1 Internet Connection for 25 Student Flats

Are you actually getting 20mb or just paying for an up-to 20mb service? If its the latter 50mb cable could be a huge improvement. I would go for 100mb cable personally.
 
Orcvader said:
We students do more then that :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

#Chri5# said:
Students just surfing and mailing? :D They'll be wanting to download the Internet via BitTorrent or newsgroups, iPlayer / Youtube in HD and the rest...
Click to expand...

foz2000 said:
I think it will be too slow tbh.
Click to expand...

Sorry should have phrased that better! Will there be a usage policy, like on campus for example?

Fully appreciate the web is a rich and diverse bandwidth intensive place these days, but if the AUP states no BT/YouTube/smut downloading then it might be feasible to use the option I stated. :)
 
SoundsGood said:
Are you actually getting 20mb or just paying for an up-to 20mb service? If its the latter 50mb cable could be a huge improvement. I would go for 100mb cable personally.
Click to expand...

Paying for an up to 20mb service at the moment.

We had thought about putting an up to 100mb service into the building and using a couple of routers so that the students could pick the signal up wirelessly but was advised by virgin media that this wouldn't be sufficient for 25-40 students.
 
So is it wireless at the moment? Is there cabling in/ethernet ports in the rooms?

A lot of the work might already be done depending on what's there.
 
I would wire x2 Ethernet sockets to each room.

I would then setup wireless in the lobby or maybe or a rest room on each floor.
 
waso_dude said:
Go and get Virgin Media 100mb. Done deal then tbh.
Click to expand...

But with 40 flats planned, even 100mb will start to feel slow. 100/40 = 2.5mb per room.

Isn't BT planning 300mb FTTP/H services? That will be fine for 40 students. 7.5mb each.More than enough.

Then there's this: https://www.hyperoptic.com/web/guest/business

Apparantly it's a 1gb connection, but from the look of the site it looks pretty expensive to install, but could be very well worth it and future proof.
 
J.B said:
So is it wireless at the moment? Is there cabling in/ethernet ports in the rooms?

A lot of the work might already be done depending on what's there.
Click to expand...

I haven't much knowledge when it comes to networking and wasn't the person who set this system up. From what I can tell is there is a ADSL service from B.T coming into the building that connects to a router this router is then wired to 3 other routers on the floor above and this enables the students to connect through a wireless connection. There is no cabling from the router to individual rooms.

Hope that helps.
 
waso_dude said:
Go and get Virgin Media 100mb. Done deal then tbh.
Click to expand...

I did think about just doing as you suggested but wasn't sure if that would be sufficient tbh.

Could I just buy 4 different 100mb connections from virgin media and then wire each modem to a switch then wire to the 25-40 rooms?
 
Last edited:
randal24 said:
Sorry should have phrased that better! Will there be a usage policy, like on campus for example?

Fully appreciate the web is a rich and diverse bandwidth intensive place these days, but if the AUP states no BT/YouTube/smut downloading then it might be feasible to use the option I stated. :)
Click to expand...

No worries :)
 
Well if you have a distribution cable going to each floor then part of the work is done. To make it a wired you would probably replace those wireless nodes with switches and then run cables to each room.

I propose you look at the project in 2 phases; the internal network which will consist of distribution of networking to each room and the internet connection which you can just plug in to the internal network.

On the internal side you will probably want to get a router that deals with IP addresses and DHCP etc and just have a WAN port which you can just plug any router from whatever ISP you go with.

This way in the future you can change ISP and it wont affect the internal network. The downside of this is that it may require some level of management if it goes wrong, but mainly that will be restart the router.

It may be easier to let the ISPs router deal with DHCP and just plug it into a switch which goes to each floor and then another switch on each floor and then to each room.
 
J.B said:
Well if you have a distribution cable going to each floor then part of the work is done. To make it a wired you would probably replace those wireless nodes with switches and then run cables to each room.

I propose you look at the project in 2 phases; the internal network which will consist of distribution of networking to each room and the internet connection which you can just plug in to the internal network.

On the internal side you will probably want to get a router that deals with IP addresses and DHCP etc and just have a WAN port which you can just plug any router from whatever ISP you go with.

This way in the future you can change ISP and it wont affect the internal network. The downside of this is that it may require some level of management if it goes wrong, but mainly that will be restart the router.

It may be easier to let the ISPs router deal with DHCP and just plug it into a switch which goes to each floor and then another switch on each floor and then to each room.
Click to expand...

Thanks, That sounds like the way that I would want to go. What would be the best switch as on one floor there are 21 flats and on the other there will be 19 flats?
 
foz2000 said:
We already have something similar to this at the minute, but the internet is too slow when all users are online.
Click to expand...

Yes you need to increase the internet bandwidth. The 100Mbit switch and ethernet network certainly won't be the problem.

Put a 100Mbit Virgin Media circuit in there. Job done. If they need more than that then you need to put a FUP in place really as the costs will escalate very rapidly.
 
I'm no expert in these thing but just a thought, using domestic lines (one or several of) may be a bit sticky if someone is caught downloading something they shouldn't. If you get a mahoosive fine on a limited company that rents a business line, well, you can make that go away. Unlikely but I wouldn't have an internet connection in my name shared with 25+ students personally
 
With a budget of 7000 pounds I would be tempted to put in Cisco N WiFi access points.

Get someone like Virgin or even a business fibre link. You will probably need to filter out torrents and such like too.

Will it be free or charged service to the students?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom