your 'old' WX4400 moved accross to a WX2200.

The planning side of this is pretty straight forward, its all done using a wizard. PM me if you need some help.

The 3Com wireless is rebadged Trapeze wireless, which is what we have here.

Trapeze wireless here. We looked at a few other options and found this to be the most cost effective solution. Supports 802.11a/b/g/n and can even off load the traffic onto a local vlan without having to go all the way back to the wireless controller, we find this very handy for wireless voice. PM me if you want more information.