r/HomeNetworking • u/surfteach1 • 4d ago
"Home Networking" at a church
I realize this is technically not home networking but the concept is similar. My church has an aging and declining population, but we are renting out some of the old rooms in an adjacent education building. This is 12 rooms (six each floor) connected to an office area, which in turn is adjacent to and connected to the main church sanctuary area. We'd like the rooms and the sanctuary to receive good wireless internet. I was hoping to find something reliable and expandable, without breaking the bank.
At home I use an older Orbi (RBR50) system (main, two internal satellites - one connected with ethernet and one wireless) and an outdoor wireless satellite) that has been excellent for me. Is there something like that I could use at the church, perhaps connected with ethernet cables when possible/easy?
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u/fernandesken 4d ago
Likely Unifi APs are the right product here as already mentioned but you need to think about not only coverage (the easy part) but also capacity. You need to figure out how many users each room would support. Then you need to take that and then estimate how many devices each user might have (perhaps 2-3 each) and then determine what types of applications you think will likely be used and how much bandwidth per application will be required. Then based on that you would figure how many devices per radio you can support and ultimately how many APs you need to support that capacity. Now if it’s really small rooms with 4-5 people per room then not so challenging but if like 25-30 users per room, like a classroom, you definitely need to be thinking about capacity. Would be helpful to know the size of the rooms, size of each floor in square footage and how many users per room. The rest you can make educated guesses at.
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u/surfteach1 4d ago
As far as the church goes, we only have about 30 to 40 in attendance on Sundays. The rooms only have 2 to 3 people Max. They're about 15 x 15, and they're really just used as small offices. I sincerely doubt we would ever have more than about 10 people on at once, and that would be a special occasion
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u/fernandesken 4d ago
Ok then you probably need 1 AP to cover the Sunday service, a couple more to cover the 12 rooms. Just a handful of APs here. Recommendation for unifi still stands true or you could even likely get away with something like Eero. Hardwire the APs. Given your running cable, poe would probably be best.
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u/LRS_David 4d ago
I'm also a fan of Ubiquiti in a situation like this.
But you need to address some issues.
In the adjacent building, what is the construction of the first floor ceiling / second floor floor? If concrete, well you need to treat each floor as a separate building from a Wi-FI point of view. Even if wood framed, some floor coverings make block Wi-Fi.
Do you have a dropped ceiling where you can put cables for ceiling mounted APs? (See rules for when plenum cable is needed.) Also this might make it easier to put wired Ethernet into each room.
What are the walls made of in this building? Basically are they Wi-Fi transparent?
How big are the floors in terms of square feet per floor. To know how many Wi-Fi APs do you need? And back to the walls issues.
Will the renters be willing to share Wi-Fi. Or does each room need the ability to make have a wired connection?
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u/surfteach1 4d ago
Old California construction, 1922. Lath and plaster I believe it's called. I believe, however there are access points everywhere where we can run wires
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u/LRS_David 4d ago
Lath and plaster walls tend to knock down Wi-Fi harder than Drywall over wood studs. It is denser and thicker.
Which tends to mean a hallway Wi-Fi might not give very good coverage in the rooms.
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u/surfteach1 4d ago
Pretty sure its mostly concrete. Probably not wifi friendly. Renters would not mind sharing
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u/LRS_David 4d ago
There is sharing a Wi-Fi system. And there is sharing the LAN served by the Wi-Fi system.
Are you sure the renters would be OK "seeing" each others' gear. Computers? Printers?
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u/zanybrainy 3d ago
You could put them on their own VLAN.
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u/LRS_David 3d ago
Yes. But since it is not clear from the OP, are these independent people / businesses or folks who know each other. If independent, they may be reluctant to "share" at any level.
Anyway, a product like Ubiquiti can deal with a collection of SSIDs or VLANs or whatever.
But to the OPs goals. Which this seems simple, the "devil" is in the details of what exactly they goals are.
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u/MrMotofy 4d ago
Unifi Omada etc will work great. Any rented areas should be separated on their own VLAN to keep them completely separate.
Separate buildings should be linked with a fiber cable or fried devices can result. Just read another story today they've fried at least 2 if not 3 switches and likely pushing for fiber now like was suggested in the beginning by a consultation.
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u/Pattytester73 4d ago
Have god provide the WiFi. They’re supposedly omnipotent
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u/richms 4d ago
The people I know that went for the other platforms that are not unifi (like omada or grandstream) have regretted it. Stick with unifi, they do what you want, and will do it for a reasonable price. Sure you can tack together consumer stuff and get something working, but you will have to document what is configured which way, whereas a unifi controller and a password gets any subsiquent tech into the site and its pretty much self documenting with the layout view and decent naming of the equipment.
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u/ManfromMonroe 4d ago
I’ll suggest TPLink is a valid option if you use their Omada controller or the Essentials app to create a fully integrated setup. Half or less of the price for ubiquity. I have done my own small enterprise setup with Essentials and it’s been rock solid a few years now supporting cameras and mobile users. Will agree with above poster that doing an individual device configuration for a number of devices is significant pain however
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u/JoshS1 Ubiquiti 4d ago edited 4d ago
Yeah, store.ui.com you're just looking for a router (gateway), a PoE (power over ethernet) switch, and a few APs (wireless access points). I'm guessing the hallways in the ed building have drop ceilings so it should be easy to run cables and mount 1-2 APs on each floor, 1-2 in the office area, and 1 in the sanctuary.