Reliable WiFi in Corrugated Iron clad apartments

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johcar

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Topic # 230398 22-Feb-2018 11:18

A friend has three holiday apartments (2 upstairs, one down) at the beach near Kaitaia. Currently only ADSL is available. ISP currently Spark.

There is a modem/router in one of the upstairs apartments and that is the only WiFi signal that is currently being generated for use by all three apartments. Fine if you're in that apartment, but in the other two, the signal is unreliable - in the main, I suspect, because the apartments are clad with corrugated iron (not the most transmissible material for a WiFi signal).

The upstairs apartments have high ceilings - the downstairs apartment is 'normal' height.

Additionally, wanna-be semi-tech-savvy renters in the apartment with the modem/router, often turn off the modem/router or try to access/change the WiFi password, stuffing internet connectivity up for everyone else. I guess this is easily fixed with a wall-mounted locked box for the modem/router...

We are looking for a solution that will provide a solid, reliable signal in each of the apartments.

I was originally thinking along the lines of hard-wired WiFi access points for each apartment, but have been doing a bit of reading and a mesh WiFi may suit.

Can anyone suggest solutions please?

And once we have a satisfactory solution, I would be happy to entertain registrations of interest for installation (if the solution requires much more than just plugging stuff in)...

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Reply # 1962140 22-Feb-2018 11:26

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Have a look at Ubiquiti's AmpliFi product

Or if you are happy to run cables to each apartment I would suggest a Ubiquiti UniFi device in each apartment. Only one cable required from a central point.

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wellygary

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Reply # 1962144 22-Feb-2018 11:34

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the exterior cladding won't really be hurting the internal wifi that much, but the Solid floors between the units will not be helping.

You could go down the power line adaptor route,

But given that its being run as a commercial operation with guests coming and going you essentially want an idiot proof system that cannot by played around with by guests,

I think you have concluded that a wired Access point system is the best outcome and I think that it the best option...

Also what's the ADSL speed like, - running 3 units off a single connection could become a problem,

Crowdie

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Reply # 1962156 22-Feb-2018 11:45

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You need to control the signal so the wireless network in apartment x is not adversely affected by the wireless network in apartment y. Have you looked at hospitality access points which are designed for exactly this reason?

johcar

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Reply # 1962162 22-Feb-2018 11:57

wellygary:

the exterior cladding won't really be hurting the internal wifi that much, but the Solid floors between the units will not be helping.

You could go down the power line adaptor route,

But given that its being run as a commercial operation with guests coming and going you essentially want an idiot proof system that cannot by played around with by guests,

I think you have concluded that a wired Access point system is the best outcome and I think that it the best option...

Also what's the ADSL speed like, - running 3 units off a single connection could become a problem,

Yes, idiot-proof for sure!! Far too many idiots out there!!!

Hmm. I was also wondering whether the single connection for three units might also be bottlenecking connectivity. When WiFi is connected, the speed seems OK (considering it's ADSL), with only minor buffering while watching Netflix, but not certain who else might be on the connection upstairs at the same time... The signal does drop out occasionally - not sure whether the floor between upstairs and down is wood or concrete...

I might see whether additional connections are possible, but that would add substantially to the ongoing costs of the operation (three phone lines and three internet plans - would be over $200 a month more).

VDSL is coming - and so is Fibre - by the end of 2022!!! (a single fibre connection would eliminate contention issues, but not the WiFi reliability)...

johcar

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Reply # 1962163 22-Feb-2018 11:58

Crowdie:

You need to control the signal so the wireless network in apartment x is not adversely affected by the wireless network in apartment y. Have you looked at hospitality access points which are designed for exactly this reason?

Thanks for the suggestion - will investigate

hio77

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Reply # 1962166 22-Feb-2018 12:00

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as great as mesh products can be, For this situation go with a fixed cable, AP per apartment.

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johcar

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Reply # 1962167 22-Feb-2018 12:03

hio77:

as great as mesh products can be, For this situation go with a fixed cable, AP per apartment.

Always nice to have my opinion confirmed!!

johcar

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Reply # 1962173 22-Feb-2018 12:15

Dynamic:

Have a look at Ubiquiti's AmpliFi product

Or if you are happy to run cables to each apartment I would suggest a Ubiquiti UniFi device in each apartment. Only one cable required from a central point.

Cheers - looks promising

michaelmurfy

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Reply # 1962189 22-Feb-2018 12:40

Whilst mesh WiFi will work I don't think it is the best solution. Ceiling mounting access points is by far the best option (maybe getting the UniFi AC-Lites) and from here you could rate limit each device on the guest network so it doesn't slam the ADSL connection too much. As others have said I would recommend 4 for the best coverage (one in each apartment). Something else you could do is have 2x ADSL connections coming in to get as much bandwidth as possible and using a USG + UniFi Switch to balance those two connections (don't know your budget here).

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ajobbins

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Reply # 1962218 22-Feb-2018 13:34

johcar:

hio77:

as great as mesh products can be, For this situation go with a fixed cable, AP per apartment.

Always nice to have my opinion confirmed!!

I'm only starting to play with Unifi kit, but so far I'm impressed. If you have multiple APs they have some smarts to work together/around each other to minimise interference and can band-steer some traffic away to 5ghz which will probably have less congestion problems if the user is close to the AP.

Unifi also have some pretty good built in 'guest' access stuff with portals and limits and codes. For example, guests could be issued a voucher with an expiry date, rate and/or quota limits

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Crowdie

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Reply # 1962274 22-Feb-2018 15:21

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While you just have an ADSL connection to the apartments that is going to be your bottleneck so you can deploy SME product, like Ubiquiti, and get away with it. Ubiquiti, and other SME product, lack high end functionality (dropping of broadcast and multicast traffic bridging to the Ethernet network, multicast to unicast conversion, application level QoS, etc.) that will improve the performance of time sensitive applications, like video and voice, once you are on fibre.

Crowdie

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Reply # 1962367 22-Feb-2018 17:56

michaelmurfy:

Whilst mesh WiFi will work I don't think it is the best solution.

A mesh connection will add latency and, most likely, jitter. These will adversely affect voice and video performance.

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Reply # 1962784 23-Feb-2018 10:53

Given he cant get a good signal through the floors..
how could mesh be considered as a workable solution , if the nodes cant get a good signal it wont achieve anything (?)

Perhaps separate ADSL into each apartment would be worth looking into (if possible). Then one aprtments bandwidth hogging wont effect everyone
else .
Does each apartment have a separate ph line ?

"I guess this is easily fixed with a wall-mounted locked box for the modem/router..."
yes, because otherwise you have someone trying a hardware reset on the devices .

wratterus

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Reply # 1962802 23-Feb-2018 11:11

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If you can get Ethernet run to each room, or if potentially there is already some there that can be re-purposed (phone jacks possibly?) these are awesome as they mount in a flush box.

They are awesome for retrofitting a building that already has Ethernet run to wall jacks.

https://www.gowifi.co.nz/wireless/uap-ac-iw.html

Otherwise standard ceiling mount UniFi APs would be awesome too, but possibly more tricky to install.

I wish people had the forethought to put more importance on this type of thing when building were originally built. Such a cheap thing to do at the time, so difficult and expensive to do after the fact!

sbiddle

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Reply # 1962807 23-Feb-2018 11:16

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Based on the design and layout you need fixed WiFi and probably more than 1 AP per floor to deliver adequate coverage (remembering everything should be designed for 5GHz coverage these days).

Really needs a professional and a proper site survey do adequately answer the question..

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