Hello, i was reading many posts where most say the maximum number of clients an AP can handle is about 50.
can i ask where did this number came from? is it the MT RB memory & proccessing power, or something else? what to do to increase this number?
thanks all.
xbaha,
It all depends on the hardware processor and ram. It also depends on how the device is setup and how the clients are setup to the AP. If you use a RB532a and then setup all your clients on WDS. Then yes it will eat the processor on the RB very quickly and will limit the number of clients the ap will handle. If you want a higher number of clients on the AP you best bet is to use a fast board with 1GHz+ processor.
Matt
you mean use regular PC? what kind of board that has 1g+ ?
Xbaha,
You are correct, what i mean is a full regular pc. Your best bet is to use a mini-itx board that will help you achieve higher processing power. This site has a huge collection of them…
just for example
http://www.globalamericaninc.com/sbc/motherboard_sbc.php
My suggestion : don’t use it for more than 35 clients. You would see quality dropping when more than that clients. And if you use more than that, you would have a big headache if you face interference, unless your location is free of interference.
so you mean no matter how powerfull the router is, the interfernace causes problems? even if i looked for clear frequancy?
one more question, what does the interferance has to do with number of clients, i mean, if there is interfernace, the network should not be stable even for few clients, am i right?
It depends where the interference is. If it’s close to one of your clients, just clients in that area are likely to have problems. It’s more likely though that the interference is close to your AP, after all, you mounted it someplace where it could see everything for a long distance, which means it can hear everything for a long distance.
When the interference is close to your AP, it doesn’t matter how many customers you have, they’re all going to notice the problem.
Unikyrn,
All wireless equipment has problems with interference. Some wireless equipment has things like GPS sync and other types of technology that will help reduce the interference. You have to make sure when you deploy your AP’s that you take the time to consider channel seperation and what your noise floor is. By taking these measures early on in the game you have a less likely chance of something going on later.
Matt
What does your plan say to do when there are no interference free channels? 
UniKyrn,
If your in an area that has interference which is 96% of the world. You need to scan all usable channels, find the best channel that has the best noise floor readings. This would be the first step. If this isn’t enough then you will need to determine if the equipment you are using is best for you.
Here are questions to ask yourself if you have interference…
These are just basic questions to consider when facing interference. The other thing to consider is “Am I using the best equipment for my situation?”.
Matt
Having spent three years running a WISP, I do know a bit about this stuff and we’re drifting from the original question.
The number of clients an AP can support is not strictly related to the horsepower of the AP. You have to have a fast enough machine to push the packets around at the speed the radio runs at, probably a bit more to allow for some traffic shaping also, but it doesn’t really take much CPU to handle those tasks. Bumping the speed is not going to help you when you’re fighting interference though because interference is not a speed related issue, it’s an environmental one.
UniKyrn,
Your correct the speed of the system has no correlation with the interference issues. The orignal question from xbaha was in regards to the maximum number of clients per ap.
Matt
Please do remember, interference is the “GHOST” for all of the WISP. So please consider it carefully when you are deploying a wireless network. Do not underestimate it, you would regret