[Klug-general] Limits on number of 802.11x clients?

[Alan]

Hi all,

Running into a weird problem trying to use about 60 wireless devices 
simultaneously on a single ESSID and I wonder if anyone has some 
experience of any issues or limitations in this regard..

I am helping out a local cell of coderdojo.com, as soon as more than 20 
or so devices connect to their wireless, no more new devices can 
associate (even if existing devices get off).

Initially I thought it was a problem with the wireless AP on the cheap 
ADSL router, so I set up a separate wireless AP relaying the DHCP from 
the router (yes the router has a large pool - 192.168.1.5-250). Still 
during the next session the same issue again.

Following that I installed a Debian box running dnsmasq as a DHCP server 
and NAT routing traffic on the AP to the ADSL router - what do you know, 
same problem!

The core issue is the inability of large numbers of devices to associate 
with the wireless AP (have tried a few different consumer wireless AP's 
by now - all with same symptoms)

The next dojo is tomorrow and I will be there to diagnose onsite this 
time, but if anybody has any heads-ups about large wireless networks I'd 
really appreciate the info.

Alan