WiFi setup for ~300 devices across two floors and multiple rooms

Jul 18, 2018
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I want to set up a WiFi network in my office that can support ~300 devices at once. The total area is about 50,000 square feet and spans across two floors. The current ISP I am looking at is Verizon FIOS (gigabit). What type of hardware/budget will I need to set up such a WiFi network?
 
Solution
It really depends what the users are doing. The recommended user/AP ratio from years ago is not even close with modern traffic. You really need to get as many machines as possible on ethernet connections. Most office machine have a fairly fixed location so the more you can cable the less that will be burdening the wifi. You are going to have to run ethernet cables for the AP anyway.

Your first step is to try to get general coverage. Take any router and see how far you get good signals. You need to draw a map of the building and find locations that cover the most with the least devices. The router does not have to be connected to anything you are purely looking at the signal strength.

This is your very minimum number of AP...
i would set up two or three vpn. one vpn for guest. one for each floor. if you can drop some wires i would uses some switches for pc and printers. i would then use on each floor 4 high power ap equipment. ones used for outdoors for range. place them at four ends of the building and name them 01-04 for first floor and 05-08 for the second floor. plug the ap into the switches. make sure you have one or two spare switches in case of failure.
 
It really depends what the users are doing. The recommended user/AP ratio from years ago is not even close with modern traffic. You really need to get as many machines as possible on ethernet connections. Most office machine have a fairly fixed location so the more you can cable the less that will be burdening the wifi. You are going to have to run ethernet cables for the AP anyway.

Your first step is to try to get general coverage. Take any router and see how far you get good signals. You need to draw a map of the building and find locations that cover the most with the least devices. The router does not have to be connected to anything you are purely looking at the signal strength.

This is your very minimum number of AP. You now need to look at how many and the types of users and add more AP.

This really is a function you contract a solution for. It is not all that easy to do for a beginner and get a system that functions properly the first time rather than going back and adding and moving AP based on performance after it is installed.
 
Solution
I run ubiquity APs at home, they are mounted in the basement in a ranch stile home one on each end of the house in mesh mode and dont have any issues walking around upstairs.

At work we use Cisco Meraki AP's, you have to pay for licensing on them each year but they have great software that will show where your getting hit the most with traffic

Both of those options you will have to run wires to each AP, if you dont have a POE switch then you will also have to have power near by for a POE injector.