Public Wi-Fi - what kind of hardware?

We have a public wifi hotspot available. It really nothing more than a run of the mill netgear wireless router, and it goes out daily. I dont know if it is due to the # of connections or what, but I need to improve it.

Does anyone have a peice of hardware they would recommend for public access. We might have 5-10 people on it at a time, all the time.

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Comments

tiersten

If you want the budget option then a Linksys WRT54GL running DD-WRT with ChilliSpot.

I don't trust Netgear hardware apart from their small blue metal non rackmount unmanaged switches.

earweed

Before replacing it you may want to check the lease time. If it's set to the default (probably 1 week) then you may be running out of addresses. If it's a place where a lot of different people come in at different times then set to lease for a few hours or something.
I've experimented with my little crappy trendnet router and it had no problem handling 15 wireless users at one time. If it's not the DHCP lease time then you may just have a hardware problem with the router, it may be overheating or something.

aethereos

brad- wrote: »

We have a public wifi hotspot available. It really nothing more than a run of the mill netgear wireless router, and it goes out daily. I dont know if it is due to the # of connections or what, but I need to improve it.

Does anyone have a peice of hardware they would recommend for public access. We might have 5-10 people on it at a time, all the time.

Hi Brad,

Check the basics (in no particular order):

1) Change SSID and require WPA2/AES encryption. You might have 5-10 "known" users at any time, but do you know how many are on it without your authorization?

2) Change the channel to 1, 6, or 11. Preferably 1 or 11. Don't use any other channels as they overlap with one of the three.

3) Upgrade your router firmware

4) Add another Access Point, with the same SSID and different channel (look at #2 above)

5) Use Wireshark (with care!)

6) Change default admin password

7) inSSIDer

Check for interferences from both WiFi and non-Wifi sources (microwaves, 2.4 Ghz phones, etc...)

9) If all else fails, just replace the router.

Feel free to ask here and I'd be happy to help you. Post as much information as possible (without any PID) and I'm sure someone can point you to the right place.

brad-

Thanks. The firmware us up to date, and i've set new admin pw. I have not checked the lease time though...i'll get on that. I'll bet thats what it is.

There is no security on it, it is free to the public for their use while they wait in our lobby.