Hotel WiFi Setup

[TheD]

I have a client who has bought a new Hotel. It is an old building with thick walls but only has ground floor and an upper floor. It has 16 bedrooms all on the first floor, 2 bars, a function suite and a dining room all on the ground floor. One of the complaints from previous guests was the poor WiFi.

My client wants new WiFi installed all over the Hotel. I was thinking about Ubiquiti UAP-AC-PRO 5 Pack from Broadband buyer as it comes with hosted cloud for 3 years. Also a PoE switch and connect them all with new Cat6. Also a Ubiquiti UAP-AC-M UniFi Mesh Outdoor AP for external use.

What do you guys think of this and should I look for something else.

[megaphone]

That will be fine, you won't find anything better for the same money. What router/firewall do they have? Although you can do some isolation of the guest network in the controller, you really want to set up vlans and isolate it via a firewall, that's if they are using the same LAN for other stuff.

I wouldn't worry too much about the Cloud hosted controller, just add a Unifi Cloud Key and connect to Unifi remote access.

Edited by megaphone on Wednesday 14th October 17:48

[randlemarcus]

Depends how thick the walls are

If he currently has WiFi of any description, use Wifiman to wander about and check signal strengths in the rooms. Very thick walls resist radio waves remarkably well. He might consider the inwall APs, but they are probably overkill

Segmentation is an excellent idea. If CCTV is something he might like to do, consider the Unifi cameras, and if so, the combined DVR/Controller is excellent.

[megaphone]

As above, it will depend on the layout whether 5 APs are enough. When I've done similar I've positioned the APs in the hallways outside the rooms, signal can then get in through doors. Possibly install some extra cables 'just incase' Maybe consider a local switch upstairs, then run out from that.

[Pieman68]

randlemarcus said:

Depends how thick the walls are

If he currently has WiFi of any description, use Wifiman to wander about and check signal strengths in the rooms. Very thick walls resist radio waves remarkably well. He might consider the inwall APs, but they are probably overkill

Segmentation is an excellent idea. If CCTV is something he might like to do, consider the Unifi cameras, and if so, the combined DVR/Controller is excellent.

From my experience the inwall APs are quite limited and the proper APs are a much better bet. However I would also agree with the points about thick walls being a concern

I always recommend the AC Pro, and agree with the point above about the cloud key

Are you planning on running cable back to a PoE switch for power? If you need injectors remember that the 5 packs don't come with them. Individuals do but they expect multi packs to be powered via a switch so they take the injectors out to reduce the cost

[xeny]

Pieman68 said:

I always recommend the AC Pro, and agree with the point above about the cloud key

If the walls are thick enough, for this scenario it may be worth considering a Lite in each room.

[TheD]

Thanks guys some great advice there.

I was going to run the cables from a single PoE switch. I was also going to use the Pro's as they have a link port for expansion. I'm sure I'll use a Draytek Router for the Fibre, and was thinking about a smart switch to run the Vlans for the APs.

I'll look into the cloud key. Thanks

[silentbrown]

I'd budget for a Unifi Security Gateway as well - you'll need to reconfigure the existing router as a bridge to use that.

[megaphone]

OP you are aware the secondary port does not pass PoE? Unless this has changed since I last tested.

Nothing wrong with a Draytek, however, if your going Unifi APs, you'd be better off looking at a Unifi USG and a Unifi Switch as well as a Cloud Key, you can then manage everything remotely with easy set-up.

[HantsRat]

Get the UDM Pro and a 24port switch (You will need more eventually) then buy the AP's and link via the switch. No need for hosted cloud key, keep this local, you can access this via the web anyway. VLAN off the guest network and enable to captive portal.

(UDM Pro has cloud key and USG built in)

[thebraketester]

HantsRat said:

Get the UDM Pro and a 24port switch (You will need more eventually) then buy the AP's and link via the switch. No need for hosted cloud key, keep this local, you can access this via the web anyway. VLAN off the guest network and enable to captive portal.

(UDM Pro has cloud key and USG built in)

I would go along with that.... USG3 is fine but getting old now.


Remember that the secondary port on the ac pro isnt POE. ( you probably knew that but worth remembering)

[silentbrown]

thebraketester said:

I would go along with that.... USG3 is fine but getting old now.

UDM looks very interesting. I was considering replacing my slightly ancient USG/Cloudkey/16 port switch setup with a UMD - but it looks like there's no POE one it.

