[c-nsp] Aironet Indoor or Router Wireless for WLAN

[A.L.M.Buxey at lboro.ac.uk]

Hi,

> According to Cisco I have to run a Site Survey for deploying a WLAN.
> Currently I need deploy it in my enterprise, iluminate several
> courtrooms conference in the building, how can I run a good site
> survey?. In addition, I have router wireless trednet but it does not
> work very well, because the wall are made of a material called drive
> wall. I think that a more power RF my users could connect from a major
> distance, which is best choice Aironet 1250 Series , Aironet 1300
> Series or a router Wireless as Cisco 851W or 871W.

getting a knowledge of the materials the building is made of is
very handy - not essential though if relying on tools. 

airmagnet and ekahau make the best surveying tools (imho)

dry-wall is what i think you meant (plasterboard in other parlance)
- how it affects the wifi is down to specific installations - whether
its got fire retardant mesh, foil backing (weather membrane etc) - 
its certainly not as bad for wifi as reinforced concrete or the classic
red brick.

scope the building out. make note of materials if you like, look at the plans
and think about where you want coverage and where an access point might go
- eg socket locations (use data socket only - use power over ethernet
to supply the power - getting power outlets installed? not worth it.

then take a few APs of the type you expect to use and then run a survey
tool (at this point you can go 'budget' and just take measurements - connect
to the net and check throughput etc but then you dont get easy pretty
pictures - those might be needed to pursuade whoever needs pursuading
that they need to cough up the cash to get sockets installed where
they are needed.

then cry after all the hard work because the rooms get re-functioned
or a new partition wall is installed just months after all this work
and people knew about it all along.... or the sockets get put in
t'other side of the room so the AP cant go where it was meant to go
and all your work was pointless - apart from the pretty pictures ;-)

post-install survey again - perferably when the place has bodies,
humidity, is hot/cold etc - these affect the signal too. 

alan