Access Point

TerrierHTFC · 28 Feb 2020 at 10:36

We have 2 offices at work, separated by the reception area. In one room we have the fibre connection hooked up to a draytek router. An ethernet cable then goes from the router over the loft space to the second office, wired into an ethernet socket on the wall. However, the wifi doesn't reach from one room to other.

In order to add wifi to room 2 I think we need to add an access point in room 2, plugged into the ethernet port (which then goes to router in room 1), is this correct?

And if so, do you have any recommendations?

bremen1874 · 28 Feb 2020 at 12:38

Sounds about right.

You could look at DrayTek for the AP. Depending on the router you have you may be able to manage the AP and the router's wireless via the same interface.

The other obvious option is one of the UniFi APs. Depending on various factors you may be better off disabling the wireless on the DrayTek and using one or two UniFi APs.

Could you install a single AP in the reception area (on the ceiling preferably) and cover both offices?

TerrierHTFC · 28 Feb 2020 at 14:05

bremen1874 said:
Sounds about right.

You could look at DrayTek for the AP. Depending on the router you have you may be able to manage the AP and the router's wireless via the same interface.

The other obvious option is one of the UniFi APs. Depending on various factors you may be better off disabling the wireless on the DrayTek and using one or two UniFi APs.

Could you install a single AP in the reception area (on the ceiling preferably) and cover both offices?

No, we are in communal offices so the reception area is not our domain. The router is a draytek vigour 2860n. The less involvement in the router settings the better, as its managed by our IT company, I'd preferably like to sort this if possible without their involvement. They love a call out charge!

bremen1874 · 28 Feb 2020 at 14:28

Vigor routers are fine but the wireless has tended to have a reputation for being pretty poor. I've always bought the wires only models and handled the wireless separately. As I've usually had the router in a comms rack the wireless would have struggle anyway.

Are you after an access point to install on a wall/ceiling or something to sit on a desk/shelf?

How much are you willing to spend?

TerrierHTFC · 28 Feb 2020 at 15:30

bremen1874 said:
Vigor routers are fine but the wireless has tended to have a reputation for being pretty poor. I've always bought the wires only models and handled the wireless separately. As I've usually had the router in a comms rack the wireless would have struggle anyway.

Are you after an access point to install on a wall/ceiling or something to sit on a desk/shelf?

How much are you willing to spend?

Sit on a desk ideally, although we could have it wall mounted if required. Ceiling less so. Pretty much everything in room 1 where the router is cabled, apart from a smart tv which works fine on the wifi.

Neither room is very big, probably 5x5m square and very open.

£100 or so, but would spend more if something was significantly better.

TerrierHTFC · 5 Mar 2020 at 10:28

Explained our situation and asked our IT company for advice on which AP to buy. Came back with a quote for £679.43!

*2 Aruba Instant On AP11D (RW) Indoor AP x2 = £219.44
*Half a day onsite install = £335.75
*Delivery = £11

Half a day onsite, £335.75 to install an AP :rolleyes:

. Exactly why I didn't bother asking them originally.

visibleman · 5 Mar 2020 at 16:00

Draytek 903, reliable and it's what we dish out here. And i'm surprised your IT company/MSP didn't offer that given the 2860n.

Personally as it's only one AP, and if it isn't mission critical and you're happy to be responsible for it, get whatever fits your budget and isn't complete **** from the reviews.
A AP11D isn't a bad shout (believe you need POE though), nor is a UniFi but you need to factor in the extra for the controller (or at least setup of it).

TerrierHTFC said:
*2 Aruba Instant On AP11D (RW) Indoor AP x2 = £219.44...

Half a day onsite, £335.75 to install an AP .

To be honest, that's not a terrible price for the installation, setup and testing of two AP's, more so if support is included. Although i'd be getting a price on a single unit + installation if the Draytek covers the first office.

Deleted member 77746 · 5 Mar 2020 at 16:04

TerrierHTFC said:
Explained our situation and asked our IT company for advice on which AP to buy. Came back with a quote for £679.43!

*2 Aruba Instant On AP11D (RW) Indoor AP x2 = £219.44
*Half a day onsite install = £335.75
*Delivery = £11

Half a day onsite, £335.75 to install an AP . Exactly why I didn't bother asking them originally.

Daylight robbery. Run a single Ethernet cable from the router and plug an access point in at the other end. Will be fine! You shouldn’t need any config doing apart from changing the SSID password (maybe) on the AP. It would take no more than 5 mins to do the whole task if you got blank ceilings.

But the issue is - do you know how to configure the access point if required to do so?

TerrierHTFC · 5 Mar 2020 at 16:33

mrbell1984 said:
Daylight robbery. Run a single Ethernet cable from the router and plug an access point in at the other end. Will be fine! You shouldn’t need any config doing apart from changing the SSID password (maybe) on the AP. It would take no more than 5 mins to do the whole task if you got blank ceilings.

