2016-09-19

Hi All,

I have been asked to design and setup a basic network for our church.

About me: I am relatively knowledgeable in the world of IT. Part of my duties at work is managing 50+ laptops, and a small wired network. After hours I repair pc's and laptops for people.

My church: We are a small church of 20-30 people, in a country town in Australia. The manse is located next door to the church, separated by a driveway, and with a steel shed also blocking direct line of sight. We do not have a large budget, so need to keep costs down as low as possible.

Our need: We would like to get a wireless network across to the church building. It is only likely to be used by no more than 5 users at once.

Additional Info:

The Manse:

The manse currently has a wireless network, with a small business grade AC router. The church office is operated out of the manse, and which includes a printer and a wired PC.

The pastor has expressed a desire to install a file server to allow access to files on the whole net. I have experience with Amahi, running a server of my own at home, so I plan on setting up an Amahi server connected directly to the router. I will also install the printer to the server to allow it to remain on the network. It is not network enabled, so currently uses a shared USB connection on the church office PC.

The Church:

The church is located on the same block, with a driveway and a steel shed separating it from the manse, approximately 30-35 metres away. I can connect to the manse wireless network from inside the church building (using my mobile phone), along the wall that is nearest to the manse, but the signal is quite weak and not suitable for use. There is a chance that a WAP with a better antenna would have a stronger connection.

We currently use a laptop to drive our projector, however we are looking at a PC to permanently go in it's place, with the laptop as backup. either way, the AV PC is on the opposite side of the building, which is large enough to seat 100 if fully packed (to give an idea of size). I would guess that it is 30 metres away from the wall that I can get wireless connection.

My current plan:

I have attached a drawing of my current idea regarding setup. The RED devices are not yet existing.

I did consider trying to use a single repeater in the middle (we get 2 bar of signal strength inside the powered shed using my mobile phone) but I feel that that could well end up being an exercise in frustration.

My current plan is to buy two cheap directional WAP/WISP devices (see attached pic) from ebay and mount them facing eachother. I also have an older Belkin wireless N router that I could use to provide wireless coverage to the church, which would let the WAP be a point to point only.

Attached Images



churchnet.jpg‎ (64.8 KB)



New Picture (1).bmp‎ (1.43 MB)

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