I’m not a techie, but I’m not completely clueless either (close maybe). I’m the director of a mediumish-sized library in Montana.
I have five laptops here, nice new Dells, that I want to take to the local senior center where I can conduct free basic computer classes.
The senior center doesn’t have wifi but gets the internet through a wire in the director’s office wall.
What I want to know is, what is the best way to turn the senior center’s internet connection into a wireless antenna? I assume there is some piece of equipment I can plug into the wall which will (a) beam the connection out to my five laptops; (b) allow the office computer to still have internet access. Ideally, this piece of equipment will require nothing more than being plugged in (to the 'net, to power) to be hooked up. No hardware, no getting “in” to it to make it work. Plug in and go.
Someone turned me on to the existence of a Wireless Access Point (WAP). Does that seem like it would do the job? If not, what would?
A wireless router, which will serve as an access point. Just get one powerful enough to cover the area, especially if you have to go thru walls and floors. A home unit might cut it.
I think you will have to resign yourself to a minimal setup. It won’t be difficult, but it won’t be plug & go. You have to decide on security (many options) and define the name of the network so people can tell which one they are connecting to. I don’t think you will have a hard time.
Yep, you need a wireless access point. There are tons of different kinds. My personal preference is CISCO/LinkSys, but MMV. There is also something called a wireless range extender that can boost the signal of your WiFi access point if you are trying to cover a fairly large area.
Some quick and dirty things to keep in mind. If you are providing the public access to your system (presumably the internet), then you might want to put a firewall (or at least a NAT device) in between your access point and your office DSL system, since anyone getting on would be able to ‘see’ your entire network. Also, if you are providing access to the public you might want to consider whether you want to filter your web traffic or not. If it would be a bad idea to let anyone go to altsex.farmanimal.com (not a real URL…or, at least I HOPE it’s not :p) or whatever, then you will need some sort of web filtering device. You can get that on a firewall as well (I’d go with a low end Sonicwall), but it costs an annual fee for the web filtering services, usually. If you don’t want to just give the public access any time, then you also need to consider some sort of encryption…I’d go the WPA/WPA2 route with something called a ‘pre-shared key’ or PSK. It’s just a code word that allows you to connect to an encrypted session on the access point (it’s pretty easy to set up…almost all modern un-managed access points have a web browser interface that’s really easy to use and set up). If you are more security minded, then you might want to do something called a MAC filter too…and also think about scheduled times for access (i.e. you will provide internet access to the public from 8-6, or something along those lines…again, most modern access points and firewalls have this stuff built in, with install wizards to help you set them up fairly easily).
Anyway, good luck! It’s not as hard as most IT propeller heads make this stuff out to be, but you need to think things through as far as some sort of general use policies and procedures BEFORE you buy and set up anything like this.
Setting up a wireless router is not quite “plug and play”. Setting up firewalls and such is even less so. Thick walls and other interference could through more monkey wrenches at you as well. Even those of us who do it all the time run into some issues. We curse our way through them but someone without the experience would probably be stopped at the first weird problem that inevitably comes up.
My idea would be to contact your local “Tech Geeks Delivered” service. Not endorsing any specific company but one of those that will send a geek to your house or business for a price. It may be less than you think and save you a lot of frustration at the seniors center.
Given what you are doing you may even be able to swing a discount or even pro bono visit by them in return for your endorsement.
Just a thought.
My CISCO/LinkSys works like a champ. I paid about $60 for it at Radio Shack a few years ago, and I can pick up a clean signal even when I’m at least 75 feet away, sitting in my vehicle, parked in the street.
Yeah, they are fairly cheap and are pretty easy to configure, IMHO. They have a clean web interface, and they even have an install wizard via a DvD (though I generally skip that and just use the RFC1918 address in a web browser and configure from there).
I don’t think you will have a problem, but if you want to hedge your bets, get a model that allows the original antenna to be replaced. Sometimes poor signal coverage can be rectified by better or more directional antennas, even RF amplifiers.