Setting up a wireless network

[roseygirl]

I work at a 47 room hotel. we are required to have wireless internet access to all guest rooms plus lobby. I am able to get the access to the office and lobby thru a regular router. But i cannot get it to the guest rooms. they are located in another building. I have a broadband internet access with a cable modem.

What will i need to do to get the signal to reach to the guest rooms.

I hope someone can help, or have any suggestions.

thanks in advance.

[PrntRhd]

roseygirl,
Welcome to the PC Guide forums!

You likely will need additional Access Points in the guest room areas, at least one per floor, maybe more.
There are professional services available out there to provide access control and security for installations like yours, have you looked into getting it installed professionally?

[roseygirl]

I love working with computers and I would like the challage of setting it up myself. Would the access points have to be wired? or is there a way it can be set up without running wire all over the hotel.

[PrntRhd]

I would run an Ethernet cable to each floor and connect to Wireless Access points from there.
You will need pretty big bandwidth, you have to count on perhaps 94 computers online at the same time (47 rooms with double occupancy) not to mention the meeting areas if you have those.

:)

[jimmy5k]

i agree with prntrhd

although have you thought about a linux radius server? i'm not the best with it but users must login to your system with an account that they possibly put down money for. or is the service provided free? to avoid clients hacking each other and leeching, i'd suggest a radius server to keep them all somewhat separate.

[PrntRhd]

I also want to point out that you do NOT want to set up LAN service for the hotel rooms and lobby. You only want to provide Internet services, but no sharing of information between your guest's PCs and the hotel's PCs. That is what jimmy5k's comments relate to.
:)

[Dangerous]

Rosey,

Prntrhd's suggestion about looking into getting this done professionally is very valid. You may enjoy the challenge of this project, but it is not a simple thing to set up. You don't want to get this wrong and have users accessing each other's machines.

Essentially, a hotel offering internet access must act like a small ISP. Get professional advice, even if you only get someone in to quote you - at least you can find out what THEY would do - then you could look into doing it yourself.

If you've had no experiance with setting up wireless lans before, especially one's with multiple access points, then I expect this project will be long and time consuming for you! (No offence at all intended!)

Dave :)