[Sussex] WiFi question

[Jon Fautley]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Crowhurst" <fyremoon at fyremoon.net>
To: <sussex at mailman.lug.org.uk>
Sent: Friday, May 02, 2003 2:55 PM
Subject: [Sussex] WiFi question


> I've just installed my first WiFi setup in my parent's house so that my
> sister can share my samba network and use the internet via the firewall.

Cool.. I hope it's secure.... wouldn't want people like me knocking on your
network door ;)

> I was wondering, how many WiFi 802.11 networks can you have in close
> proximity? Can I have multiple WAPs on different IP addresses, and have
> multiple networks off that, or am I simply limited to the frequencies that
> WiFi works on?

Hmm, interesting question. theoretically, you can have as many networks as
there are channels on WiFi. This doesn't mean however that you can have a
huge stack of 14 AP's and expect them to work. You should place a reasonable
amount of distance between the access points. Also, if you need to place two
access points together then you should try and place the frequencies as far
apart as possible. One on channel 1, one on Channel 14, for example.

> I'm just thinking of how it would be possible to network a large company
> with many computers.

You don't need every AP on a seperate channel. You can have two access
points, one at each end of the building, and stick them both on the same
channel, and on the same network. That way, you could have a PDA and wander
around the building and the wireless client *should* switch between the
access points automagically. If this works in reality or not, i don't
know... I've never tried it. There is however this sort of system in place
in and around portsmouth. If you fire up a sniffer and drive around, you'll
always pick up an access point with the SSID "paulsgroveapril02" on a
specific channel. Either they have one feck of a powerful transmitter or
there's more than one access point on that network. You can also see their
intranet login screen from each accesspoint.

Jon