Questions about non-wireless gateway and wireless APs

[Spork Schivago]

If I have an enterprise grade non-wireless gateway that supported PoE / PoE+, and I ran some ethernet from the PoE+ ports to some wireless APs PoE+ port, would that allow devices to connect to the wireless APs to access the internet and LAN? Or would I need more than just a wireless AP or two and if so, without a wireless gateway, how would I accomplish this?

[diif]

Re: Questions about non-wireless gateway and wireless APs

Generally yes.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Questions about non-wireless gateway and wireless APs

Diif,

Can you think of any examples where this would not work?

For example, let's say I'm going for the Cisco Aironet 4800 series APs and some fancy gateway (yet to be completely determined, but it'll support PoE / PoE+ and that's how we plan on powering these devices and "pairing" them with the gateway). The gateway will definitely be a Cisco gateway device, rack-mountable, but won't have wireless capabilities until we plug in the access points.

Those access points, one will act as a main access point or something, and we can set the SSID, etc? Or we have to set it per access point and put one in repeater mode or what there?

Thanks.

[diif]

Re: Questions about non-wireless gateway and wireless APs

Your current switch does PoE doesn't it ?
You need three APs at most. I'd pick Ubiquiti not Cisco, install the management software, plug the APs in the PoE switch and you're done.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Questions about non-wireless gateway and wireless APs

We need more than APs though, we need a gateway. I know Cisco IOS (from not too long ago), which isn't a reason not to get Ubiquiti, necessarily...

Saying we decided to go the Cisco Aironet 4800 series AP route, would we need something like this:

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/produc...ler/index.html

It's the 8540 Wireless Controller, which the Cisco Aironet 4800 series says it's compatible with.

Currently, Cisco is running a deal, buy 2, get 1 free, buy 4, get 2 free, buy 6, get 3 free, buy 8, get 4 free (i think that's where it ends). Not sure if that Cisco Aironet 4800 series is included, I'd have to double check, but I do know a bunch of Aironet's are included.

Yes, I figured we'd need three APs. Two for the house, one for the garage or the outside balcony. Garage is unheated. My cell operates only on wifi and outside, there isn't much range at all. This makes it very cumbersome, especially in the garage. The garage door opener also runs off wifi, which makes it a bit cumbersome.

I need to figure out how to exploit that KRACK attack and see if our ISP fixed it. I told them about it and they said they were definitely pushing it to upper management and it wasn't something they ever heard of. I want to see if we're still susceptible.

I believe we've secured our printer. I've been in contact with Brother (level 5 tech) and I've passed along some fixes, some bugs I've discovered, some suggestions to make the printer much more secure. Whether they listen or not, I dunno. However, I'd like to do a full security audit when I feel we're ready.

I believe the proper way to do a security audit is to white list the local IP address of the machine running the security audit, so security software doesn't stop it from seeing what's really wrong, and then trying to fix each issue, one at a time.

Still a lot of work that needs to be done.

Out of curiosity, could you please explain why you'd personally pick Ubiquiti over Cisco? You are not the first person I've heard say this Diif. I will point out, with Cisco, there are "maintenance costs", like there is with almost all hardware / software now-a-days. If we stop paying, the equipment still works, but we're no longer entitled to firmware updates, which could be very bad. I don't think Ubiquiti has this limitation.

For the gateway device, the only requirement is PoE and PoE+, preferable PoE+ (I think). Same with the APs. And for the gateway, QSFP+ ports, at a minimum two, but hopefully four. They'd have to support 40Gbps transceivers.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Questions about non-wireless gateway and wireless APs

Also, I thought my current switch DID support PoE, because I DO remember seeing an option in the GUI, but according to the networking expert, the HPE 5900AF-48G-4XG-2QSFP+ 48-port gigabit managed switch does NOT support PoE. Internet seems to confirm. I don't think PoE could just magically be enabled by some sort of firmware, with the current draw and voltage requirements. I'd think the switch would have had to of been made specifically for PoE / PoE+, and it appears mine is not one of those switches. I know there's no dedicated PoE / PoE+ ports, at least not labeled.

[diif]

Re: Questions about non-wireless gateway and wireless APs

Ubiquiti stuff just works and isn't too complicated or expensive.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Questions about non-wireless gateway and wireless APs

No monthly / yearly fees for firmware updates, etc?

[diif]

Re: Questions about non-wireless gateway and wireless APs

No monthly / yearly fees for firmware updates, etc?

You can go to their website and download anything you like.