# Revisiting The RV Park WiFi



## Michale32086 (Jan 28, 2014)

About a year ago, I was helped out immensely by people here in updating a WiFi system for a local RV Park..

Here is the thread:   http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/wifi-hotspot-for-rv-park.180045/

Things went real smoothly for quite a few months, but now the system keeps collapsing.  Not sure if it's from User overload or something else, but Management at the RV Park wants to update the system..

Since that last discussion back in 2013, the requirements have coalesced into being more specific.

What we need is an outdoor all-weather system such as this .....

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Extreme-Net...or-Access-Point-3550-5Yr-Warnty-/181294372320

....  but with a/b/g/n protocols.

We definitely need POE...

It needs to cover a lightly wooded area approx 400x400 feet   http://sjfm.us/temp/RV012814.jpg

It needs to handle high load access such as streaming video for multiple (many) connections...

And it needs to come in under $5K-$8K...

And, while we're at it, lets see if we can bring peace to the Middle East and get that Mars Landing program done..  

Michale

NOTE:  Cleared up time discrepancy.  It wasn't 4 years ago, it was a year ago.  My bust..


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## Sasqui (Jan 28, 2014)

Are you looking for AC protocol as well?  "A" is not used very much at all.   Problem with AC is it's still emerging, so not nearly as many products on the market (yet).  But it is far superior for bandwidth and range.  More an more adaptors (and laptops and phones) you'll see will be both  N and AC capable.

Google "Wireless AC Access point" and you won't find a lot of direct hits, but plenty of N units.

You can also build an outdoor enclosure if you want to go that route.


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## Michale32086 (Jan 28, 2014)

Sasqui said:


> Are you looking for AC protocol as well?  "A" is not used very much at all.   Problem with AC is it's still emerging, so not nearly as many products on the market (yet).  But it is far superior for bandwidth and range.  More an more adaptors (and laptops and phones) you'll see will be both  N and AC capable.
> 
> Google "Wireless AC Access point" and you won't find a lot of direct hits, but plenty of N units.
> 
> You can also build an outdoor enclosure if you want to go that route.



Yea, that's the way I went back in 2010...

http://sjfm.us/temp/rvwifiBox.jpg

And it works and I will likely go that way again with the expanded. 

But having a weather proofed AP in place is a really nice way to go.  

Thanx for the reply...  I'll check out the AC units..


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## Sasqui (Jan 28, 2014)

Michale32086 said:


> Yea, that's the way I went back in 2010...
> 
> http://sjfm.us/temp/rvwifiBox.jpg
> 
> ...



Nice housing, what did you get for a router back then?  I suggest AC for "future proofing". AC has been out for a while but companies are still putting out what can only be described as prototypes.  Commercial use is still young.


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## Mussels (Jan 28, 2014)

i say go with wifi N, the tech is mature and you get N150/N300/N600 as speed options in well tested hardware.

you could also go with powerline/homeplug tech for multiple backbones to the various AP's.


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## Michale32086 (Jan 28, 2014)

Sasqui said:


> Nice housing, what did you get for a router back then?  I suggest AC for "future proofing". AC has been out for a while but companies are still putting out what can only be described as prototypes.  Commercial use is still young.



In that pic, I had a skinned Linksys WRT54G running DD-WRT...  In the 2010 hardware update, I went with a series of Amped Wireless R2000G that was suggested by RemixedCat here...

Planning for possible future needs definitely has appeal...


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## Michale32086 (Jan 28, 2014)

Mussels said:


> i say go with wifi N, the tech is mature and you get N150/N300/N600 as speed options in well tested hardware.
> 
> you could also go with powerline/homeplug tech for multiple backbones to the various AP's.



Yea, I thought that as well.  But my concern is that there are one or two bandwidth hogs that might be overtaxing the current AW R2000Gs that are installed new.   I am just now starting to research the logging/QoS capabilities of the R2000Gs..  If anyone has any insight on that as well...  

Well, as Ross Perot said in the 1992 Presidential Debates, *"I am all ears"*...


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## Michale32086 (Jan 28, 2014)

Keep in mind that a BIG part of what we need is POE.  That was the down side to the AW R2000Gs that I ended up using.  POE is a major requirement.


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## Mussels (Jan 28, 2014)

Michale32086 said:


> Yea, I thought that as well.  But my concern is that there are one or two bandwidth hogs that might be overtaxing the current AW R2000Gs that are installed new.   I am just now starting to research the logging/QoS capabilities of the R2000Gs..  If anyone has any insight on that as well...
> 
> Well, as Ross Perot said in the 1992 Presidential Debates, *"I am all ears"*...




all i can advise is that the TP link routers i use all have per-IP bandwidth management. you can literally set a global rule say
192.168.1.2 through 192.168.1.255 all have max down of 400KB/s and max up of 40KB/s

then no one user can hammer the network, they just choke their own bandwidth pool. now clearly you should be able to get the same effect with better hardware, but if TP link can do it on a $20 router, you should be able to find a superior version with what you're dealing with.

one advantage here: you only need to do the shaping once, at the upstream level, more or less at the core modem/router.
disadvantage: if you're going to segregate the network with multiple DHCP servers, you'll have to give the router a higher allocation, and then re-shape the bandwidth after each router.


edit: the TP links i have also support PoE. they may not have the performance levels you require, however.


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## brandonwh64 (Jan 28, 2014)

I built you a system a in that other thread and it was over looked. I just built the same system using a P4 1GB ram with dual Gig NIC cards, a gig POE switch with 14 POE wireless N 300mbps nodes and it houses over 175 devices at this time and has ran strong for 3 months without a single slow down or reboot.


