I work at a motel and all the guests always want wireless access for their computers....?

Question

How complicated is it to get a wireless hookup for a 52 unit building. And how would I go about it? I mean who would I call, etc? Thank you so much for any helpful input =)

Answer 1

Here is the deal, there are 2 ways to go about this:

1. you can run cat5e cable to all rooms that are with in 350 feet of your switch, and cat6 for all that are up to 450 feet but I would expect that to be real expensive and time consuming.

2. you can call a Cisco partner that can drop like 4-5 wireless access pionts in you place and get you a WAP controller. Very inexpensive, and you can manage all guest on a web interface to change WAP passwords everynight that will take about 2 min. You can ask the Cisco partner to give access through an extra DSL line that is not connected to your work place. You will even be able to limit how much bandwith each end user can HAVE. This is very important because if 1 guest has a virus it will not clog the pipe for other users.

I would go with op 2 most hotels already have this solution and is a proven solution, there is not guessing and you are not on the bleeding edge on tech.

Answer 2

Its really not that complicated or expensive, since you can charge a little extra for the service at your motel.

Depending on how much square feet and how many floors you would need a router, a couple of switches, a few wireless access points and alot of cat5 ethernet cable.

You would also want to purchase a Hot Spot device so you could give the customer a username and password in order to access the wireless service so no one could use it for free.

As for who you would call? I dont know what area you live in, but check the yellow pages under Communications or Networking.

Answer 3

No one that you need to call in, perhaps a carpenter to get wire to where wireless signal base is best placed, perhaps 52-unit motel is too big for one wireless router to blanket it all, then about 3 is enough to cover the whole area. The manuals in a home wireless router package is enough to do DIY yourself.

Answer 4

You should be able to buy a wireless router. It would have to be a really good one though!