Wireless Networking Solution for a smart restaurant - help please!
Hello all,
It's been a long time since I last posted here...I'd appreciate your help. Sorry if I'm in the wrong forum.
I'm working in a smart pub/restaurant til Christmas, and the manager has asked me to sort out wireless internet for the customers to use. I need you help finding the best equipment as I haven't done this for a while...
Requirements are -
1. Has to be able to be used by everyone who comes in with a wireless device, without too much hassle.
2. Very good range...if that requires a range extender then that's fine, but it does need to have fairly good range itself as the restaurants old and there's lots of wood and walls everywhere.
3. Good ADSL modem built in. Don't want to have a separate modem next to it. At the moment we're connected to BT broadband.
4. Reliable - no one else here really knows that much about computers and I don't want to have to sort it out every 10 minutes!
Another question - would security be an issue between people using the network? As in, could one person with some knowledge get into another's computer via the router? Perhaps a bad question but the manager specifically asked me to ask!
And anything else you can think of...cost isn't too much of a problem, just can't be ridiculous.
Thanks, Tim
Re: Wireless Networking Solution for a smart restaurant - help please!
Security could be the sticking point here, if two computers are both connected via wireless, then yes they may be able to communicate to each other. I'm sure tehre are ways of locking it down, but you may need some more expensive equipment (routers) to acheive this. One other thing to bear in mind is the wireless security you use (WEP, WPA etc). WEP is really easy to crack if you know what your doing, WPA is much harder (if not impossible at the moment) to crack.
Anyway, just a few thoughts from me, someone else may know more about this than I.
Re: Wireless Networking Solution for a smart restaurant - help please!
Well, that shouldn't be a problem.
On most WLAN Routers you can setup the WLAN that it only has access to the WAN Port, and so only can access the Internet and no other network devices.
This doesn't have to be a expensive router, but in most cases it would require a very good firmware.
I use a Linksys WRT54GS, the best WLAN Router ever, with a custom firmware (DD-WRT), which allows you to setup the router you like it.
Re: Wireless Networking Solution for a smart restaurant - help please!
3Com Office Connect equipment would also suit your purposes - it's reliable, configurable, and easy to add in range extenders if you need them. Regarding security it will ultimately be up to your customers to make sure their own computers are secure.
You can make the network relatively secure if you use WPA, which also allows an easy way for customers to log in, using a pass-phrase. If you change this daily/weekly/whatever then you will prevent people from learning it and stealing bandwidth from outside the restaurant.
Re: Wireless Networking Solution for a smart restaurant - help please!
the only problem using WPA is that not all devices can handle WPA encryption...especially older devices...so you might need to go with WEP although its no where near as secure...but my uni uses WEP for its roaming service and they dont have many problems
Re: Wireless Networking Solution for a smart restaurant - help please!
I don't think typing in a 48 or whatever character hexidecimal string is particularly user friendly - it's fine for uni where you do it once at the start of term and it lasts for a while, but not really for a public access spot.
Re: Wireless Networking Solution for a smart restaurant - help please!
Are you charging customers for access or is it free for all? Just wonderd if you're going to change the password, say daily, and give out the password to customers who purchase something...
just curious!
Re: Wireless Networking Solution for a smart restaurant - help please!
Thanks for all your help so far guys. Sounds like its not going to be that difficult to set up then...not that I mind, I just want it to work and they probably won't give me much leeway to fiddle before getting annoyed!
So do you just think one of the top 3Com/Linksys/Netgear routers will do then? Anyone want to recommend any particular models, in addition to derchris? Also, how effective are range extenders?
I think we'll let customers use it for free to be honest, it's really quite an expensive pub anyway...though I think the boss would like to profit somehow. hmm maybe a donation per day will be in order...
Re: Wireless Networking Solution for a smart restaurant - help please!
"Keep the wireless free" donation box!
I have the netgear router mentioned above and it has loads of options in the suggested 3rd party firmware (DD-WRT).
Re: Wireless Networking Solution for a smart restaurant - help please!
The alternative is changing the password daily and selling the password at the bar for say £3. Even if people share it with their mates, it's not the end of the world and you only have to get 1 person a day to pay to cover even a top end unlimited bandwidth package.
Re: Wireless Networking Solution for a smart restaurant - help please!
I'd suggest a netgear ADSL router, the DG834G would suit your purposes fine. It has a wireless isolation option which means any wireless clients can only reach the outside world and no-one else on the internet. The firewall config is quite good as well. You can set it to 'block everything except...' then add rules for HTTP, HTTPS, couple of instant messenger programs, couple of email ports and leave the rest blocked.
For range you could add an extender, but see how you go first. And if you're worried about the neighbours stealing it all the time just turn it off when the place is shut.
Re: Wireless Networking Solution for a smart restaurant - help please!
On a side note WPA is no where near 'impossible' to crack. If the wireless is pretty busy then an expereienced cracker/hacker wouldnt need too much time.
I have only had experienced use with a Netgear DG834GT (Slightly different to standard G model nothing too much) this router is very cheap for what you need to do, you could set up some firewall rules for HTTP, HTTPS, FTP and whatever else like what jimbo said you would be at a decent security level.
To further that i would have it running for say a week (rough guess) and monitor the port activity (not too hard to do) collect what ports are being used frequently and make only them useable.
If you really wanted to take security to a higher level then if you were to change the WPA key daily and when they come to buy the key ask them to note there ip down. Then you could just allow this IP access to the router (Would'nt take a staff member manning the pc 24/7 just someone to quickly wack in the ip) This would cut out foreign IP's from using your gateway.
Also change your router admin password daily!
Re: Wireless Networking Solution for a smart restaurant - help please!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Lucio
The alternative is changing the password daily and selling the password at the bar for say £3. Even if people share it with their mates, it's not the end of the world and you only have to get 1 person a day to pay to cover even a top end unlimited bandwidth package.
Snag is, changing the WEP or WPA key every day will get tedious quite quickly.
A possible solution would be to prepare a list of passwords for every day of the year, print out one copy to keep by the bar, and then use some sort of computer program to change the password every day. It may be possible to do it via SNMP, and a scriptable SNMP client. Otherwise it will be more difficult.
Re: Wireless Networking Solution for a smart restaurant - help please!
A question that might not occur to you, are you actually allowed to share your connection by your ISP ?
This may be of help for the hotspot itself:-
http://www.publicip.net/
Re: Wireless Networking Solution for a smart restaurant - help please!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
chrestomanci
Snag is, changing the WEP or WPA key every day will get tedious quite quickly.
Changing WEP might be, but WPA changing is easy. Just do it in the morning when you turn on the router (because of course, you don't want to leave it on overnight).
Quote:
A possible solution would be to prepare a list of passwords for every day of the year, print out one copy to keep by the bar, and then use some sort of computer program to change the password every day.
It stricks me that you just amplify risks with that method - both security and service :p
Re: Wireless Networking Solution for a smart restaurant - help please!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
CrazyMonkey
If you really wanted to take security to a higher level then if you were to change the WPA key daily and when they come to buy the key ask them to note there ip down. Then you could just allow this IP access to the router (Would'nt take a staff member manning the pc 24/7 just someone to quickly wack in the ip) This would cut out foreign IP's from using your gateway.
Also change your router admin password daily!
presumably you mean the MAC address as the ip address would be allocated by DHCP and only once they are connected