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## Michale32086 (Jan 28, 2014)

brandonwh64 said:


> I built you a system a in that other thread and it was over looked. I just built the same system using a P4 1GB ram with dual Gig NIC cards, a gig POE switch with 14 POE wireless N 300mbps nodes and it houses over 175 devices at this time and has ran strong for 3 months without a single slow down or reboot.



At the time, I didn't have the knowledge to really understand what you were trying to say..

I am a little smarter now.  

What OS are you running on the P4 machine that's acting as the router??


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## brandonwh64 (Jan 28, 2014)

IPcop

http://ipcop.org/

download the ISO and burn to a disk and its quite easy to install. Then you can access it via webpage using port 8443


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## Michale32086 (Jan 28, 2014)

brandonwh64 said:


> IPcop
> 
> http://ipcop.org/
> 
> download the ISO and burn to a disk and its quite easy to install. Then you can access it via webpage using port 8443



I wonder if that might work for my OTHER issue:

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/networking-nightmare-network-guru-wanted-d.197335/


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## brandonwh64 (Jan 28, 2014)

Well with that software, the more NIC cards you put in the more interfaces you can create.

Also when it comes to access points, I would recommend UniFi AP's. They have a nice piece of software that you can control and map each of their locations along with monitor traffic/users individually.


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## Steevo (Jan 28, 2014)

Ubiquity and any hardware router/firewall for bandwidth management.


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## Michale32086 (Jan 28, 2014)

brandonwh64 said:


> Well with that software, the more NIC cards you put in the more interfaces you can create.
> 
> Also when it comes to access points, I would recommend UniFi AP's. They have a nice piece of software that you can control and map each of their locations along with monitor traffic/users individually.



That sounds like EXACTLY what I need...  Do you have any recommendations on specific models??


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## brandonwh64 (Jan 28, 2014)

These nodes here and also unifi sales a POE switch for them since the are 24V POE instead of 48V POE.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0066DV06I/?tag=tec06d-20


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## v12dock (Jan 28, 2014)

+1 ubiquiti


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## Michale32086 (Jan 28, 2014)

brandonwh64 said:


> These nodes here and also unifi sales a POE switch for them since the are 24V POE instead of 48V POE.
> 
> http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0066DV06I/?tag=tec06d-20



Does Ubiquiti have an Outdoor AP with built-in POE capability???


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## v12dock (Jan 28, 2014)

Michale32086 said:


> Does Ubiquiti have an Outdoor AP with built-in POE capability???


http://www.ubnt.com/unifi#apoutplus

http://www.ubnt.com/unifi#toughswitch


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## Michale32086 (Jan 28, 2014)

v12dock said:


> http://www.ubnt.com/unifi#apoutplus
> 
> http://www.ubnt.com/unifi#toughswitch




Schweeet


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## Michale32086 (Jan 29, 2014)

OK, I am writing up a proposal for the management for an upgrade...

One question though..  The UniFi AC AP that is POE ready would STILL require a ToughSwitch type device to actually feed the power to the APs, right??  I was thinking that, if I went for the AC units as opposed to the B/G/N units, I could forgo the ToughSwitch on the AC units.  

But that's not the case.  Regardless of whether I go with the AC or with the B/G/N, I will still need that TouchSwitch...  Right??


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## remixedcat (Jan 29, 2014)

You had them this long and you didnt' try the QoS??? 

If you want the absolute best nitty gritty QoS controls I recommend Cisco Meraki. I have tested 2 of thier routers and I have one of thier access points... the MR12.

Here's a screen shot of the QoS controls:


 

See this review I wrote for one of the routers I tested:
http://remixedcat.blogspot.com/2014/01/cisco-meraki-mx60w-review.html

Put the RV park guests on the seprate VLAN and throttle torrents and stuff. 

Thing is the meraki stuff is more on the pricey side MR12 is 300 some including the software license, the MX60W is around 1000USD, However the range isn't as good as the amped units so you would need to deploy more of them


Now the extreme networks unit you mentioned requires a wlan controller which adds to the cost. Meraki does not require that as it's cloud managed. also with it being cloud managed it's anti theft and also they have air marshall in them as well as auto rf.


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## brandonwh64 (Jan 29, 2014)

Yea remixcat, the IPcop has a pretty good QoS setup that can be done but its up to him on price he has on this project and what he want to do as the local IT support cause he may not be familar with how cisco management works. I do agree that is a good router.


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## remixedcat (Jan 29, 2014)

Is IPCop's QoS like the Meraki???


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## remixedcat (Jan 30, 2014)

v12dock said:


> +1 ubiquiti



The mall here uses ubiquity and it never works.  everyone complains about it too.


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## Easy Rhino (Jan 30, 2014)

brandonwh64 said:


> I built you a system a in that other thread and it was over looked. I just built the same system using a P4 1GB ram with dual Gig NIC cards, a gig POE switch with 14 POE wireless N 300mbps nodes and it houses over 175 devices at this time and has ran strong for 3 months without a single slow down or reboot.



I would like to see a picture


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## brandonwh64 (Jan 30, 2014)

Easy Rhino said:


> I would like to see a picture



Here is the visio write up I did on the system and some of the company's details have been edited out for privacy but you get the picture on how it works


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## Michale32086 (Jan 30, 2014)

That's pretty schweet, Brandon..

Whats that ALU device??   POE???

Michale


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## brandonwh64 (Jan 30, 2014)

Michale32086 said:


> That's pretty schweet, Brandon..
> 
> Whats that ALU device??   POE???
> 
> Michale




Alcatel-Lucent OmniAccess 4308 
WIRELESS LAN SWITCH


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