Ken, just follow the tv cable lines if possible. As for Verizon, they won't hassle you. If you run "clean" wires, i.e. tie them together, you should have no problems or Call Angel at Computer System Solutions at 571-2536. Tell him to get Mario over there and do it. 2 or 3 days and you're in business. Get Verizon plan 2 or 3, a couple of routers and your 20 units will be set up. As for speed, I doubt that you'll have 20 people downloading heavy stuff at the same time.Ken said:
- Thread starter Ken
- Start date
High Speed Internet in a Condo Complex
Ken,
I (and Richard) are happy to come and talk with you about your requirements in your condo. No charge, no packdrill - just happy to give a DR1 buddy a hand to do the right thing. You probably cannot afford us anyways... And I'd like for you guys to do the right thing.
If you do it right, it will work for you for a long time. If you do it wrong, you'll have a tech there everyday fiddling. This stuff is like an italian sports car... :classic: I had one once that if it went, it went. If it did not go, it did not go....!
I (and Richard) are happy to come and talk with you about your requirements in your condo. No charge, no packdrill - just happy to give a DR1 buddy a hand to do the right thing. You probably cannot afford us anyways... And I'd like for you guys to do the right thing.
If you do it right, it will work for you for a long time. If you do it wrong, you'll have a tech there everyday fiddling. This stuff is like an italian sports car... :classic: I had one once that if it went, it went. If it did not go, it did not go....!
Robert said:
Linksys wrt54g with sveasoft firmware will allow a lot more than 300ft, as well as an external antenna, you can raise the power a lot over the factory settings and then use it more efficiently. Sveasoft also makes firmware for the linksys access point- that would be the way to go over an internal card without an external antenna.
Linksys is cheap in the US, about $75 a pop. The sveasoft can make an accesspoint a repeater as well. The router can even do QoS.
BTW, there might be problems with the premise, technically speaking. Some internet accounts allow only a certain number of open connections at one time, if a user doesn't have two or three surfing could become interesting. Also, if they are really interested Verizon could observe the traffic with a packet sniffer and see that something isn't right... I doubt they bother.
Thebes said:
I am using U.S. Robotics Turbo Access Point and Router model 8054 to set up wireless for two friends and as a trial run. Short range, few obstructions, and they do not have heavy requirements. For one there are appartments involved, but it is not an "appartment complex". Hopefully this will be adequate.
From the reviews I see that the range on these is above average for SOHO, but they tend to reset themselves often.
I'll do a search later on, but if you know off hand of any firmware or antenna upgrades to extend the range, please PM me.
Robert said:If you are doing an apartment complex, then you should be using commercial grade components to provide the wireless zone. Sorry, but off the shelf (CompUSA) SOHO components should never be used for an apartment complex if you plan on doing it right.
I agree with you that the per condo components can be your off the shelf (CompUSA) name brand components. Wireless card or bridge.
300ft is the theoretical range of many wireless routers, not the practical range. Add a wall and the range degrades considerably.
Let me add... This is the wrong place to go looking for business.
We discourage "I want a job" ads. What you do via email is completely up to you
I sort of agree and disagree, Robert. The theoretical range, based on what I read depends on the type of obstruction and of course the manufacturer, amongst other things. But as far as being in an "appartment complex", yes, SOHO to connect the tennants in a building with lots of tennants, rebar, concrete, lack of security, etc. is not a good idea. Apparently even within the same appartment in these complexes, there can be signal loss.
When I was posting earlier I was thinking of the friends that I was going to apply this to. SOHO products WILL work in THEIR situations. I was hoping to get into a business of sorts and upscale once I had a better idea, but I'm not charging my friends (Gringo being one of them) a single penny--it's for the experience and fun.
For the situations you have described however, you are correct, and this type of setup is not adequate.
Ben Dover said:
I'm not familiar with the US robotics at all. The linksys are easy to hack new firmware for since they are linux based.
The sveasoft firmwares are nominally open source and can be redistributed at will, if anyone needs a copy PM me. Their support forums and (prerelease) download pages require a membership to access, which is around 20 a year and worth the money for the support forums for anyone using more than nominal features. They are at sveasoft.com
More wireless networking stuff..
It would be interesting to know what the "official" Verizon policy is on multiple IP addresses under a single service connection. Having a company representative tell you a number, Vs what they officially permit are two different things. Oh, yea. we're talking about the DR here, right? No chance of miscommunication on the terms of the service.... nahhhh!
