Rolling your own wireless solution.

This school year is a lot of testing and getting prepared for our next school, when we plan on rolling out a 1:1 programs with our students. Meaning that each student in grades either 7-12 or 9-12 will have their own laptop. So this year we are working the bugs out and one of them is our wireless internet. Now a lot of people told me to have a company come in, do a site survey and have them tell us where to place the access points. So I did, I had Xirrus come in and they did a site survey, made me a price of cost to do our campus and when I seen it, I about jumped out of my skin. It was very expensive but yet they are very good. But I just couldn't justify spending that kind of money it and then hoping that it does work. Instead we decided to do our own and taking the time to figure it all out. And with this job, that is what it takes, is time and patience. So since we had already place HP Procurve products, we decided to go with HP for our wireless. And not knowing what we were getting into, we bought, set up access points up and seen what they could do. Well they worked very well for the first year and still do work well but with all the technology and internet request we have from teachers, we decided to up our a.p. placement and bought new and better. And with a lot of help from our buddies at CDWG and my sales representative Erik Steffen we got this all figured out. With him and his team of networking specialist they figured out about what we need with our blue-prints of our schools. They did a RF configuration with determining where and how to place them by the thickness of our walls and all the other things that get in the way. So we went with what they told us and decided to go ahead with their ideas. So today I finished placing 8 a.p's around our High School and they testing them. Noticing that it seems to be working flawlessly. So by myself running the cable, hanging the access points, installing the controller and configuring, I know how and what I got. I mean it would have been nice to have a company come in, install everything, verify and go but I didn't see justifying that kind of extra money into a project I can do myself. So if your school or company is looking for a new and cheaper way to do wireless, look at HP Procurve and talk to Erik at CDWG.