Access Points

Hi can anyone help,

I am currently rebuilding a schools wireless network and currently run upto 15 access points.What I want to know is can they all be set to same channel or would they interfere with each other like channel 3 and 4 would cause interference.

The channels overlap a bit, so the only ones people generally use are 1, 6, and 11 (the ones that don't overlap).

It depends on how close the access points are to each other, you could try using all the same channel and see if there's any interference and then move the access points that are having problems to another channel.

Thanx will give it a try and let you know how I get on

Back Again,

I have installed all the access points and used channels 3+11 so there should be no channel interference.
The problem I have now is when I logon and check which AP I have connected to some of the laptops have connected to the AP situated in the same classroom and the AP in next doors classroom, which is a weaker signal and through a foot and a half of solid wall and causing some of laptops drop the connection and reconnect quite a lot.

Any Ideas? I don't want to have to take out any of the AP's

Hmm... I would have thought they would have connected to the strongest signal, but it really depends on the driver/wireless manager.

You could try setting each class to a different SSID (classroom1, classroom2 etc) and setting the one you want to connect to, to a higher priority

Just tried changing SSID to each different classroom name just created a big problem in which the laptops had a choice of what network to join(big prob when you have a classroom of girls where some of them don't know how to turn a laptop on).

Thanx for trying.

Just out of interest, what wireless manager are you using on the laptops? Is it just the stock standard windows one or the one that came with the wireless card?

Stock Standard Windows One