Multiple Access Points Best Practice

Question

I have a large area that needs wireless coverage throughout.

I want to use 3 (or more if necessary) access points to allow roaming coverage for everyone.

There will be 15 or 20 people with 2 to 3 devices each connecting to the network via the access points each day, as well as guests from time to time who will need access to a guest network. Equipment will be Netgear Dual Band WNDAP360 for access points which will be connected to a Edgewater router.

One issue I've had in the past is all of the ip addresses being used up, and me having to clear them out constantly - at least once a day.

Can anyone share with me a diagram or online tool I can use to help build a better infrastructure or can anyone provide a step by step breakdown of how to set up this environment?

Thanks,

Answer 1

Well, if your problem is IP address exhaustion, and assuming the Netmask of your DHCP server (Edgewater) assigns a network mask of (very common)

255.255.255.0

... that allows a maximum of 255 IP addresses:

• I think you could solve it just by reducing your DHCP Lease Time. For example to 3 hours should do it.
  Explanation: your DHCP server is probably reserving each IP address it assigns to DHCP clients (devices on your network) for as long as the DHCP Lease parameter orders (1.500 minutes, 25 hours, is usual, as 1.440, 24 hours, is too). If too many clients (devices) come in and out from your network too quickly, they will probably full the 255 IP address pool.

• You could, too, change the assigned LAN Netmask (to the LAN side) in your DHCP server (your router, I suppose). For example, this one should end the problem:

  255.255.0.0

... that allows a maximum of 65535 IP addresses.

• Another possibilty: the IP Address Pool parameter, if your DHCP server has it, is too small (100 is a common default number for this field): just increase it.