Wifi Structural Cabling and Access Points for the Hub

Projects
1

Hello SL MS,

I am a trustee for the Carnegie Library Hub which we are developing for community use and is nearby to the MS. We are a charitable CIO. We’re doing some projects with MS people building out the hub facilities. One thing I have not been able to coherently crack and price is wifi for our rooms. Is anyone experienced in the area of setting up access points with many channels and / or structural network cabling and / or leased lines? Let me know if you have experience which could help me design and price something. There are a myriad of resellers out there, and it is damn hard to find something that is clear and right for us.

Thanks a lot, Tom (Chair)

2

@systems are responsible for our networking and I think @unknowndomain also helped.

3

Do you have a brief of what it is you are trying to achieve?

What devices, where, what exists, whats new, how many users, what device will they use, what volume of data will they consume?

Makerspace’s network has had many hands on it over the years, it was built originally by Joe and myself, then maintained by others and I reinstalled it last Spring and now a group of people have access, but it’s mostly stable.

Personally, I lack the expertise or motivation to want to do physical cable installs on any large scale, but equally, cabling, with the right products, is very easy; getting it neat and tidy can be more of an art.

Are you looking to pay someone to do it professionally, or for advice how to do it yourself?

4

Thank you for this.

It’s a community hub, and we have office based staff there, so the networks to control are

  1. Staff network (20 devices)
  2. Partner network for partners who run events in the hub, 24 token (<6 devices at any one time)
  3. Guest token for 1.30hr use for anyone walking in in the library or one of our rooms (up to about 20)
  4. Co-working, as part of a co-working hub with 2 coffees sort of deal in our community cafe. Paying token. (up to about 50)

Bandwidth would be for all of that, and we want to market the internet to make the community cafe more attractive for laptop surfers.
I got some quotes. I am looking to pay someone, and can splitup the cabling from the kit purchase from the configuration. We are a hub with limited funds, which is why commercial resellers never called me back. Advice would be a good starting point, and then perhaps some contacts for a pro install! There is considerable trunking in the building so I agree the cabling part won’t be too much bother, but needs someone up a ladder for a day or 2. Are you free for a call sometime? My number is 07816663431

Thanks!! Tom

5

You could install this yourselves, it’s easy to do, just time consuming.

6

Thanks Tommie, I think i’d be up for that, and it would keep the costs down, I just don’t really know what kit to buy, although I am good with tech config when I have it in my hands. Realistically I would want to pay someone to do the cabling, and perhaps the AP install, and I could do the rest. Do you know of any good guides out there for good kit that would give me the config I need? The web searches are bewildering! Tom

7

Given you are trying to provide some kind of coupon based approach you are going to need something more like we have at Makerspace, which is a Unifi system, but Cisco and others also have products.

Unifi can do guest wi-fi with a captive portal.

I guess you’d want to know if you plan to use access control, and CCTV in future, because that would also have an effect.

Makerspace uses a Unifi Cloud Gateway Ultra with a number of Unifi switches and wireless access points, if you wanted CCTV and/or access control you could go for a Cloud Gateway Max.

Wi-Fi wise, you could upload a floor plan to their designer software to get a sense of coverage, and cabling routes.