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Installing Wireless Access Points: Errors

After you have performed your site survey, installed your access points, and configured your clientsyou will always find problems some where. Hopefully you can avoid some of the errors listed below.

1. Access Point Placement - Do not place access points in corners, by phones, large metal objects, behind posts, microwave ovens.

2. Antenna Diversity - Don’t have your access pont at full transmission power if it dosen’t need to. The most secure wireless network is one that nobody knows about. Often A medium sized business with a couple cheap access points will be broadcastin their signal for blocks.

3. Antenna Installation - Reduce you cable length as much as possible. Also check the maxium cable length for that antenna.

4. No dynamic IP addresses - Give all your wireless access points permanent IP addresses.

5. Same channel - Change your wireless access points to the same channel but don’t leave it at the default.

6. Quality vs Quantity - Spend the money on a good access points and antennas. You want as few access points in one area as possible.

7. Spend the Money on POE ( Power over ethernet)access points - With POE your not limited to where you can place your access points.

8. Firmware - Update your wireless access points firmware before you install it. You could fry your access point and have to uninstall, that sucks.

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BUYING A WIRELESS ROUTER

You might be asking what features should I look for in a wireless router. You will have to ask yourself some questions first.

1. Do you currently have a 802.11b or 802.11g wireless adapter?

2. Do you want to connect remotely to your office network?

3. Do you live in an apartment or house?

4. What security features are you looking for?

5. Do you have desktop computers to connect also?

If you currently have a 802.11g wireless adapter you will want to purchase a 802.11g wireless router so you can maximize your network speed at 54mbps. 802.11g adapters will also connect to 802.11b wireless routers but you will only have a network speed of 11mbps. This speed you still be fine for the majority of users, most public wireless access points use 802.11b.

Connecting securely to your home office will require a technology called a VPN or virtual private network. Most routers will claim to have the ability to use VPN’s but when you attempt to connect you receive nothing buy errors. So you will want to purchase a wireless router that will specifically designed for wireless and VPN technology. Once you have purchased your wireless router you need to get the latest firmware updates from the manufacture.

Wireless router security could fill up volumes so I will keep it as “simple” as possible. The following are some basic features that are on most routers:

1. Disabling SSID broadcasting

2. Change your default SSID

3. Enable WEP encryption

4. Enable MAC address filtering

If you enable the above you will discourage most “hackers” from even looking at your wieless network. There are too many wide open networks that don’t need any brainwork to get into.

The following are some of the more advanced Security features on newer routers with updated firmware.

1. WPA - WPA is the solution to all of WEP’s security flaws. WEP uses one key to for all network traffic. A hacker can exploit this by using a network analyzer to capture the key. WPA changes the key with every data frame so once a hacker captures the key it has already been changed by WPA. WPA uses tools such as TKIP and AES encryption.

2. WPA-PSK (Wireless Protected Area pre shared key) This is really easy to set up just copy your shared key to router and adapter and your set.

3. TKIP - The second best version of encryption for WPA

4. AES - This is the highest version of encryption for WPA

5. WPA -RADIUS uses a RADIUS server to authenticate users which adds another layer of security. Linksys does offer a service to for $5.00 month per user to use their RADIUS server. If you have no clue what you just read then don’t worry about it.

Wired security will include NAT ( Network Address Translation) this takes your public IP address and converts it into multiple private IP addresses. Some people consider this a firewall but it isn’t because it doesn’t block unwanted outgoing addresses.

Another newer feature is Called MIMO (Multi in Multi out) the basic concept of this your router or access point has more that just two antennas which enables your router to receive and send information at a greater rate. This creates signal reflections which could reduce dead spots in your network. Add on top of this SRX technology will automatically have your router switch to the clearest channel instead of staying on a channel with interference. The above will increase your range greatly and the increase the power of your signal.

Another router feature is POE (Power over Ethernet) this is a really good feature for business environment because you power your router through the Ethernet cable, which means you don’t need a power outlet.

One feature which is often over looked but one of the coolest features of a wireless router or access point is the ability of act as a wireless bridge. If you have a huge ware house and you need to connect computers on either end of the warehouse you can use a wireless bridge to connect both ends with out running wires.

The main things to remember are: 802.11g is faster than 802.11b, enable the basic security features and finally choose the router that will fit your needs.

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Most wireless antenna and wireless access point manufactures usually say the higher the better went mounting. This is true but you must take in account: coverage area, height of the building, type of antenna and weather.

Wireless Antenna - First you need to decide what type of antenna you are going to use. If you are going to use a directional antenna then you will be able to tilt it downward if needed to cover you needed area. But if you mount the antenna two high you will have a dead zone between the building or ceiling to the ground level. You will not want to tilt a omni directional antenna downward because you will be sending half of your signal up in the sky.

Another common scenario is to use a Omni directional antenna in conjunction with your directional antenna to avoid dead spots.
When choosing a directional antenna make sure it’s radiation pattern suits your needs. If you need to give a long hallway wireless coverage then you will need to ensure it’s radiation pattern doesn’t leave dead spots.

One 8dbi directional antenna could have a signal pattern of 60 degrees horizontal and vertical and a 14dbi could have a 30 degree signal pattern. If you used 14dbi directional antenna the room closest to the wireless access point could end up being dead spots.

Coverage Area - The most important thing is that you can provide a constant secure signal with out it costing too much money. That is really how you decide how to place your access points. Usually the higher the better because the height lets gives more options. Just take in account that you are not leaving dead spots close to the access point / antenna.

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