Church network solution needed.- wac730?

[working_dog]

Hello,

I am tasked with setting up a church with wifi that will support an upocoming conference.  The expectation is that the attendees will be able to connect to the internet through wifi, and that there will be a wifi network restricted to the staff hosting the event to ensure bandwidth is available for presentation needs.

I am looking at the wac730 device.  Is this something that will scale for a small church?   How does this hook up to my isp, what other equipment will I need to provide access?

-Thanks!

[DaneA · Accepted solution]

Hi working_dog, 

Welcome to the community! 🙂 

I think 1 (one) WAC730 access point will do to provide wireless access to the internet if the area of the church is small.  You may want to refer on this image below as an example on how you may want to setup the network:

As you can observed from the sample image above, the GS108Tv2 smart switch is needed so that you can set VLANs to segregate the guest(s) from the administrator(s) in order to prevent unwanted access of files, network configuration, etc.  You can also set-up a secured wireless network for both guest(s) and administrator(s) on the WAC730.  For more information, kindly access these links below:

WAC730 Data Sheet

WAC730 FAQs

GS108Tv2 Data Sheet

GS108Tv2 FAQs

FVS336Gv3 Data Sheet

FVS336Gv3 FAQs

Hope it helps! 🙂

Regards,

DaneA

NETGEAR Community Team

[DaneA · Accepted solution]

Hi working_dog, 

Welcome to the community! 🙂 

I think 1 (one) WAC730 access point will do to provide wireless access to the internet if the area of the church is small.  You may want to refer on this image below as an example on how you may want to setup the network:

As you can observed from the sample image above, the GS108Tv2 smart switch is needed so that you can set VLANs to segregate the guest(s) from the administrator(s) in order to prevent unwanted access of files, network configuration, etc.  You can also set-up a secured wireless network for both guest(s) and administrator(s) on the WAC730.  For more information, kindly access these links below:

WAC730 Data Sheet

WAC730 FAQs

GS108Tv2 Data Sheet

GS108Tv2 FAQs

FVS336Gv3 Data Sheet

FVS336Gv3 FAQs

Hope it helps! 🙂

Regards,

DaneA

NETGEAR Community Team

[working_dog]

Thank you DaneA for this information.  This is exactly the information I was looking for.  Because of the layout of the building I am thinking I will need 3-4 of the 730's.  One more question: Do you have  a more accurate / proffessional  way of testing the signal strength besides walking around with a laptop or device?  Placement of the waps as you know is a little science, a little art.  I want to be sure to place them appropriately.

-Thanks again!

Mike K (Working_Dog)

[DaneA]

Hi working_dog, 

There are wireless site survey applications that you could download from the Internet such as Wi-Spy, InSSIDer, Netstumbler and AirMagnet.  Its just that I am not sure if its for free or a license is required after a free-trial period.   

Regards,

DaneA

NETGEAR Community Team

[mdgm-ntgr]

Some applications such as some of the ones that DaneA mentioned are free or quite affordable (and you definitely should make use of these), but to achieve the best results you may wish to also seek some help from us. See http://www.netgear.com/landing/wifisurvey/

The WAC730 certainly is a good choice. Getting the positions right and getting the right number of APs is important to getting the best experience.

Also, there are four different modes you can use the APs in: Standalone, Ensemble, Controller and Business Central

Controller mode requires the purchase of a wireless controller

Business Central requires the purchase of licenses to use this Cloud service. It's great for managing the APs remotely.

For a Church I would probably start by trying Ensemble mode (note for Ensemble mode all the APs must be the same model) and see if that works for you.