"jmDesktop" <needin4mation@gmail.com> hath wroth:
>Do you have a recommendation on what to buy?
No, but a I have short list of what not to buy. See:
<http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/component/option,com_wrapper/Itemid,156/?chart=124>
Select "Max simultaneous connections" from the pull down menu.
Anything that won't handle perhaps 30 connections is not going to
work.
I like John's suggestion of Sonicwall products. However, I can't
really offer a guaranteed to work solution as I have no clue what
these 15 computahs are going to be doing. If only one of them is into
file sharing, say goodby to your entire bandwidth. Also, I can't
visualize why you would want all of them connected via wireless.
Surely some of these are going to be sufficiently close to run CAT5
ethernet cable. A mixed system saves on wireless airtime, especially
if one of these is going to be a server.
Also, you might consider how the airtime is going to be shared. Let's
assume you're cheap and can only afford a single access point or
router. Let's also assume that all 15 users are in the same room,
same airspace, and get perfect 54Mbit/sec connections. That gives
each user the ability to move data at about 25Mbits/sec maximum from
the router. If two users are active, the maximum bandwidth goes to
12.5Mbits/sec. If all 15 users are downloading at the exact same
time, it's 1.7Mbits/sec per user. No problem as that's fast enough
for most applications. (Note: It's never this ideal and will probably
be slower).
However, if only one user has a really crappy wireless connection and
only connects at the slowest 1Mbit/sec speed, they will hog 50 times
the airtime of the 54Mbit/sec connections. I'm too lazy to calculate
the exact effect, but it will cause a massive slowdown. Therefore,
you might consider adding one or two (no more) additional access
points, on different non-overlapping channels (1, 6, or 11) putting
the slower more distant machines on one channel, and the high speed
users, on the others.
Incidentally, my office complex has 30 computers connected to a single
DSL 1500/384 kbit/sec DSL line. It works reasonably well (unless I'm
downloading updates from Microsoft). However, the reason it works is
that there are no bulk file transfers happening and that all the
server traffic never hits the DSL. However, I had to beg one user to
stop doing internet backups because it was killing the DSL for an hour
per day. In other words, your ability to make this work is totally
dependent on your traffic patterns and usage.
--
Jeff Liebermann
jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us
150 Felker St #D
http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060
http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
What is the best wireless router for up to 15 computers? 
Linear Mode
