Networking in a building

Hello,

I needed some help for the networking/internet sharing in a building. These are the floors of the building:




Now, there is still time to install concealed CAT6 cables for networking purposes. We could also use Wi-Fi, since the Wi-Fi signal is reaching to the upper floor and down floor.

If we put a Wi-Fi router on ground floor, the signal reaches to basement, and the first floor.

And if we put another wi-fi router on 3rd floor, the signal reaches to the 2nd floor and the 4th floor.

The only floor which would be out of wi-fi reach would be the 2nd floor. But that's not a problem, since we can live without internet on one floor.

So please suggest how to do networking and internet sharing in this building. If you suggest a wired network, please give a framework of how to do it.

Many Thanks.

 

Go for wired. Wi-Fi signal doesn't work very well vertically because of how antennas are working- you may not be able to have a good connection which will limit transfer speeds and devices that have lower wireless range (smartphones) may not be able to connect at all.
All in all wired makes it future-proof. If need be you may run a LAN @1gbps and transfer files flawlessly.
Another matter- had wireless proved to be unreliable in certain places you would have been forced to use repeaters or access points on certain floors.
Using repeaters cuts wireless bandwidth and using APs means you needs Ethernet cable anyway.

To sum it up- Ethernet will be better overall and will be also used as a part of Wi-Fi infrastructure- meaning you may end up connecting two APs on ground floor and 3rd floor to provide better coverage for wireless devices and keep desktops connected via wire.
So Ethernet cables make you a lot more future-proof and flexible even when it comes to adding wireless setup.

 

Seems like atleast 2 routers and some extremely directional antennas are in order. This is too much of a span for a single set of antennas if you ask me. I am not sure how you plan to utilize the network, wired for immobile stations is always a good idea and there is nothing wrong with utilizing an AP on a different channel every 2 floors. They make ceiling antenna's that basically concentrate all the power down, not sure how well they are compared to omni's when going down through floors. But i currently use a set of 4dbi omni's layed sideways to shoot wifi from a ceiling down to the third floor and it works fine.

Remember if the floors are wood theyll penetrate better, so if the ground floors are concrete then you will have to factor that in. Either way 2.4 Ghz trumps 5 in penetration but N which offers range benifits with MIMO is available in either band.

If there is time to wire, ALWAYS wire. Because it provides a direct low latency path for wireless routers, and always provides an alternative to wireless. How? If you only need one line to each floor its pretty easy, I have never dealt with large networks your probably wanting something more than just a few lines running to a patch panel thats jacked to a router.

I am sure someone will jump right in and offer an idea on handling a nice wired network.

 

Ok guys thank you so much for your suggestion.

OK, I have decided on installing the wired network, but now some questions:

Which cable (Cat5, CAT6 etc??)

How will this work? There will be one DSL modem in the building? How will this be shared on each floor?

Will there be a LAN jack on each floor? And then a wi-fi router will be connected to this jack on each floor? so that both wired and wireless connections are available on each floor?

All the wires will go to one floor and connect to the router which is connected to the dsl modem? Like this:



This is just what I can think of. I do not have much knowledge of networking.

Will I need a Wi-Fi router/router on each floor?

It's not decided yet whether the networking will be required for each floor, as building is a showroom for displaying furniture.
Offices will be in basement and 4th floor.

So if someone could basically give me a framework/drawing of the network, I will highly appreciate it.

 

Remember that you can only run CAT5/6 up to 100 meters. You may want to place an intermediate switch in a middle floor and distribute to the floors above and below it, depending on the distance between cable runs.

 

You have not said how many users you will be connecting. I would wire each floor (cat6) to a std location that you have in all floors to a switch. Then tie the switches together (to the router) and add you dsl and router to the the main one to issue ip's. You could use an 8 port router and tie each floor into it. With todays smart managed switches like Dline DGS 1224T will allow you to setup virtual lans to segregate users if you need to. This will also help you manage network flow. If your business requires redundancy get a router that supports roll over and load balancing. If your going to use a FW appliance and proxy server it would be located in 1 central location. Now you can always go back and add a AP to each floor centrally located. You may also want a AP in the lobby for guest to connect to that is isolated from your private network.

 

If I would build the wifi setup it would connect to 2 building down the street ... and that from the basement.
1-2W router with directional antenna .. normal to 1W adapters as needed .. everyone can pick up radiation suit at the doors
^^ cell phones a lot worse

But for more security I would just wire the house up with cat6 if the walls/floor still open.

ps.:

Someone didn't figured out yet why they made antennas turnable

 

I don't mean to crash the party here, but you don't want to consult with professional in your case? You should have some questions like

1. How many users per floor?
2. How much bandwidth you need total?
3. What is the router and banwidth that can handle to users at peak hour.
3. What is your core switch, Access Point, VLAN, DHCP, DNS, and firewalll strategy? Are they going to be PoE?

It is just a thought from my perspective.

 

The height of the building is 19 Meters (from basement to 4th floor), so I guess this won't be an issue?

Hi Thanks a lot for your suggestion. I am really a newbie regarding networking. So if you could please explain in more easier terms, or if you could help explain with a diagram, that would be great!

