Hello,
I'm planning on installing a wireless hotspot in my cafe, I want to give out free internet, but I want a certain speed set on every user so someone cant download a file and kill the connection for everyone else. I would be really grateful if anyone could give me information on any hardware or software that im going to need to do this.
Thanks, Will
Re: Wireless Hotspot
You don't need to be concerned about that.
Here's why.
The broadband connection is many times faster than the wireless connection to any single user, so no single user can tie up any more than a fraction of the download bandwidth.
And the 802.whatever wireless is implemented as a large number of channels which any single user can only simultanously use a small number of, so no single user can tie up all the wireless connection bandwidth.
There may be a reason to limit bandwidth to stop people making unreasonable use of it, but its not a realistic concern to be worried about anyone hogging the connection.
Re: Wireless Hotspot
The trouble with free wireless is that you cannot control how many people in surrounding buildings etc can also access it. It is more likely these guys who will hog it. Why not make it free to paying customers - that way you can issue them with a login id & password at the time of ordering. They are then able to use the wireless free & you have prevented anyone else from accessing the free wireless. It is generally not possible to control bandwidth by user in these environments. But you can control how long they have free access - restrict it so that the cafe is not full of non-spending internet nuts. Spend more get more.
Netcomm have a Hotspot device HS960 with a docket printer for Id's & passwords. RRP = $2035 inc GST - street price will be lower.
Re: Wireless Hotspot
Will, our hotspot solutions allow you do designate a maximum upload speed and/or download speed if you so desire, and allow the customer to burst to a higher speed for a predetermined time if the capacity is available in your broadband connection at the time.
802.11x wireless is much faster than the average broadband connection, typical broadband speed is 1500/256, with ADSL2 this extends to 24000/1000 but this is rare to achieve, 802.11g can go to a real speed of about 40mb/s in an ideal environment, even 802.11b which is pretty old now can get to about 7-8Mb/s which is still way over the typical broadband speeds. Unless you were planning on having a really busy hotspot, 1500/256 is ideal for a hotspot service.
I too don't recommend giving your service away for free. A lot of our customers want to do this initially, but it opens up a can of worms and you are much better off to control the access, which you can still give away for free to customers, but they must use a username and password which you control so they are still limited in so much as how much they can use your service, and can't just keep logging in for free all the time.
Prepaid cards are perfect for this scenario, where they cost you next to nothing, and you can sell them for a profit or give them away with a purchase.
Regards Paul
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