Comments on: What you should expect from WiFi http://www.samhooker.net/2010/03/12/what-you-should-expect-from-wifi/ Sam Hooker Tue, 17 Apr 2012 17:59:37 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Sam http://www.samhooker.net/2010/03/12/what-you-should-expect-from-wifi/#comment-19 Sam Tue, 25 May 2010 17:15:50 +0000 http://samhooker.net/?p=100#comment-19 Unless you're placing a WAP in each unit, your deployment cannot offer the same connectivity that a cable/DSL connection can. The walls of the complex can cause interference. If one or two people in the complex are avid file-sharers, the number of open IP connections they can generate can choke the bandwidth for everyone else (unless you cap bandwidth per user, of course). How many users do you have? There's usually a fairly high level of expense involved in purchasing a block of public IPs large enough to provide public IP addresses to an entire apartment complex. What's the end cost per user for that? Can you explain how <em>"traffic is managed on a per user basis"</em>? It sounds like you're just describing how DHCP works, and presenting it as a value-added service. I'm not knocking WiFi in general. If you read the article, you'll see several admonitions such as <em>"If you have a wireless router in your house, you’ll probably get great reception from it"</em>. 100Mb internet circuits are standard ethernet lines -- though it's become common practice to use gigabit ethernet in new deployments. Is your ISP providing 100Mb of bandwidth to the incoming connection? If not, you're only talking about the maximum transfer rate of the lines used in the building. 802.11g WAPs have a maximum transfer rate of 54Mb, and that bandwidth is shared among all of the users connected. Insinuating that you're offering your users 100Mb of bandwidth is "bogus". A responsible provider of WiFi in public deployments would never guarantee specific levels of uptime or available bandwidth. You cannot manage or account for all of the potential sources of interference. Unless you’re placing a WAP in each unit, your deployment cannot offer the same connectivity that a cable/DSL connection can. The walls of the complex can cause interference. If one or two people in the complex are avid file-sharers, the number of open IP connections they can generate can choke the bandwidth for everyone else (unless you cap bandwidth per user, of course).

How many users do you have? There’s usually a fairly high level of expense involved in purchasing a block of public IPs large enough to provide public IP addresses to an entire apartment complex. What’s the end cost per user for that? Can you explain how “traffic is managed on a per user basis”? It sounds like you’re just describing how DHCP works, and presenting it as a value-added service.

I’m not knocking WiFi in general. If you read the article, you’ll see several admonitions such as “If you have a wireless router in your house, you’ll probably get great reception from it”.

100Mb internet circuits are standard ethernet lines — though it’s become common practice to use gigabit ethernet in new deployments. Is your ISP providing 100Mb of bandwidth to the incoming connection? If not, you’re only talking about the maximum transfer rate of the lines used in the building. 802.11g WAPs have a maximum transfer rate of 54Mb, and that bandwidth is shared among all of the users connected. Insinuating that you’re offering your users 100Mb of bandwidth is “bogus”.

A responsible provider of WiFi in public deployments would never guarantee specific levels of uptime or available bandwidth. You cannot manage or account for all of the potential sources of interference.

]]> By: E S http://www.samhooker.net/2010/03/12/what-you-should-expect-from-wifi/#comment-18 E S Wed, 19 May 2010 04:16:23 +0000 http://samhooker.net/?p=100#comment-18 We provide wifi to apartment complexes. Our wireless is no different than a dsl connection would be to the end user. We use 100Mb internet circuits. Every user is assigned a public IP and traffic is managed on a per user basis. We are not the only ones doing this. To knock wifi in general is just bogus. It is simply a delivery mechanism. ADSL2 provides 24Mbps, we can provide far more than this if a subscriber wishes to pay for it. We provide wifi to apartment complexes. Our wireless is no different than a dsl connection would be to the end user. We use 100Mb internet circuits. Every user is assigned a public IP and traffic is managed on a per user basis. We are not the only ones doing this. To knock wifi in general is just bogus. It is simply a delivery mechanism. ADSL2 provides 24Mbps, we can provide far more than this if a subscriber wishes to pay for it.

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