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Question

Networking help for a small (but large) business

I have what is likely three problems here that I am trying to solve in a terrible tangle; I would appreciate advice on any one of them.

I work for a family business. We are not huge in the sense of connection numbers (4 Mac computers, one Windows computer, 2 iPads, a wireless Brother printer, a few phones) but very large in terms of area. At the moment I am covering 2800 square feet and we are adding an expansion that will add another 2400 square feet. Some of the walls also use foil insulation which has been all kinds of fun. And this is a manufacturing site so I can only run cables in limited areas.

The only good news is security is not a major concern; we are a farm, surrounded by many, many acres of farmland, and unauthorized visitors connecting to our WiFi are going to get a knock on the window and awkward questions about why they're sitting in a car in our driveway in the middle of nowhere. Extremely high connection speed is also not an issue. Computers are primarily used for email, web access, and accessing shared files (mostly the Filemaker database that is the backbone of production). Occasionally someone uses Pandora, but there is almost no streaming of video, no gaming, etc.

We are in an awkward situation where the business networking advice is too big but the home networking advice is too small and both assume a lot of things that aren't true for us, which is why I'm boring everyone with my epic post here. Happy

My three problems:

1) The obvious: getting decent coverage across such a large space with so many obstacles. At the moment I am covering the existing site with a router and 1 extender, but with the new expansion coming online I am panicking a bit. I have also managed (in the course of research) to confuse myself on the difference between routers, extenders, access points, and which I should be using.

2) Our Internet connection is technically DSL, but it is terrible. We have outages (up to 12 hours) every week or two, and I have been running speed tests over the past few months and have been unable to get over 0.5 Mbps download and 0.25 Mbps upload speeds. (Ping varies between 100 and 2000 ms). I am desperate enough that we are considering getting satellite, but I am hearing such disparate reports on its reliability and speed that I am having trouble making a good decision -- so any input on the speed/reliability of satellite compared to what I've got is appreciated! I'm also having trouble figuring out, if I *did* get satellite, where I would be best served to put the router.

Placing it centrally would put it in a place where there are no computers. Which leads to the third problem....

3) We are rapidly outgrowing using Dropbox for filesharing, and I have been looking at setting up a NAS. Is it possible to use problem #3 to solve problem #2 -- would it be technically feasible to hook up a NAS to the satellite modem and then use wireless to share the connection from there? If so, suggestions on which NAS to use? I have been looking at Synology products; I'd also come across a site that suggested using Apple's Time Capsule, which has the advantage that there's a wireless router built into it. However I'm pretty open to any suggestion that makes sense.

I apologize again for the length of this post. Any help or commentary I can get is much appreciated, as at this point I am just chasing my tail until I fall down from decision paralysis.

Discussion is locked

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Answer
You are thinking too advanced.
Aug 27, 2015 9:10AM PDT

The issues of WiFi are showing over and over in your post. This is where I pull back to wired networking. It's old school, cheap and works.

Your setup only needs one router. Make it a good one. In this midrange you could try one of the newer dual core routers and for the rest of the network wire what you can then WiFi access points where you need a hotspot area.

-> Now let's talk about 802.11n. Given you have many hotspots, you would be hard pressed to keep them from interfering with each other. See the 802.11n chart next.


Pretty easy to solve by using 802.11g and setting channels. But many didn't think or know about that.
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The DSL looks slow to me but running speed tests only serves to clog the pipes IMO. I'd go over all the DSL filters and consider a home run from the demarc to the DSL modem. That is, that line would never have any other phones on it.

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Overthinking problems is my speciality. :)
Aug 28, 2015 9:11AM PDT

Ok. So what I'm getting from your (very helpful) graphic is that I need to get a good router that supports 802.11g and allows me to set various channels for my access points. Then I need to run wire, if possible, to the access points so as to avoid watering down the connection speeds. I can do this to an extent; it's just keeping the wires out of the way so they aren't damaged by the damp, humid conditions or present a cleaning challenge.

As far as the DSL goes, that's it's base state, I'm afraid. I've tried removing the phones, I've direct-wired; the difference is minor. According to CenturyLink that's because the 0.5 Mbps speeds are all they can provide me. We're not just the end of the line here, we're beyond the end of the line; we only have DSL at all because the tech came by and said, "we wired the housing development a few miles away for DSL and I'm almost sure we can get you on it too..." and we agreed because it had to be better than the 14.4K dialup we were on at the time. It is better, but the Internet has moved on, more and more of our business is online, and the speeds are getting prohibitive. CenturyLink can't or won't fix the core problem (which I believe has to do with the age of our phone lines...?) so my options seem to be down to "live with it" or "satellite." (Comcast did offer to run us a cable line... for $13K.)

At any rate, thank you for the help, and any further help/advice is still much appreciated. I am feeling a little less underwater but it's still a long swim....

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Good to read you reduced what's on the DSL line.
Aug 28, 2015 9:27AM PDT

Any change to 0.5 speed would not be felt so that's a given.

Is there any chance of installing a SQUID server to maximize what you have? Here's a link on Squid to follow but first ALL routers to date have let me pull back to 802.11g to work around the overlap issues.

Here's the SQUID link:
http://www.squid-cache.org/

Post was last edited on August 28, 2015 9:27 AM PDT