Small village hall - ISP and kit recommendations

[StephenP]

Hi all,

We're looking to add WiFi to our small village hall and I'm looking for recommendations for :

• ISPs (we'll want a static IP address)
• Router / WiFi kit

The building is about the size of a small bungalow and consists of a single hall, with adjacent kitchen, etc. It'll need to be FTTC as that's the limit of options for our village (no cable ISPs here either)

I would like to be able to create a main and a guest network, isolated from each other, and it needs a reasonable dashboard for reporting, logs, config, etc that I can access remotely.

I've got a Unifi USG, plus gen 1 cloud key, with UAC-AP-PRO access points at home which does pretty much everything we want for our village hall install but it might be somewhat overkill!

Thoughts anyone?

Thanks, Steve

[randlemarcus]

Static IP - assuming it's for management, and not for running web services - thought about dynamic DNS?

Unifi kit- it might be overkill, but it works. Worth bearing in mind that the older stuff is appraoching/is End of Life - no more updates...

[Mr Pointy]

Something from Draytek? There's plenty of one generation back stuff on ebay.

[K50 DEL]

I was immediately going to suggest UniFi kit as well.
The remote admin abilities alone make it worthwhile for your intended use.

Plenty of it for sale on that well known auction site as well, so no need to bankrupt your hall buying new!

[HantsRat]

Vodafone broadband offer free static IP on request once the server has been setup.

[Mattt]

UniFi Dream Machine.

[quinny100]

Unifi kit is OK, but the Cloud Keys are terribly unreliable and there is no proper technical support. To do a properly segregated guest network you'll need to use VLAN's on the AP's which means you'll need a router that can support multiple LAN subnets and possibly a switch which supports VLAN's which starts to get complicated.

I'd suggest looking at the Aruba InstantOn range - probably the AP22's as they're WiFi 6. Native cloud management with no ongoing costs means you don't need to worry about running your own controller and they can do DHCP and segregation of networks directly on the AP itself which removes the need for any additional kit. They are designed for exactly the type of the installation you want - small networks with an element of public access. Pricing is similar to Unifi.

[StephenP]

randlemarcus said:

Worth bearing in mind that the older stuff is appraoching/is End of Life - no more updates...

Hopefully not my existing USG and APs! 😉

[S6PNJ]

StephenP said:

Hi all,

We're looking to add WiFi to our small village hall and I'm looking for recommendations for :

• ISPs (we'll want a static IP address)

Thoughts anyone?

Thanks, Steve

Our Village Hall uses Gigaclear as the ISP. They 'installed' into the village about 18-20 or so months ago and as part of their 'community' support, the village hall gets a 900Mbps connection for free (currently, but reviewed on an annual basis I think). It might be worthwhile asking the available ISPs if they do any form of community support as you may get a cheaper deal possibly. Be aware, you might fall under the 'business' connection tariffs which are generally higher than domestic contracts.

Can't help with the kit side of things, we just use the Gigaclear router and a single WiFi SSID (no 'management' devices or kit so no need for anything else).

[StephenP]

quinny100 said:

Unifi kit is OK, but the Cloud Keys are terribly unreliable and there is no proper technical support. To do a properly segregated guest network you'll need to use VLAN's on the AP's which means you'll need a router that can support multiple LAN subnets and possibly a switch which supports VLAN's which starts to get complicated.

I'd suggest looking at the Aruba InstantOn range - probably the AP22's as they're WiFi 6. Native cloud management with no ongoing costs means you don't need to worry about running your own controller and they can do DHCP and segregation of networks directly on the AP itself which removes the need for any additional kit. They are designed for exactly the type of the installation you want - small networks with an element of public access. Pricing is similar to Unifi.

An interesting option. The website says no need for a router so presumably it does all the same functionality and you just need the modem?

[Bikerjon]

quinny100 said:

I'd suggest looking at the Aruba InstantOn range - probably the AP22's as they're WiFi 6. Native cloud management with no ongoing costs means you don't need to worry about running your own controller and they can do DHCP and segregation of networks directly on the AP itself which removes the need for any additional kit. They are designed for exactly the type of the installation you want - small networks with an element of public access. Pricing is similar to Unifi.

I'd agree with this. I install loads of Unifi kit, but for smaller places with an emphasis on public access the Aruba stuff seems more suitable plus easier to setup/manage.