While you could get a multicomputer setup up and running easily via a router, there is the possibility that down the road they will detect a multiple IP address use that violates the user agreement.
In my neck of the woods, my broadband carrier permits only 1 IP address per connection, unless you use a router. The interesting thing is that I received a letter from them saying they detected multiple IP use and I needed to call them. When I told them I was using a router, they said in that case it was OK. I asked them to comment my account and went about my business. Weird that they can tell I had two computers running, but couldn't tell I had a router. What is the difference.... I dunno?
Anyway, the lesson is that multiple IP addresses to a router could at some point come under scrutiny of the ISP... even a Dominican one ... eventually.
As to hardware, the SOHO stuff is dropping in price by the month here in the US... so much so that for DR users purchasing in the US it's so cheap that multiple units for backup in case of failure is very cost effective.
I have no idea how much more reliable the industrial wireless router hardware would be vs. SOHO... but I did have a wireless router fail after only one year in service....so there may be something to the industrial stuff. My approach would be to have a spare router and cards no matter what, 'cause as we come to rely on the Internet more and more an outage becomes less tolerable.
One thing I didn't see mentioned is use of encryption in a wireless network. Unless you have no neighbors nearby, by all means be sure you encrypt your wireless link (WEP), or not only are your computers unsecured, a neighbor is free to latch on to your hard earned Internet service, a la Dominican electricity.
Thebes said:
It would be interesting to know what the "official" Verizon policy is on multiple IP addresses under a single service connection. Having a company representative tell you a number, Vs what they officially permit are two different things. Oh, yea. we're talking about the DR here, right? No chance of miscommunication on the terms of the service.... nahhhh!
While you could get a multicomputer setup up and running easily via a router, there is the possibility that down the road they will detect a multiple IP address use that violates the user agreement.
In my neck of the woods, my broadband carrier permits only 1 IP address per connection, unless you use a router. The interesting thing is that I received a letter from them saying they detected multiple IP use and I needed to call them. When I told them I was using a router, they said in that case it was OK. I asked them to comment my account and went about my business. Weird that they can tell I had two computers running, but couldn't tell I had a router. What is the difference.... I dunno?
Anyway, the lesson is that multiple IP addresses to a router could at some point come under scrutiny of the ISP... even a Dominican one ... eventually.
As to hardware, the SOHO stuff is dropping in price by the month here in the US... so much so that for DR users purchasing in the US it's so cheap that multiple units for backup in case of failure is very cost effective.
I have no idea how much more reliable the industrial wireless router hardware would be vs. SOHO... but I did have a wireless router fail after only one year in service....so there may be something to the industrial stuff. My approach would be to have a spare router and cards no matter what, 'cause as we come to rely on the Internet more and more an outage becomes less tolerable.
One thing I didn't see mentioned is use of encryption in a wireless network. Unless you have no neighbors nearby, by all means be sure you encrypt your wireless link (WEP), or not only are your computers unsecured, a neighbor is free to latch on to your hard earned Internet service, a la Dominican electricity.
Festero said:
What a very informative post. True, what the ISP says and how they react to multiple users may be two different things.
No one mentoioned encryption specifically, but unsecure networks were brought I think, or was that in the thread about mbile wireless service? The other thing to do ofcourse is to secure the ports and to restgrict access to the specific MAC addresses on the cards being used. Since in my case, there are a handful of cards and no intention of allowing foreign cards into the network, it will be easy enough. US Robotics also provides software for 256-bit WEP encrypyion that is not provided by Windows (limited to 128-bit).
I have tried the network here and the range and signal are very strong, despit obstruction. The firmware upgrades also allow 125 Mbps rather than 54. Nice equipment, I'm pleased with it. Linux drivers also available from the US Robotics website.
Now, I know nothing about commercial routers like Cisco's products and I sure as Hell wish I did, so forgive my ignorance if I am wrong, but I suspect that the commercial products have a lot more to offer than just range. I believe that they are more configurable (in terms of configuring the firewall and making sure ports are closed or steaklthy), allow for a lot more clients and have other security features I haven't conceived of. I'd love to get my hands on those products and the asscociated documentation.
As you mentioned however, reliability and range/signal quality MUST play a part in the commercial products.
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