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Ask Slashdot: Can You Install a Wifi Mesh Network in a Barn? (slashdot.org) 97

Posted by FirehoseFavorites from the stable-releases dept.
Long-time Slashdot reader pikester has a friend running a museum "looking to make it more interactive for visitors." To make this happen, the museum is going to need to have good WiFi connectivity throughout the premises. The good news is that the museum is pretty small. The bad news is that it is located in an old horse barn with many metal walls. I'm hoping to put in a mesh network for him, but most solutions I've seen are pretty bulky. I'm looking for recommendations for a solution that is easily mountable in the building. Long-time Slashdot reader Spazmania suggests it's "not terribly complicated." After setting access points to same SSID but different channels (and with the transmit power down), "walk around with a piece of free software such as Wifi Analyzer and tweak the positions and transmit power on the access points until the signal levels look good in wifi analyzer." But are there other solutions? Leave your own best answers in the comments.

Can you install a wifi mesh network in a barn?
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Ask Slashdot: Can You Install a Wifi Mesh Network in a Barn? More

Ask Slashdot: Can You Install a Wifi Mesh Network in a Barn?

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  • Why is this here? (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    This HAS the be the dumbest question I've ever seen on slashdot.

    • This HAS the be the dumbest question I've ever seen on slashdot.

      I know. Of course you can install it. An appropriate slashdot question is 'will it work in barn?'

      • An appropriate slashdot question is 'will it work in barn?'

        The answer is right there in the question:

        The bad news is that it is located in an old horse barn with many metal walls.

        So just use the Pringles Chip Can Antenna method technology . . . turn the whole barn into one giant Pringles Chip Can Antenna using the metal walls as the antenna elements.

        No need to worry about the location of the antenna, because you are inside it.

        As a plus, you can also use the barn to SETI for alien barn WiFi.

        • Or you can run an insulated unshielded copper wire to every zone of the barn and connect it to the antenna for a wifi router. It will act as an antenna everywhere.

    • This HAS the be the dumbest question I've ever seen on slashdot.

      Only because you're focusing on "barn" instead of "building with metal walls". The headline is bad but the actual question, as written, is a reasonable request for advice.

  • Ubiquiti (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Lopton ( 990061 ) on Sunday October 14, 2018 @07:56AM (#57475234)
    Check out Ubiquiti networks. They have great mesh networks that are small and unobtrusive, and with a controller each new adopted device with automatically gain the settings from the controller. Makes adding new Hotspots a breeze when you find a dead zone.

    • +50 (Score:3, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward

      This is the best advice.
      Ubiquiti isn't cheap like used APs, but it isn't expensive like all their competition.
      It has a centralized management solution that can be hosted anywhere with connectivity, even Amazon EC2. You can put a raspberry pi in the location and have management run on it too or any other existing Windows/Linux/OSX system there. It is java (eew), but it is java (runs everywhere) too.
      It understands "grid" and will setup power output to limit overlap in a good way.
      So, if your time is free, get

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by godrik ( 1287354 )

        Does unifi do seamless roaming? Because I don't think you can do that with most AP that you'll find. Most retail one do not support that.

        I have been fighting with wifi at home and trying to get power set right, but even if you get a bit of connectivity from your AP, most wifi drivers won't switch to the AP with better power.

        • If you want to Google it, Ubiquiti calls it "Fast Roaming". I believe it is on by default and it works well in my very small setup at home.

    • I can't recommend ubiquiti's unifi line enough. Not only are they super simple to install and maintain, but they detect each other and automatically adjust their own power settings. They are affordable and reliable. We have a lot of them in our warehouses. They do exactly what you want.

    • Agreed on Ubiquiti. Even though it is massive overkill, I just set up a few UAP-AC-Pro access points in my house and plopped the controller on my basement NAS. They work great, don't need to have AC power near the unit itself, and so far work with all our devices. My understanding is that the UAP-AC-Lite gives you much of the bang for half of the buck, but I haven't tried that myself.

      • I have 1 ac litr and one mesh one configured as a regular AP(it is weatherproof)

        So I have the ac lite in the middle of the house, and the weather proof one actually mounted to the eaves behind the garage. I get solid speeds across the house and garage, cover approximately 3/4 of the driveway and a solid area of the backyard.

        Areas that typically get missed in inside only installs

        • It's good to hear some feedback about their outdoor stuff. I will add one if necessary but it looks like I get enough signal on my deck to cast to the outdoor speakers. If I add speakers at the patio I'll need more coverage, though. It can't be completely exposed, right? Needs to be under an eave or something? Thanks!

    • Agreed Ubiquiti equipment works very well for the price. Myself and my brother in law both installed their gear to cover 1/2 lots inside and out in wifi. A must with the ever increasing number of devices and wireless home automation. Using standard consumer grade stuff was hitting its limits too quickly and had nowhere near the coverage needed. The AC-PROs can handle something like 150 connections each .

