Should we go Wireless?

[lovedam]

I am helping a friend move his small business

(5 people) from one building to another. They currently have 1 server, 3 desktops, and 2 laptops.

Their new building is 3 floors and is wired for Cat5.

However, nothing is patched in the data closet. Another contractor they use wants to charge them $1,000 dollars to make a patch panel for all 3 floors.

I got to thinking about it and I suggtested that they just use wireless. They don't have any high-speed data needs, but they do need to be able to move freely within a floor with thier laptops.

Are there any show stoppers with going wireless?

I feel like if they use all of the best security

practices (TKIP, WEP?, etc...) then they would be fine...

Would anyone strongly disagree and suggest that they use wired instead?

I know I will need to check out signal strength

throughout thier office space.

Are there any othre gotchas that I better pay attention to?

thanks!

[plemieux72]

There are a lot of factors to take into consideration but as far as security goes, make sure you don't use WEP. There is no need to be using WEP anymore as WPA (TKIP) is available on Cisco products starting with the 350 and up if you use the IOS image. As WEP security is easily compromised, I would advise against.

Since you have 3 floors, you might need more than one AP so I would look into setting up CCKM/WDS. You will need a 1100 or 1200 series AP for that.