Architecture suggestion
Architecture suggestion
I am looking for TP-Link architecture suggestions on what equipment I should have to setup a WiFi mesh for a cabin resort with 16 cabins spread over 3 acres. We can't setup PoE or ethernet cables to access points. It's critical that we use captive portal with our own splash page for guests to log in.
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I would use:
OC200 hardware controller
ER7206 router
SG2008P (for main cabin POE and possibly inter-SSID or internet facing ACLs)
EAP225-outdoor x n
I would install a minimum of 2 outdoor EAP225's at the main cabin/source of internet, with both channels on both bands fixed (static) and different. I would use 20Mhz on 2.4G and auto for the 5.8G for channel width. I would use the same SSID on both 2.4G and 5.8G bands for guest access, and I would implement band steering to force as many as possible to 5.8. I would DISABLE guest SSID access on the 5.8G radios of the wired APs at the main cabin. As an optimization, for instance where you have more than 2 hops, or more than 2 meshed neighbours or more than 4 downstream APs, I would consider 'splitting' the mesh after the first wireless hop from the main cabin (this involves a second EAP-225, and an ethernet cable connecting the LAN ports of the 2 EAP225's AND fixing the 5.8G channel of the second 225 to a different channel than used by the mesh of the upstream AP). There's a lot to unpack there...feel free to ask more questions or provide more detail...like an aerial site plan.
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EAP620 is OK, it supports DC power supply: https://www.tp-link.com/business-networking/omada-sdn-access-point/eap620-hd/#specifications
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I would use:
OC200 hardware controller
ER7206 router
SG2008P (for main cabin POE and possibly inter-SSID or internet facing ACLs)
EAP225-outdoor x n
I would install a minimum of 2 outdoor EAP225's at the main cabin/source of internet, with both channels on both bands fixed (static) and different. I would use 20Mhz on 2.4G and auto for the 5.8G for channel width. I would use the same SSID on both 2.4G and 5.8G bands for guest access, and I would implement band steering to force as many as possible to 5.8. I would DISABLE guest SSID access on the 5.8G radios of the wired APs at the main cabin. As an optimization, for instance where you have more than 2 hops, or more than 2 meshed neighbours or more than 4 downstream APs, I would consider 'splitting' the mesh after the first wireless hop from the main cabin (this involves a second EAP-225, and an ethernet cable connecting the LAN ports of the 2 EAP225's AND fixing the 5.8G channel of the second 225 to a different channel than used by the mesh of the upstream AP). There's a lot to unpack there...feel free to ask more questions or provide more detail...like an aerial site plan.
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@Virgo Thank-you for the suggestion. I was searching for a DC option and was only finding PoE.
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EAP225 outdoor can be powered via passive 24V POE. You can do this with some cheap cable injectors and a small solar setup if you have to :) The 225outdoor ships with a POE injector (so AC power to 24V passive POE).
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Thanks d0ugmac1
Our internet connection comes through the Main Lodge (largest building). A lot of trees between the buildings.
Wouldn't 2.4 give us further range than 5.8? Where we are located, we are lucky to get 30Mbs for internet speeds, so will try to limit everyone to about 2Mbs on their connections. Too many trees and mountains for Starlink.
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Nice! Familiar with the area, spent quite a bit of time in and around Banff/Canmore and get out there fairly often. I also expect you might be location-eligible for the 5G LTE unlimited internet package from the "T" company, that would certainly kick the pants off the DSL link bandwidth wise, and would also likely make the first hop easier too.
I've done something like this in the woods in Quebec as well, and biggest piece of advice is 'Line of Sight' is king (ie don't try to shoot through a 2' thick tree and ideally you can easily eyeball the next AP from the current AP without obstruction). Second piece of advice, wet foliage can be a real RF suck, so better just below the forest canopy than through it (by which I mean after a good rain soaking level).
My first pass on a design would be to cable out from the main lodge to the adjacent building. From there you can start to mesh up the APs, leveraging the roads (I'm making an assumption they are relatively flat based on Streetview...obviously if very sloped in the back the design might not work so well without an intermediate hop. The idea is to leverage your existing roadways as 'tree free' tunnels through the forest, and then minimize the number of hops needed to provide coverage. My green circles have no scentific basis, other than to show which cabins might be in fringe coverage areas based on an arbitrary but not unrealistic radius.
Here I show a 4 x 225-outdoor draft design. Two links, the yellow and blue which originate from the one wired AP near the main lodge (I'm hoping you can cable from there to your internet source (blue triangle)). For performance, double up the wired AP forcing different channels on both bands. In Canada I'd use Ch149 and/or Ch157
As for mounting, I've found using existing downspouts, or installing dish J-arms just under the eaves to protect from snow etc. make good mounts. You can hit the APs with a shot of brown Krylon paint to make them blend in better too. Do keep the APs away from large sheets of metal :)
Do you own the 4 hydro poles through the middle of the property, if so you could create a wired node at the upper end of the property and feed internet from both sides (maybe a Year 2 project). You'd want to use outdoor fibre with a messenger wire and media converters for this.
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@d0ugmac1 We have 2 rural hubs from that "T" company. It seems that during the busy seasons they limit the data going through them and sometimes they drop to under 1Mbs and become completely unusable while signal strength is 4 bars... We have Satellite and 2 of those hubs on a TP-Link load balancer just in case one cuts out completely. I managed to take out a couple of trees and will try Starlink again. Now only have 5% obstructions.
We generate all our own power, so we own all the poles. We get a ridiculous amount of snow in the winter so the spruce trees form a wall of branches and snow. Shooting down the roads should work. The roofs are all metal sheeting. Any potential issues with that if the access points are 2 ft away?
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@d0ugmac1 We have an ER605. Do you still suggest going up to the ER7206 instead?
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in reverse...
The EAP225's come with their own 24V Passive POE injector in the box. If you use the 600 series outdoor units (not worth it IMHO given your uplink capacity) you'd need to source your own POE injectors (I would recommend the Ubiquiti 802.3at/af adapter from their online Canada store). Honestly, I'd start with a pair of units and the OC200 controller (or a laptop running the free software version) and see what kind of performance/coverage you are getting at site. There are also some tricks you can do with these units, by back-to-backing them, you can work around obstacles like a huge stand of trees, or just switching sides of a building or roof. More on that later if you need.
You would need to keep the AP below the metal roof to provide coverage in building, maybe somewhere near the top of the white post on the deck in the above pic would work? Trimming the conifers lower branches so the winter snow droop doesn't close off the line of sight links would be recommended.
I wouldn't stray from the ER605 at this point assuming you have the V2, you won't be overloading anything, and you can always update later. If you have the ER605V1, it has limitations and you should plan to replace it at some point.
For the satellite option, I have seen guys in the US top a big fir and mount the dish 60' up, I have mixed feeling about this approach :) Still you can do a lot with a decent mast. I'll be honest, 5% is still a lot and you'll get regular drop outs which will screw up Teams/Zoom calls and probably cause buffering on streaming services. This however is supposed to continue to improve as they put more satellites up in the constellation.
For the LTE Hubs, the T company is about to retire all their older 4G devices and replace them with the 5G capable hub. If you have the older unit, you will likely get forced to change them out, so you may just want to look at the current 2 year deal for new subscriptions which I think run around $85/mon for a two year term with unlimited data and pays off the $480 router/hub too. Bonus is faster speeds/less congestion now.
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