Help me setup the network at my workplace

[Noufas]

So, I work at a restaurant. It's in an old building in london, there is a basement with an office and as you can imagine, thick stone walls.
We have 3 wired ticket printers on a router, and we have a dsl connection.

My boss's brother works for belkin/linksys so he asked me to find any equipment from these 2 companies in order to setup the wifi to be strong, and provide customer wifi if it's possible.

Any recommendations? Cost can be not an issue, but lets not get things for the sake of getting them, but for the sake of practicality.

 

[bremen1874]

I wouldn't ever use any Belkin network equipment. I wouldn't choose to use Linksys kit in a business environment (although they may have improved since I last got my fingers burnt).

Before you decide to share your internet connection with your customers think about what they could use it for. I'd find a supplier that can provide you with a managed Wi-Fi service that'll handle the compliance side of things. Also, be very sure that your business network is completely isolated from anything customers can get at. If you've only got an ADSL connection to play with I'd keep it for the business.

 

[joeyjojo]

Considering the manufacturer connection and that it's for a business, probably best to get some professional sales people involved (either from Linksys or an independent).

Answer depends on the room layouts, position of phone line and equipment, how many clients and where they are, etc.

 

[Caged]

You're a restaurant in London, pay for it to be done properly. Bad Wi-Fi is worse than no Wi-Fi, and considering that good coverage allows things like wireless payment terminals to work reliably and business lunches to be productive the ROI will be pretty quick.

 

[Orcvader]

I work as an IT technician for a chain of restaurants in London, and I can tell you, Belkin equipment doesn't last very long. The amount of wifi interference is a thing you have to consider as well.

How big is the restaurant? Is it one large area or sectored off by walls? How many ethernet ports does the router have left? Where exactly is the router located? Is it possible to lay some cat 5e/6 cable from the basement to the restaurant area?

The usual setup I do is replace the router for a Draytek which is located in the office, (as it has networking features the basic BT Business hub doesn't include), then to a large switch, and for the wifi, a dedicated access point with a ticket system, which customers will require to ask the staff for a password which changes daily (so no one can abuse the open wifi). Unifi AC APs works very well range, speed and stability wise, I've been slowly replacing some of the resturants with this access point.

 

[Noufas]

The thing is that this will be provided for free by the company. That's why the linksys/belkin requirement.
Guest wifi is not a priority, the kitchen printers and the wifi being up is the main issue.
Orcvader: the restaurant is in two rooms, with a narrow corridor connecting them, and the kitchen being in the middle of these 2 rooms, with walls on all sides.
The router is in the main room/bar and iirc has 1 more ethernet port left.
I will see about running cable to the basement.