dawn1993
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want to setup wireless in a church for about 25-50 users
What is the cheapest way to provide wireless networking for a church. Here is the router they use from comcast.
Arris
TG862G
Arris
TG862G
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I know this is hard to answer depending on what each person is doing. Do you know the maximum clients this AP with be able to handle? Most will be downloading videos to watch on their tablets, iphones and laptops and some surfing.
250+
Perhaps it's not the AP that's the bottleneck in the scenario you've given.
It's more likely that the internet source is the bottleneck unless you now have one of the promised Gigabit internet pipes!!
More likely it's around 15Mbps down. Is that close?
If that's the case then just about any router, switch, device is going to easily support the internet connection bottleneck.
If you want to watch Netflix at HD then you need 5Mbps per their website.
That's 3 users.... maybe 4 or 5 depending on who is watching what and with what kind of buffering and when. Not that these things will make *much* difference but you might eke out one or two more users is the point.
The maximum number of users (and this means ALL the devices not people necessarily) will be 252 assuming 254 usable addresses in a /24 subnet, one address for the internet gateway and one address for the AP. You could get one more if you don't put the AP on the same subnet but that's not very convenient if at possible at all. But, as above, they can't get much bandwidth each if that's the situation. The arithmetic says something like:
15Mbps / 252 = 0.059 Mbps per User on the average.
Now, if the source of video is from an internal source then you might get 300Mbps from the AP that you would add and that might serve 60 users best case. The Arris wireless is only good for 54Mbps on its wireless and we have to assume that's total bandwidth and not anything else. So the Arris would be able to support 11 video feeds IF the internet connection would be at least 54Mbps as well OR if the video is coming over the Gbps Ethernet from internal sources. So, if you used them both you might estimate 70 users or so.
This doesn't take into account that not all users are "using at a high rate" at the same time. So, you might double it or ..... I don't have good numbers for this derating but your situation is a little different than a group of "normal internet users".
I can wildly guess that 70x2 = 140 but getting to 2x that to over 250 feels like a stretch. But, maybe not. Maybe Network Zero's answer is a good one.
It's more likely that the internet source is the bottleneck unless you now have one of the promised Gigabit internet pipes!!
More likely it's around 15Mbps down. Is that close?
If that's the case then just about any router, switch, device is going to easily support the internet connection bottleneck.
If you want to watch Netflix at HD then you need 5Mbps per their website.
That's 3 users.... maybe 4 or 5 depending on who is watching what and with what kind of buffering and when. Not that these things will make *much* difference but you might eke out one or two more users is the point.
The maximum number of users (and this means ALL the devices not people necessarily) will be 252 assuming 254 usable addresses in a /24 subnet, one address for the internet gateway and one address for the AP. You could get one more if you don't put the AP on the same subnet but that's not very convenient if at possible at all. But, as above, they can't get much bandwidth each if that's the situation. The arithmetic says something like:
15Mbps / 252 = 0.059 Mbps per User on the average.
Now, if the source of video is from an internal source then you might get 300Mbps from the AP that you would add and that might serve 60 users best case. The Arris wireless is only good for 54Mbps on its wireless and we have to assume that's total bandwidth and not anything else. So the Arris would be able to support 11 video feeds IF the internet connection would be at least 54Mbps as well OR if the video is coming over the Gbps Ethernet from internal sources. So, if you used them both you might estimate 70 users or so.
This doesn't take into account that not all users are "using at a high rate" at the same time. So, you might double it or ..... I don't have good numbers for this derating but your situation is a little different than a group of "normal internet users".
I can wildly guess that 70x2 = 140 but getting to 2x that to over 250 feels like a stretch. But, maybe not. Maybe Network Zero's answer is a good one.
See the attached diagram.
You can cable the added router to whichever point in the building will work. Centrally located re: the users is generally best as long as there aren't a lot of walls. If there are a lot of walls then "down the hallway", etc. is more "centrally located". The idea is to equalize the attenuation across the most remote spots. And "remote" means not only far away but also "shaded by walls, floors and ceilings."
Wireless-Router-as-a-Simple-Switch-and-A