Courier™ Case Studies

Secure Wireless Coverage for Large Buildings

Organization:

Scheut Missions, Priests of the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Location:

Kortrijk, Belgium

Type of Business:

Residential home for missionary priests

Products Used:

USR5453 Professional Access Point, USR5482 9dBi Directional Panel Antenna, USR5484 5dBi Desktop Antenna, USR8004 Broadband Router, USR5417 Wireless MAXg PCI Adapter

The Challenge

A retirement home for Scheut missionary priests of the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary wanted to provide residents with Internet access in their rooms, as well as in common areas of the 32,000 square foot (3,600 sq. meter) facility. Running Ethernet cable to the nearly 20 bedrooms, dining room, TV room and other common areas would have been both costly and labor intensive. An odd building layout, coupled with older construction materials, provided too great a challenge for standard consumer wireless products. More than 2,000 feet (600 meters) of cable would have been required. A wireless network was ideal, but with the construction materials and unusual shape of the facility, coverage throughout the building would be difficult with traditional, consumer wireless products.

The Solution

Small IT-Solutions of Roeselare was retained to develop a solution for the facility. Small IT-Solutions installed four USRobotics Professional Access Points (APs) at various locations throughout the facility. The AP located nearest the DSL connection acted as the main unit, connected to the DSL connection via a Broadband Router, while the three other APs were configured as repeaters.

Two of the APs were fitted with 9dBi Directional Panel Antennas to replace an existing 5dBi antenna on each, and Wireless MAXg PCI Adapters with 5dBi Desktop Antennas were installed in each desktop computer in the facility.

As the facility is located in the city center, the wireless network needed to be secured. The AP offers many security settings, including WPA, WPA2, WEP, SSID Disable and neighbor AP detection, along with IPSec, PPTP, and L2TP VPN passthrough. Small IT-Solutions configured the primary AP with the proper security settings and the WEP (encryption) key. Using the clustering features on the Professional APs, once the primary AP was configured, configuration and security settings were automatically propagated to the remaining APs in the cluster.

The Benefits

Priests throughout the facility have network access, allowing them to email or browse the Internet to stay in touch with friends from around the world. The facility and its residents were not disrupted by costly and messy installation of Ethernet cables. Complete coverage of the wireless network was achieved with the use of antennas and repeaters.

Installation of the Professional Access Points was quick and easy, and their optional Repeater Mode made the process even easier. The advanced AP features provided Small IT-Solutions with a powerful, managed wireless solution typically not accessible at such a low price.

The wireless network meets the requirements for coverage and security set forth by the IT staff at the facility and as a result of the creative solution designed by Small IT-Solutions and USRobotics, the entire 32,000 square foot facility enjoys fast, secure wireless coverage.

“The USRobotics Professional Access Point was easy to install,” says Kristof Houwen, Owner, Small IT-Solutions. “The clustering is a great feature as it saves a lot of time during the installation. With the help of USRobotics’ engineers, the installation went smoothly. It is a must for every wireless network which requires more than a simple home set up.”