Enabling Wireless for small school in Ireland

[binnie]

Greetings readers near and far!

I've been here in Ireland for about 7 months now. I got a job working at Dell and have been hanging out mostly with my wife's family. My wife's sister teaches at a small school for kids. They have a wired connection linking up to (1) wireless access point.

The schools layout consists of multiple rooms with computers, (maybe 8 in total) and is ROUGHLY in the shape of, -hell, lets say a pretzel! I suggested that the BEST option would be to wire the whole lot and add network ports to each room. The second alternative, which is what i think we are going with, is to get (2) wireless repeaters and see if that works.

I did a bit of research on the use of repeaters:

1.) there are VERY FEW repeaters on the market
2.) most people seem positive about this solution
3.) why aren't there LOADS MORE people using them, or reporting their success!?

Finally, my question is: "What does anyone suggest in this situation?"

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for your time!

-binnie/.

[Alan87i]

I would consider a wireless repeater a last resort option.
They tend to cut the actual throughput ( transfer rate) in 1/2 or less.

One way to look at this job is From the router run a cable to each of the spots , rooms or areas you figure they will need wireless access. Set up an access point at these locations.
Now between these AP's and the router say there's a room with desktop computers , maybe even in the same room. Use a switch and wire those desktops and plug that AP for the laptops into the switch as well.
Save the price of pci cards by hard wiring the NON mobile devices ( PC's ) they will have less problems and have a faster connection to the router.

You might get away with running 1 wire from the router to the room with the most pc's plugged to a switch, from the switch too the desktops and an AP if you run out of plugs add another switch and branch from it to the next 2 rooms. I wouldn't add more then 3 switches in series , too many hops can lead to problems as well.

[Evertb]

@binnie It's all hard to say without a site survey but I would suggest (depending on the size of the school) just using wifi ap's with omni-directional or directional antennas. It really all depends on the physical size of the building.
Where in Ireland is the school based? If it's near to me I could come and have a look...

[binnie]

thanks for the replies so far! :)

This school is in Ennis, County Clare.

[jessenkurien]

since the network is pretty small ,,and looking at the cost factor ,,i think repeater should resolve ur issue,,,i think the brand name of the Access point can help us in answering ur query in a better way.:)

Cheers,
Jessen Kurien
CCNA,CWNA,Certified Ethical Hacker