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[Greg Brown <gwbrown1 AT gmail.com>]

Like Jason said, you are probably going to be okay if the traffic is light, but you have some other options worth investigating.

First you may want to conduct a wireless survey of the office space in question.  If you find that all the B/G channels are in use with fairly high signal strength you may want to go the 
802.11a route.  If your wireless spectrum is totally free of congestion (not likely) you may want to consider setting up two APs with different SSIDs to create a bit of balance.

Also attach things like network printers or server via cat5 either to the open ports on the back of the AP/Router or via some other device.  If you can get those high volume devices off wireless you'll be a happier man (any by printers I really mean print server, I've never seen a wireless HP printer but I'm sure one exists, but what a waste of shared bandwidth that would be).

If you do go the 802.11a route take advantage of the greater number of channels and put two or more APs in to achieve some load balance.  And remember, if you can cram one Cat5 wire down a wall you are likely to be able to cram 5, maybe more.  And if you can get 5 down there you can install a small switch on each of those 5 wires and then you'll be able to have everyone on 10/100 which is far more bandwidth, more reliable, and more secure.

But if you are going to go wireless make sure you are using WPA and it might be a good idea to initiate some kind of capture-and-release portal with a radius/tacacs band end authentication.  Just at thought.

Congratulations on the office expansion!  It's always nice to hear of someone needing to expand for whatever reason.

Greg

On 1/26/06, Tony Spencer <tony AT tonyspencer.com> wrote:

I need more office space and I'm looking at a vacant suite below my current
office.  The problem is that it isn't wired with CAT5.  I can drop an
ethernet wire down there and install a good wireless router.  Do you think
that it's a bad idea to attempt to use wireless for a dozen employees?

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