Wireless access point in a school

jem16

Our main school building is built with classrooms round 4 sides with a central garden area. 3 sides of this rectangle shape are covered with 2 wireless access points attached to data points on the school network.

However one side does not pick up the wireless signal and we would like this to do so. On that side we have one more data point. Can we attach one more wireless access point to that data point?

I tried to ask the person in our local council who deals with ICT issues. She thinks it would not work as the WAPs would interfere with each other and the laptops would not know which WAP to connect with.

As all three WAPs would connect to the same router I can't see a problem.

Can it be done so that all laptops will simply connect to the WAP with the strongest signal?

Conor_3

That person at the council wants sacking. Then again, they pay them just above minimum wage so it's the usual case of peanuts and monkeys.

It would work no different than it already does with two. Just have a look at each WAP to see how they've been configured and follow suite if they're both set up the same.

jem16

Thanks.

I wish I could take a look myself as I would buy a WAP and have it set up within minutes. Unfortunately we have a managed service ( Research Machines ) and it won't let me access anything! I can't even install a printer - all I'm allowed to do is take it out the box, connect it all up and then I have to log a call to have an "engineer" set it up.

In some ways the managed service is good and in other ways it stops me from doing a lot of things I could do in minutes.

RM also used to handle our networking installations and at least they knew what they were talking about. It has now been taken over by the council and my first port of call has basically told me what I propose won't work.

espresso

jem16 wrote: »

I tried to ask the person in our local council who deals with ICT issues. She thinks it would not work as the WAPs would interfere with each other and the laptops would not know which WAP to connect with.

As all three WAPs would connect to the same router I can't see a problem.

Can it be done so that all laptops will simply connect to the WAP with the strongest signal?

As long as the SSID and the encryption key is configured to be identical on all access points, any PC should connect to the AP with the strongest signal.