== Kind Regards, Kyle Williamson - Solent Educational Ltd Tel: (023) 80 843189 Fax: (023) 80 848715 kyle@solented.co.uk / http://www.solented.co.uk -----Original Message----- From: Alan Davies [mailto:staff.asd@birkenhead.wirral.sch.uk] Sent: 06 January 2032 15:32 To: suse-linux-uk-schools@suse.com Subject: [suse-linux-uk-schools] Wireless stuff No - I haven't got as far as making our Suse box to do wirelesss - yet. But its a small part of the plan.... We have decided to cover our campus with Wireless acces points. -- That's a good thing :-) We went for 801.11g at a potential of 54Mb/s but with the longer range of the old 801.11b standard. At the moment this gives us more compatibility with existing kit - especially PDAs which only seem to have 801.11b cards. Of course I soon discover there is much to learn... Channels 1 to 14 in the UK. I set my AP to channel 12. Our PDAs would not pick it up. Why? Because only channels 1 to 11 are 'universal'; channels 12 to 14 are only available in UK (EEC?) -- AFAIK, This is to do with regulation about what frequencies are available and which are not, each government (EEC?) has different sets of regulation as to which wavelengths are available for use by unregistered wireless devices and which are not. In the process I also discover that although the channels are 5MHz apart each channel is 22MHz wide so there are only 3 effective non overlapping channels - so some though must be given to channel settings on adjacent APs to get maximum benefit vs coverage. I'm not sure as so decide which channel to use - if some channels are used peramanently by DECT phones, BlueTooth, etc how will I know? Is there any reporting software utilties? -- I've not seen this as a problem personally, even at home I have at wireless network, DECT Phones etc and I just let it set itself up. From my experience, their fairly fault tolerant. Then there is security. We've all heared of those tin cans used as aerials by hackers driving around in cars. So I set up 128bit WEP in the APs. Agh...the PDAs only cater for 64bit (not that it told me anywhere - it was just impossible to type in the key - and they wouldn't connect..) -- That's not surprising, there's some 40bit Wireless Kit out there too. QUESTIONS: Why does the AP give me 4 keys? (but only transmit one?) Is it a random choice for me? Do I assign keys to different user groups so that I can forbid groups for connecting? What's the idea? Should I have the same key in the mobile (which only accepts one?) Can it be any of the 4 keys? Should I set the SSID to be the same for the whole campus? Does this make moving between access points easier (no need to select as you migrate?) (I don't think its quite as transparent as mobile phone cells there seems to a a gap of several seconds while it changes - and tends to stick with existing weak signal even if you are right next to another) -- It depends. For instance, if you wanted "Science" Laptops to only work on the "Science" AP, then yes, set for instance "Birkenhead Science" as that AP's SSID. However, if you want to move laptops around the campus, then Yes, keep to one SSID or you will end up tinkering with the configuration moving kit around (especially on PDAs) Or should I give a descriptive name to each AP? -- This is sensible, i.e: SSID: "Birkenhead Wireless" AP NAME: "Third Floor AP" If lots of users are in an area covered my more than one AP do the clients share out the connections? Do they pick the lowest channel or highest? At random? Or do they pick on the strength of the signal? Or the loading of the Access points? -- It seems to be a fairly random thing, as far as I know. One thing I have found, if I wireless connection is available, then wireless tends to find it. Anyone with experience in these matters? If so, what else would you draw my attention to? -- Working out a coverage map. Also, if you intend to have student banks of laptops, extra power supplies are a necessity and perhaps a LapSafe or some other form of security. Another problem may be the lack of power points in classrooms. Many thanks. - Alan Davies Head of Computing Birkenhead School -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: suse-linux-uk-schools-unsubscribe@suse.com For additional commands, e-mail: suse-linux-uk-schools-help@suse.com