Tech Forum

Our stake will be installing Wireless routers and access points or repeaters in our stake center. I'm looking to hear what equipment you have found that has been most effective. I like Linksys E1000 IEEE 802.11b/g/n 2.4GHz 300Mbps 2T2R Wireless Router seen here:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6833124385

Couldn't 2 or 3 of these suffice to cover most of a stake center?

My stake president keeps telling me to look at repeaters, but wouldn't a router configured as an access point be just as good?

I appreciate your replies. Thanks.

ecuadork wrote:I like Linksys E1000 IEEE 802.11b/g/n 2.4GHz 300Mbps 2T2R Wireless Router seen here:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6833124385

Couldn't 2 or 3 of these suffice to cover most of a stake center?

Not available in the specifications on-line is the power rating. Most of the hardware designed for home use do not have enough power to meet the needs of covering a Church meetinghouse building.

ecuadork wrote:My stake president keeps telling me to look at repeaters, but wouldn't a router configured as an access point be just as good?

That really depends on the device. Some wireless WAPs and routers can be configured as repeaters on a wireless network. Most designed for residential use do not have this capability. If the specifications do not mention power or wireless network capabilities as a repeater generally are low power and cannot be setup as a repeater.

You need to make sure you do a site survey and full specification analysis of each hardware candidate before settling on any one brand or model.

ecuadork wrote:My stake president keeps telling me to look at repeaters, but wouldn't a router configured as an access point be just as good?

If you can run the CAT5 cable easy enough, my personal preference would be to have additional routers configured as plain access points (or get dedicated access points, but for some reason those are often more expensive than actual routers).

The issue with repeaters is that it effectively cuts your throughput speed in half (since the same information comes in and goes out repeated, taking twice as long as compared to just coming in). But if you can't string the Ethernet cable, you have no choice (repeaters don't need any hard wires other than power).

My $0.02 - Steven

I would highly recommend against repeaters too. Access Points are your best bet. Of course it requires you to run cable, but if you can find a couple of guys to help you'd be surprised at just how quickly it can be done. I've cabled 2 buildings myself, and it doesn't take more than an hour or two to run the cable....terminating it and making it look pretty are the hardest parts. You could easily knock it out in an afternoon w/ help.

Most lower end Netgear/Linksys/D-Link routers can be configured as an Access Point. If you're not familiar w/ the process I think I've seen instructions in this forum or you can always yahoo it (not a fan of google )

+1 on both the previous posts. Cable I find to be much more reliable than any wireless option, no matter how well conceived. Best to do it properly the first time so it doesn't have to be fixed later on. There are very few situations where cable is truly impossible, it may require a little lateral thinking though in some situations.

Thank you all for your input. I will look into whether going the wired route is doable.

I'm looking into getting wireless internet running through our building and am waiting on word about whether the FM group will assist in paying for hardware or if that is strictly up to the local unit. What has the experience of others been?

I've never seen any indication that the church will pay for hardware for new installs other then the firewall itself.

The bigger issue is paying for the service.

That's what I expected. We already have internet service, so at this point it's just the hardware. Thanks for the quick response.

nutterb wrote:I'm looking into getting wireless internet running through our building and am waiting on word about whether the FM group will assist in paying for hardware or if that is strictly up to the local unit. What has the experience of others been?

The 11 Feb 2008 letter Connecting Stake and Ward Clerk Computers to Church Communications Network (CCN) Internet Connections makes it quite clear that "If there are any costs associated with connecting to these CCN
connections, then they are the responsibility of the stake or district, and the work must be cleared with the facilities manager before it is done."

Then the 8 Aug 2008 letter Broadband Internet Services in Meetinghouses - U.S. and Canada makes it clear that any connections except official CCN connections (typically in an official FHC) are also paid for by local units "out of local unit budgets," except that "Equipment will be provided by headquarters for security and filtering."

Putting those together, you can see that:

• the Church pays for the connection (through the FM group) for official FHCs
• the Church always pays for the firewall
• the local stake or district pays for everything behind the firewall