      The user can input a single login and then just walk around hoping from one access point to th

  • phew ... although I wonder how long before someone tries something like that.

  • Rajant has some serious wireless mesh technology you might want to check out, though it may be overkill for this application. https://www.rajant.com/ [rajant.com]

  • Get some cheap commercial stuff. Dont hacktogether (Score:5, Informative)

    by kaptink ( 699820 ) on Sunday October 14, 2018 @08:22AM (#57475296) Homepage

    Not sure one your budget but - You will need access points that will seamlessly move clients to one another (Aruba IAP105's are cheap - forget the fancy newer HT80+ stuff) or something similar from a competitor. Checkout Aruba, Aerohive, Ubiquit, Rukus, etc. Do a search for Aruba HAT - "home agent table" to get an idea of the idea of how a user is moved around between nodes. Mikrotik also has some cool stuff. Havent check them in a while. Think DD-WRT just does relay which is pretty nasty.

    If it were me, i'd grab a bunch of ebayed IAP105's, or 205's if they had the cash, and link them via EoP (ethernet over power) so no backhaul wireless needed. You can stick em anywhere on that phase of the power. (check if three phase power and design accordingly)

     

    • I wish I could grant you a point for Informative. You did a great job of explaining. I agree that PoE is superior, with the metal walls in the barn.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Mikrotik has nice central administration and proper handover even with the cheapest access points and all is powered over Ethernet. Don't go the wireless mesh route. You need to power the access points anyway: Just use the network cable for both. The "cAP lite" access point comes with a wall case and a ceiling case (3.5" diameter) and is just $29: https://mikrotik.com/product/RBcAPL-2nD-307

  • Similar project

    A relative with an old brick-factory / barn used as a WW1 museum in Italy. All kinds of metal objects inside (huge tank shells, etc.), extremely thick and solid brick walls, attached to their house/farm.

    Wifi was unable to penetrate far. So I did what this says... a handful of old Wifi points, all set to the same SSID. Note that this is NOT proper mesh unless the points are on the same network, support meshing and can hand-off.

    Guess what... it works. It's adequate. You couldn't get a thou

  • backhaul... its all about the backhaul (Score:3)

    by johnjones ( 14274 ) on Sunday October 14, 2018 @08:52AM (#57475362) Homepage Journal

    so when people refer to wifi mesh their are two parts and the confuse the two...

    1. The ability to have the SSID name the same "mywifiName"
    2. the ability to have the nodes communicate to a central node via Wifi

    The ability to all share the same wifi name and login to one SSID is a good honorable thing.

    Using wifi as backhaul is frankly a hack its like the cell providers who use microwave to link sites together, yes it works but it has problems

    Link your individual wifi points with string (fibre or Cat 6/5E) and your world will be a much better place

       

    • Same name on different channels. Wifi clients take the best known ssid (most power), and try the password recorded for that name. As simple as that.

  • How will we monitor the animals with face recognition [slashdot.org] 24/7 otherwise?

  • I've been running OpenMesh units in greenhouses and barns for about 6 years now. I like them. I prefer running ethernet to each node but in a pinch I'll set them up as a wifi only unit. Total bandwidth performance cuts in half each time you make them do a wifi hop so I avoid them.

    The management tools are all online and super easy. Support staff is also excellent if you ever need them. I've only had one need but boy I was impressed.

    And they're like $100 per unit, kind of hard to beat that. If you can r

  • Note sure where you are in the choosing of wifi devices, but I'd take Openwrt-compliant (i.e. supported) routers. Openwrt usually offers more levels of configuration, and works usually faster than the factory firmware.

  • You're welcome. Glad I could help.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • The new "Ask slashdot" css and its #037 background color will surely destroy a good number of your retina cells.

  • TL;DR - buy proper mesh APs like Eeros. Run ethernet where you can between them. Let them figure the best allocation of channels and paths out.

    It's a solved problem if you know the right company to choose.

  • Total self-promotion here. Yes, we can!

    http://www.mage-networks.com/ [mage-networks.com]

  • Did the horses each had their own power lines?

    Don't know if they sell in the US but Fritz!boxes have easy mesh addons that you just put in power sockets around the house^h^h^h^h^hbarn.

    https://en.avm.de/mesh-network... [en.avm.de]

  • I've been using Open-Mesh (openmesh.com) products for almost a decade in a downtown area in a small town. Prior to that I was using Meraki, before they were bought out by Cisco and the price went through the roof. They work great, are easy to manage, fairly inexpensive, and have a nice dashboard. I have mostly OM2P v2 units installed with a slightly bigger antenna to transmit across streets, but a handful of these would work.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

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