[xeny]

quinny100 said:

I'd suggest looking at the Aruba InstantOn range - probably the AP22's as they're WiFi 6. Native cloud management with no ongoing costs means you don't need to worry about running your own controller

I worry about the sustainability of this approach - they've essentially got you if in the future they change the business model or decide they no longer want to pay for the cloud fees.

[randlemarcus]

StephenP said:

Hopefully not my existing USG and APs! ??

Honestly, who the hell knows with them
Cloud key v1 is deciding its legacy - I have a Gen1 and a Gen2 Plus - both appear on the login page, but the Gen 1 is marked as legacy.
AC-PRO is identical hardware to the AC-EDU, which IS EOL, but no LTS flag for the Pro?
USG is safe for the moment, but with the DreamMachine being pushed hard, it logically has a limited lifespan.

[StephenP]

Unless I'm misunderstanding, I'd get the result I want with just one AP22 at around £150 plus the broadband connection with just the model supplied?

Cloud managed, two SSIDs (one being guest), easy to manage, security built in? No need for static IP for management as cloud based.

If they ever drop the product or service, we can throw the unit away and switch vendor since our investment in the Instant On kit won't be much.

Edited by StephenP on Monday 17th May 13:10

[xeny]

randlemarcus said:

AC-PRO is identical hardware to the AC-EDU, which IS EOL, but no LTS flag for the Pro?

My guess is the EDU didn't get much take up, and they don't want to have to support the app that lets you use them as a PA system. Frustrating there doesn't seem to be a way of converting them into a PRO by sacrificing the speaker.

[sociopath]

That's one hell of a co plicate solution for a village hall, what do you do there that requires separate networks and remote admin?

Our village hall is mostly used by ancient members who still think TV is work of the devil, so WiFi isn't even on their radar

[Captain_Morgan]

Take a look at the tp-link Omada options, router, cloud controller, 8 port switch (t1500g- it needs a fw update to work with Omada but easy to do) and a eap225 ap should come in around £210-220 Mark.

Very unifi like but cheaper by ~30-40%

You could save more by running the cloud controller on a local pc if on 24/7 as you want monitoring and stats

The main difference I’m aware of is the fw is not stateful which is an issue for IoT vlans but I guess not an issue for guest and trusted as you’ve suggested

Edit:

Just saw you only wanted wifi in that case I’m unsure if running the Omada controller in the cloud will suffice but I can confirm I had the eap225 running directly from the t605 router so it’s possible to save even more

Re the aruba are you sure they don’t need a router of some type for dhcp and vlan provisions etc?

Edited by Captain_Morgan on Monday 17th May 13:37

[geeks]

I'll leave the advice side of things (my suggestions have already been covered) but I will suggest you don't put any of the stuff in your name, a lad I work with setup their village hall, the contract and kit were all under his name when it was setup and all paid for out of the village hall coffers. No problem until one morning he awoke to the sound of the police busting through his door, he was arrested and anything with a plug in his house was seized. Turns out someone had been using the village hall wifi to download kiddie porn and as the contract and kit purchases were all in his name it was him on the hook for it when the police went raiding. All cleared up in a day or two but the faff for him etc was enormous and it took months to get all the kit back.

[ATG]

Apart from perverts in the car park, who are your intended users? What do you foresee them using the wifi for, assuming you've got 3G or better coverage?

[quinny100]

StephenP said:

Unless I'm misunderstanding, I'd get the result I want with just one AP22 at around £150 plus the broadband connection with just the model supplied?

Cloud managed, two SSIDs (one being guest), easy to manage, security built in? No need for static IP for management as cloud based.

If they ever drop the product or service, we can throw the unit away and switch vendor since our investment in the Instant On kit won't be much.

Provided a single AP22 will give you the coverage you require, you'll be fine. I would just connect that to your ISP supplied router and do all of the client network config on the AP. Power is usually best via a PoE injector unless you have a PoE switch. The Aruba injectors are about £25 which is a bit steep when a Unifi one will do the job just fine for under £7: https://www.comms-express.com/products/ubiquiti-u-... (note some of the older black Unifi injectors are non-standard and won't work with other vendors kit, but the one I've linked will be fine for the AP22).

The AP22's support basic web filtering which is useful for public networks. As a minimum you want to block any of the Security categories and probably very adult/sexual content categories - all tick box stuff on these.

Edited by quinny100 on Monday 17th May 14:11