Multiple Wireless Access Points Best Practices
It’s clear that there can be many reasons why you would need to set up multiple wireless access points on the same network. The best step you can take is to hire a WiFi service provider like Made By WiFi to do the job for you but if you elect to take on the project yourself here are some best practices for you to follow.
1. Conduct a wireless site survey before setting up your WiFi
A best practice when setting up multiple wireless access points in any situation is to conduct a wireless site survey. The wireless site survey essentially takes all the guesswork out of your WiFi setup and gives you a clear plan of attack on where you should mount your access points. Conducting a site survey also can help you figure out how you should configure your APs for the most optimal performance. Without a site survey, you are essentially going into your wireless network installation blind and may create issues with overlapping access points and misconfigurations.
2. Use a controller to manage all of your access points
Wireless access point controllers come in many versions. Some are on-site controllers that live wherever your access points are deployed. Other controllers can be cloud-based and can be used to manage multiple access points across various separate locations. Controllers software can also live right on the access point itself. Regardless of what type of controller you use, the benefits are clear – the controller will let you control all of your grouped access points through one interface. You will be able to assign a single SSID and password to all of your access points instead of having to join different networks every time you move between rooms or floors.
The controller helps to keep order within your network as well. From automatic channel management to seamless roaming, the controller will make all the difference if you need to set up multiple access points on the same network
3. Choose the correct access point placement
The wireless site survey should help you figure out the ideal locations to place your access points but perhaps you skipped that step and are winging it. The old method of placing access points is to position them in the center of every room where WiFi is needed. This approach could work but is definitely not the smartest method of installing access points, especially if your business heavily depends on WiFi to conduct its day to day operations.
The smarter approach is to place access points in the areas where WiFi will be used the most. High-density areas which require strong wireless signals should be addressed first and remaining areas where wireless coverage may not be as important should be addressed after. This approach favors capacity over coverage and is the trend that wireless network installations are moving in. Check out some tips for professional wireless access point installation in our prior blog post
4. Keep ethernet cable under 328 feet when connecting access points
Now that you’ve conducted your wireless survey and figured out where to mount your access points you will need to run Cat5 or Cat6 ethernet cable to the access points. It’s very important that you keep these cable runs under 328 feet or else you risk dropping packets which will negatively impact wireless internet performance. In fact, most wireless networking professionals limit cable runs to about 300 feet in order to accommodate the extra couple of dozen feet that may be needed for patching.
If you do need to run a cable past 328 feet you’re not completely out of luck. You simply need an active component like a small, inexpensive switch that will live somewhere before the 300-foot mark and allow you to extend the cable run by another 328 feet. There are situations where you may need to run a cable for an even longer distance. In this case, you may elect to use fiber optic cable which can be run for several miles in some instances. It’s important to review the costs associated with these cable runs as well as they can get very pricey as the distances increase.
5. Use the correct access points for indoor and outdoor use
Your WiFi network may require some outdoor coverage and in instances like this, you should elect to use outdoor access points to get the job done. It’s possible that wireless signal from your indoor access points may reach your outdoor areas and could be sufficient for your needs but if not, additional access points may be required. Outdoor access points are able to ignore the elements and are resilient to most weather conditions and temperatures.
There may even be instances where you would use outdoor access points indoors such as refrigerated warehouses where temperatures are regularly kept below the freezing mark. Another benefit of outdoor access points is that they are condensation resistant and have internal heaters that allow them to withstand situations where indoor access points would have failed.
6. Pick the correct channels for your access points
Proper channel selection is essential for excellent wireless coverage. In most cases, you’ll want the access point controller to pick the correct channels for you. After all, this is what the controller is there for. When deploying multiple access points on the same network there is a chance that the coverage area from neighboring access points may overlap. Nothing wrong with this as long as the access points use non-overlapping channels. If the channels do overlap it could cause a situation where their access points interfere with each other. This can cause packet loss during browsing and a negative internet experience for those using your WiFi network.
If your access points are broadcasting on the 2.4 GHz band you have 11 channels that can be used and this provides for only three non-overlapping channels: 1,6, and 11. Because of this, the 2.4 GHz band is rarely used for high-density WiFi deployments. The 5 GHz band offers much more selection when it comes to non-overlapping channels and is the de facto favorite for high-density wireless deployments utilizing multiple access points on the same WiFi network.
7. Pick the correct power settings for access points
Access point power settings help dictate how large a coverage area each access point is responsible for. If coverage cells are too large and have major overlap with each other, it can cause roaming issue where devices stay stuck to access points that are further away even though there are access points nearby that have a stronger signal. By utilizing a controller, it’s likely that the power levels of the access points will be controlled automatically but in certain high-density deployments, some human intervention may be required in order to perform manual power selection. This is where the findings from your site survey come in handy as you’ll have the information you’ll need to fine tune the access points to your unique network environment.