Courier™ Case Studies

Wireless flexibility and peformance for advanced Xerox printers

Organization:

MC Informatica

Location:

Pilastro di Langhirano, Italy

Type of Business:

IT systems design, creation and development

Products Used:

USR5450 Wireless Turbo Access Point

The Challenge

MC Informatica’s office is located in a renovated historic building and comprises four rooms covering a totalarea of 260 square meters. They wanted to install four Xerox printers in its office, which would each be connected to the computers on the LAN. The aim was to avoid using Ethernet cables, which would have been unaesthetic, inconvenient and expensive.

One possibility was to pass the cables through the walls. But this solution posed obvious problems. Firstly, the building’s walls are thicker than those of modern buildings. Secondly, making modifications to the building wouldchange its original structure.

The Solution

A simple and efficient solution was developed using a USRobotics Access Point (USR5450), cabled to the Ethernet network and set in Access Point mode, and four other Access Points (USR5450) – one for each printer – in client mode.

The central Access Point’s signal proved sufficiently strong to cover the entire area, while remaining well within legallimits. This was by no means a given, since walls of a certain thickness often block wireless signals. The use of Access Points in client mode also helped improve performance.

One final and important aspect is security. Even though the building is insulated, the company chose to eliminate any risk of external access to the network by concealing the SSID (the “name” of the wireless network) and by using WEP encryption, two options that are available with the USRobotics USR5450 Access Point.

The Benefits

Through the implementation of the wireless solution from USRobotics, MC Informatica was able to address all of their initial concerns.

The powerfull functionality of the Xerox devices are now available to all of the network users, smoothing information flow and improving productivity of employees. Printing is now possible from any attached workstation, to any available printer.

Further, their concerns with attempting to wire the printers with CAT5 cable, and the resultant esthetic issues, were eliminated with the wireless approach. An additional advantage of wireless connectivity, and the excellent coverage provided by the USR5450 Access Points, is that the printers can be located where they are needed, instead of where it would have been convenient based on cabling requirements.

All this was achieved with an ease of installation and configuration, both in terms of the basic devices and setting up overall security for the network, that saved time and company resources.