But the issue is - do you know how to configure the access point if required to do so?

Networking probably my area of least knowledge but i've been building PC's and ******* around with tech for 20 years. Pretty sure I can get it working.

Any reason to go with the more expensive Draytek 903 over a cheaper Unifi?

Its not remotely mission critical, the room is a meeting room, its just for clients to use wifi on their phones and a bit of laptop usage.

Deleted member 77746 · 5 Mar 2020 at 16:35

TerrierHTFC said:
Networking probably my area of least knowledge but i've been building PC's and ******* around with tech for 20 years. Pretty sure I can get it working.

Any reason to go with the more expensive Draytek 903 over a cheaper Unifi?

Its not remotely mission critical, the room is a meeting room, its just for clients to use wifi on their phones and a bit of laptop usage.

If it isn’t 100% mission critical then there is no reason at all to go for a cheaper model. If you talking about less than 25 clients only randomly browsing.

A lot of the APs are literally plug and play and some of them if not all now come with a default SSID and password. Plug and play usually.

TerrierHTFC · 5 Mar 2020 at 16:37

Cheers

Avalon · 5 Mar 2020 at 16:37

Oh how I miss the days of people paying several hundred quid for 5 mins work. In the situation you describe, technically I would suggest one of the UniFi in wall units that are designed to be wall mounted, retail is circa £100 from memory, though in practical terms with the size of room etc. even a conventional AP mounted in the wall would be more than adequate and they are circa £60-70. It’s not best practice, it would bug the hell out of me to live with, but it’ll work. The beauty of this set-up is the management is all via either your phone, or a PC that you download the controller software on, it doesn’t need to be on 24/7 and is essentially fire and forget other than logging in periodically to update firmware etc.

Deleted member 77746 · 5 Mar 2020 at 16:39

TerrierHTFC said:
Cheers

Are you 100% sure you can run cable from that router up into the roof space/void to the other room?

How far apart are these rooms?

TerrierHTFC · 5 Mar 2020 at 16:41

mrbell1984 said:
Are you 100% sure you can run cable from that router up into the roof space/void to the other room?

How far apart are these rooms?

The cable is already in place. The rooms are probably 20 yards apart, in cable terms up and down its probably double that.

Deleted member 77746 · 5 Mar 2020 at 16:42

TerrierHTFC said:
The cable is already in place. The rooms are probably 20 yards apart, in cable terms up and down its probably double that.

There you go then problem solved. It really is as simple as plug n play.

WJA96 · 6 Mar 2020 at 05:19

mrbell1984 said:
There you go then problem solved. It really is as simple as plug n play.

But it’s not though, is it? It’s more like
Install UniFi controller software somewhere (possibly on a phone)
Plug in Access Point
Configure Access Point
Play

And anyone who can run in 2 Access Points with cabling AND configure 2 Aruba Access Points in 5 minutes while following RAMS and working safely, then documenting all the changes for you, AND traveling to and from the job site is doing very well. They’ve quoted 4 hours. It doesn’t seem outrageous to me. The actual access points aren’t what I would quote on, but they’re fine.

I’ve done cabling installs, and I’ve seen them done by professionals and sometimes you’re better off just paying them to do it.

Deleted member 77746 · 6 Mar 2020 at 07:17

WJA96 said:
But it’s not though, is it? It’s more like
Install UniFi controller software somewhere (possibly on a phone)
Plug in Access Point
Configure Access Point
Play

And anyone who can run in 2 Access Points with cabling AND configure 2 Aruba Access Points in 5 minutes while following RAMS and working safely, then documenting all the changes for you, AND traveling to and from the job site is doing very well. They’ve quoted 4 hours. It doesn’t seem outrageous to me. The actual access points aren’t what I would quote on, but they’re fine.

I’ve done cabling installs, and I’ve seen them done by professionals and sometimes you’re better off just paying them to do it.

But it is though the cables already there. OP already said. Don’t really need a unifi for 1 single room that’s overdoing it.

It’s one single room with only a handful of clients don’t panic.

WJA96 · 6 Mar 2020 at 11:19

What they’ve quoted for (one AP for each office) will require 2 cables pulled. What they’ve quoted isn’t OTT, it’s about right so I’m not sure why the Everyone thinks the OP is getting his leg lifted.

Even if he just lays the AP on the floor it’s more than 5 minutes work to configure it if you do it properly.

Armageus · 6 Mar 2020 at 11:30

TerrierHTFC said:
Its not remotely mission critical, the room is a meeting room, its just for clients to use wifi on their phones and a bit of laptop usage.

That's one of the most mission critical roles imo - nothing worse than a Customer turning up and their wifi experience being poor

Deleted member 77746 · 6 Mar 2020 at 11:31

Does the @TerrierHTFC have a budget at all?