[cobra kid]

May I ask the OP what line of work he is in if the hotel owner is his client?

[Sheepshanks]

......must admit I wondered that too.

Mate of mine runs a small country house hotel, sounds very similar to OPs description and he asked me about this stuff a few years ago. They had a fundamental problem with very poor line speed and it's also in a cellular black hole. However in looking at it, hotel wifi is a legal minefield - there's a whole bunch of telecoms, terrorist and data protection laws involved - your're supposed to know, and record, who is connected at all times.

[cobra kid]

Sheepshanks said:

......must admit I wondered that too.

Mate of mine runs a small country house hotel, sounds very similar to OPs description and he asked me about this stuff a few years ago. They had a fundamental problem with very poor line speed and it's also in a cellular black hole. However in looking at it, hotel wifi is a legal minefield - there's a whole bunch of telecoms, terrorist and data protection laws involved - your're supposed to know, and record, who is connected at all times.

Just seems odd that someone would pay me to use my skills then I go out asking people how to do it.

[Brother D]

Sheepshanks said:

However in looking at it, hotel wifi is a legal minefield - there's a whole bunch of telecoms, terrorist and data protection laws involved - your're supposed to know, and record, who is connected at all times.

Sorry that's not true. The Court of Justice of the European Union invalidated those rules you are referring to in the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act (DRIPA) 2014, (and the only similar rules apply where the home secretary has sent you a notification)...

Standard GDPR laws apply if you are retaining customer information.

[Sheepshanks]

Brother D said:

Sheepshanks said:

However in looking at it, hotel wifi is a legal minefield - there's a whole bunch of telecoms, terrorist and data protection laws involved - your're supposed to know, and record, who is connected at all times.

Sorry that's not true. The Court of Justice of the European Union invalidated those rules you are referring to in the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act (DRIPA) 2014, (and the only similar rules apply where the home secretary has sent you a notification)...

Standard GDPR laws apply if you are retaining customer information.

I said it was a few years ago and it's a minefield. One thing about the law is that none of it is black and white. I quickly decided that, in an amatuer capacity, I didn't want to get involved.

For instance, first hit on Googling "hotel wifi legal requirements" is from Draytek https://www.draytek.co.uk/support/guides/kb-guest-...

It makes the point that it's ever-evolving (and that it's a minefield ).


ETA: I should add that I looked around at the time and there's a whole bunch of companies that specialise in this stuff - they supply the hardware and take care of the user interface and all the back-end stuff. For a few rooms it's probably pretty expensive though.

Edited by Sheepshanks on Thursday 15th October 17:22

[Brother D]

Sheepshanks said:

I said it was a few years ago and it's a minefield. One thing about the law is that none of it is black and white. I quickly decided that, in an amatuer capacity, I didn't want to get involved.

For instance, first hit on Googling "hotel wifi legal requirements" is from Draytek https://www.draytek.co.uk/support/guides/kb-guest-...

It makes the point that it's ever-evolving (and that it's a minefield ).


ETA: I should add that I looked around at the time and there's a whole bunch of companies that specialise in this stuff - they supply the hardware and take care of the user interface and all the back-end stuff. For a few rooms it's probably pretty expensive though.

Edited by Sheepshanks on Thursday 15th October 17:22

Googling a result for a private company's opinion isn't quite the same. If you can't cite a single court case of any business or person being sued for failing to retain all customer communications whilst using their communications equipment, I would think twice about spreading rumours of providing public internet being a 'legal minefield'.

[Harpoon]

As mentioned above, a old building with stupidly thick walls is probably going to need more than 5 APs. I did WiFi for an assortment of hotels in my last job and one old coaching inn in Wales was a nightmare. Some of the rooms ended up with their own AP - that solves the coverage but sensible cabling routes can be a bugger to find (if you don't want surface mount trunking).

If Internet connectivity is FTTC or similar, dump the guests onto their own connection so there's zero chance of them ending up on the hotel business LAN/WLAN.

[troc]

Yeah, you could end up needing an In-Wall in each room, it depends where you can ceiling-mount the other APs.

But for the cost, you can't really beat Unifi. I have a dream machine pro at home with a 16 port poe switch, 3 APs and various other entirely unnecessary devices - a set-up which could happily cover a small hotel but I like the flashing lights

It all works well but does require some networking knowledge to set-up properly.