Hi!!
I have implemented hotspot access at a local shopping center and it has been working great using the RB433 router boards.
I now have a big project consisting of 12 hotel floors. The floors are L shaped in form so I think I would need around 3 devices per floor.
What would be the best device to use for these installations? I want a device that can be really powerful and can transmit for a large distance in the hotel floors. Does the RB433 with a good wireless card work?
Anyone of you have any experience on these type of implementation.
I also need to link all of the RB433 into a Radius server or something to control user authentication on each room.
Can this be done with Mikrotik?

Thanks much in advance,

Teo

I would use two RB411 per floor with R52N Then you get good coverage and good throughput. Radius auth is easy once you have the wireless coverage sorted

Does it support POE?

It works as well as the RB433? I used that one and I like it but if this one which is cheaper works, that would be all good!

Let me know.

It would be much easier to have the 433's (or any wireless device) act just as an access point and have a central MikroTik handle client auth, accounting, DHCP, etc. Having multiple devices do that can get very messy very quickly and can be a massive nightmare to support. Keep in mind that the the MikroTik will need at least a level 4 license to act as an access point, level 3 will only allow one person/station to associate to it at once.

My advise would be to have all Ethernet cables pulled to a central location, and power all of the edge devices from that same central location via PoE. Most of the MikroTik boards don't support the AF standard and use their own verson, but most of them do support being powered that way. Also if at all possible doing a wireless survey before determining how many you need is highly advisable. You will probably want at least -75 dBm of signal in each room.

And how I can make sure I have the best reception?
Do I buy a big antenna? Or do I just buy the 52N wireless card?


Regards,
Teo

A more powerful card or higher gain antennas will help some, but the only way to really know what kind of wireless signal you get is to actually go into the guest room and take a signal reading with a program. It is also possible to shoot yourself in the foot with this bigger is better method because each AP can interfere with each other.

I've used NetStumbler in the past and InSSIDer, they will get you at least the basic information that you need. Each hotel is different, and everything affects wireless signal. A good rule of thumb however is about 1 AP for 5-6 rooms, and if at all possible get to the site before install and do some signal tests with an AP that you are planning on and see what kind of results you really get.

Hi!
Yeah I ordered 2 RB433 with the 52N cards. I will do some testing to see how far the signal gets so I can do some measuring.
As for RADIUS authentication what do you recommend if I want to have a Pay - per - use policy? Do I use the same Mikrotik devices or should I use a Linux Radius server of some sort?

Thanks much,
Teo

you will need more routerboards , but it all depends on how the rooms are placed and which antennas you will use. but definately you will need some high gain antenna for a good reception in the rooms. The routerboards should be able to handle the authentication of only 12 rooms

hello thomsany,

My recomendation, you can have the User Manager aplication installed on a PC with Mikrotik, and you should use Level 6 to have unlimited users connected at the same time. The instalation is pretty easy and it works great with the hotspot, and you can link as many hotspot just with a couple of lines of script. About the wireless issue, the RB433 will work okay, but have in consideration that no more than 50 clients at the same time will be connected to each hotspot due to limitations with license level 4.

by the way...User manager from Mikrotik (Radius Server) it's free!

Hey all, thanks for all your help so far

Now I am wondering if I want to bill customers to use the hotspot, can I still use the Mikrotik RADIUS solucion or do I need to get another system to integrate with Mikrotik's access points?

Thanks much in advance,

Teo

And how I can make sure I have the best reception?
Do I buy a big antenna? Or do I just buy the 52N wireless card?


Regards,
Teo

I generally recommend antenna upgrades over radio card upgrades. I bigger antenna will improve both the transmit and receive capability of the AP. While a more powerful radio card will usually transmit louder but won't be able to hear the laptops any better than a lower power radio card.

That is a general rule but if you compare the receive sensitivity specs on the radio cards you will see if there is any improvement.

Most common indoor 2.4GHz omni antennas are about 2dBi and about 3.5 inches long. A 7dBi omni is about 9.5 inches long and about as big as you will want to use indoors.

Pick up an assortment of indoor antennas and a few different radio cards for your site survey kit.

Tom

Now I am wondering if I want to bill customers to use the hotspot, can I still use the Mikrotik RADIUS solucion or do I need to get another system to integrate with Mikrotik's access points?

You can do it...there's no problem with that

I've used mikrotik R52 radios coupled to this antenna http://www.streakwave.com/Itemdesc.asp? ... D5&eq=&Tp= many times with good results. It also has a very clean professional look that blends in well with most office buildings, and is easy to install.

However if you will be installing this in an area where there is allow of interference from other APs, you may want to consider a circularly polarized antenna such as this.
http://www.streakwave.com/Itemdesc.asp? ... 7W&eq=&Tp=

??? Where vert or horiz ant will be less sensitive to other signals (up to 3dB) circular pol antenna will pick all of them equally. circ pol antenna could be useful if surfaces signal travels through cause polarity shift (trees, roofs) or when pol of the client antenna is unknown. Personally I would not use cir pol for PtMP because low gain/wide beam will pickup a lot of interference and will cause up to 3db signal loss when client does not use circ pol antenna themselves (all laptops).

regular outdoor PtMP I 100% agree that you should avoid circ pol antennas, but for an indoor implementation the signals will be bouncing around everywhere and you have no idea what polarization they will actuallly strike the antenna in.