setting up a wireless internet or a wifi?

[lethalmind]

I humbly come before those who confuse.

I have a friend that owns a small mobile home park. He is looking at setting up a wifi area in the clubhouse or perhaps a wireless network of some sort or another.

What kind of equipment/software is he going to need?

I have both my computers set up on a really small wireless network.

I have a set number of pcs on mine. How do you limit/control access to stay within bandwidth.

Can this be ran off of something like Dish Network(Satelite)?



Be gentle......

[lethalmind]

confusing to me?

Who would be someone good to direct him to? What kind of business?

[lethalmind]

Does anyone know of a company named Top Global. The product is a MB8000. This is what they are talking about as a solution. It uses a Sprint Air card and supposedly according to the sales guy will support 10+ users but has been tested with up to 40 and works fine.
$800 for the unit and $70 a month or so for service.

[Ghost]

I don't have any experience with that device, but it looks interesting. That particular unit hooks up via a Cellular providers 3G data network. Usually this means you have OK speed about anywhere in a major metropolitan area. If you already have internet access though, you probably don't need the 3G part of it.

You could get away with using something as simple as a Linksys or DLink type wireless AP, probably similar to what you have setup at home. The downside to these is to secure them you have to manually manage users and settings for the laptops. Most places that don't know better use something like this, and usually don't secure it right so anyone has access.

On the higher end are the wireless hotspot type solutions. Generally these are more expensive. I know some companies have good solutions for this, but all I have experience with is pretty high end stuff. Usually these give you a SSID you can connect to easily, but all you can do is go to a special authentication web page. Once you sign in to this web page, your traffic can get out onto the normal internet. These usually don't secure the wireless traffic, just make sure unauthorized people don't get in.