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oguruma
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Joined: Sat Jun 04, 2022 8:55 pm

MT as Wifi Controller: 5000sqft office + outdoor area

Sat Jun 04, 2022 9:33 pm

I'm looking for a cost-effective Wifi setup for a 5000 sqft - 2 story office. 3500sqft of space is downstairs, and 1500sqft is downstairs. There's also an employer breakroom/smoke shack outside I'd like to service. It's about 50ft from the building, and it's about 500sqft of space.

There's already a lot of CAT6 throughout. At present, we have a PfSense/Netgate router, and a single core Cisco switch. Our existing wifi setup is a consumer-grade Linksys router (functioning only as an AP) and a couple of 2.4G extenders. All of the cable is pulled back to a single wiring closet.

The current setup works okay for this-and-that, but we'll soon be moving to a VOIP setup, and a several people in the office will start using softphone apps on their smartphones.

What I'd like to do is add a Mikrotik router/switch to function as a wifi controller using capsman, and then add APs throughout as needed. For the outdoor area, I'd probably put an AP on the wall, inside, and then go through the wall with coax for the antenna.

Assuming I need 3-5 APs, what's a good bang-per-buck MT switch I could use as a controller? I suppose it gets bonus points if the switch is also a transceiver.
 
gotsprings
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Re: MT as Wifi Controller: 5000sqft office + outdoor area

Sun Jun 05, 2022 2:20 am

Anything running router OS could be the caps-man.

You could get the cheap $35 router board and sit it somewhere in the broadcast domain. Put your cAPs in caps-man mode, and you are off.

However...
The radio performance of Mikrotik WiFi serving clients... I don't recommend that for anything other than low density, zero interference, non Critical traffic.

Learned from experience.

If Mikrotik ever decides to get serious about wifi again... And get past 2014 standards... I am dying to come back.

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