 

If you turn your antenna your vertical range gets better but then your lateral gets worse. If you have two antennas and turn one and leave the other you get better reception both ways but in no case is it as good as with two antennas working together. That is provided the router has external antennas at all- it's getting rare.

 

I just want a simple network. Users will be around 2 per floor (but they wont be equally divided per floor - it will be like 4 users on 4th floor, 2 users on ground floor, 1 user in basement).

The internet connection will be around 1Mbps - 4Mbps. It may increase to 8 Mbps after like 3 years.

Sorry, I didn't understand what you meant by these, as I am a newbie:
3. What is your core switch, Access Point, VLAN, DHCP, DNS, and firewalll strategy? Are they going to be PoE?

 

Ok, if you want simpler network, my suggestion would be too big for you. To answer your questions.

1. Core switch is the main switch that does all the routing in LAN network.
2. Access Point is the wireless device that allows you to connect to the network. It normally connects to access layer switch. It isn't the same thing as wireless router. It just passes the network information to switch through the air.
3. VLAN is virtual LAN or network subnet such as 192.168.1.x, 192.168.2.x, and so on.
4. DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) refers to a DHCP server that hands out IP address automatically like wireless routher that you can buy from Walmart or Office Depot.
5. DNS is Domain Name Service. It translates IP address to web address. For example, 69.147.125.65 is Yahoo!
6. Firewall is practically packet regulator. It can be either hardware or software. It monitors and regulates inbound (incomming) and outbound(outgoing) packet or traffic between you LAN (Local Area Network) and WAN (Wide Area Network) aka internet as you know.

I hope, I answer all your questions here.

The advice from blue68f100 is the most logical in my opinon. If I were you, I would go his route. He is not entirely correct, but I will take direction a a guideline.

 

Student101,

Since you do not have very may users, you need to decide on how much flexibility you need/want. My layout was similar to yours except I had a switch set at each floor. Then a run from each to where your main router and modem is. Your requirements are not very large even though you are scattered out over several floors. Do you know if everyone will be on the same network, or do some need isolation for security reasons? The cheapest way would be to have all the wiring terminate on the middle floor, or all terminate on a floor of your choice. I would setup a GigE network, cat6 wiring. Then setup a switch to handle all of your needs with some spares for expansion. You said modem and router. If a router fits your needs move up to a SMB (Small to Medium Business Class) router. Some of these even support rollover, load balancing and even VPN. They support VLAN, and a lot of features not found on home equipment. You have to decide on how you will handle the FireWall, either locally on each pc, or by a network appliance. Just a few things to think about.

 

Don't forget a patch panel. I helped wire my uncles house with cat6. We ran a total of 10-15 runs (cant remember exactly). It is pretty easy to run cat6 vs 5e, but there are a few things you should pay close attention to. Remember to keep the cat6 away from electrical lines (can cause interference), and try not to crimp the wire at all (no 90 degree turns) as that cat6 is pretty fragile stuff and it's easy to break the wires inside. When your putting ends on cut the shielding as far down as possible, and get it as close to what your installing it into as you can (hope that makes sense). The longer the wires run parallel to each other the more interference they will have with one another.

 

Thank you for your suggestion.

Sorry, I am really a newbie here, so I have to ask: What is the difference between a switch and a router? I am kinda confused about this.

Currently, I do not know whether all the users will need to be on the same network or not. But can't we deny someone access to the network, and let him only share the internet? And also as you said "smart managed switches like Dline DGS 1224T will allow you to setup virtual lans to segregate users", does that mean we do not need to worry about this?

"You have not said how many users you will be connecting. I would wire each floor (cat6) to a std location that you have in all floors to a switch. Then tie the switches together (to the router) and add you dsl and router to the the main one to issue ip's. You could use an 8 port router and tie each floor into it. "


Could you please explain this again? I am kinda confused here with the above paragraph. Could you please, please explain with the help of a diagram? That would really help me understand the network.

 

Terminalogy was covered by merlin_72032

A simpler way to look at the routers/switches/Access points.

A router will issues IP address, nat functions (routing) and normally has a 4 port switch (lans ports). The wireless part of a Router is called the Access Point.

A switch is the lan part of the router. That can route traffic without going back to the router. So if your switch is Gige and your Router is 100baseT, traffic between clients on the switch can communicate at Gige speeds. But all traffic going to the router will slow down to the 100baset. Not all GigE switches are the same. Some have limits on how much data than can handle. Meaning if the switch has a 16gig limit the switch cap the speed at that. Now some are not bidirectional, 1000 out and 100 in. The better ones will be bidirectional, 1000 in and 1000 out. Another neat feature found on some switches is trunking. Meaning if your server supports it you can have multiple ports (2) running to the same device doubling the throughput. This just speeds up file transfer between multiple users.

As long as the switch supports VLan's you will be able to segregate users. Other wise all end up in the same sub net. Which can not be good if one of your groups requires higher security like Payroll, ER..... Or even for restricting outside access.

So you will need to look at the finer detail spec of the switch(s) your considering. The one I mention was an example for you to get familiar with them.

Real Help For Your Small Network - SmallNetBuilder has reviews on all kind of hardware. He has covered switches in the past, so reading his reviews will give you a little more knowledge and understanding. He has covered them pretty good even did a project on how the vlans can optimize speed.

 

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