[MLB-WIRELESS] Advice Needed

[Dan Harper]

Hi all,

I'm in the process of beginning to plan out a local wireless network for
a group of houses in Lilydale (currently the number is 4, but is growing
rapidly).  Some background:

- All the houses all belong to, or are rented by a local church
- The houses are setup for guys and girls who have been through
rehabilitation for drug and/or alcohol abuse and need a stable home to
put their lives back together.
- The network is designed to provide Internet services to each house so
the house members can look for work etc.  While also allowing the houses
to communicate easier through e-mail or some kind of IM system.

Basically, what I'm asking for is any advice anyone can offer on
equipment, problems etc.  I've attached an image of the network
structure as I'm imagining it.  I have some knowledge and experience in
networking etc, but not in wireless or ADSL, so this is a bit of a
challenge and learning experience for me.

I have some questions to start off with:

1.  As I understand it, I can offer the Internet to these houses through
my (future) ADSL link without a carrier license because we're
non-commercial, and we will not be charging for the service (the church
is funding the network), is this correct?

2.  What is the best way to authenticate and encrypt transmissions to
and from the wireless clients?

3.  I'm imagining an onmi antenna at the access point and directional at
each client end, right?

4.  What would be a recommendation for wireless equipment (access point,
client end, etc)?

5.  Would a wireless access point be able to handle 4-10 houses/clients
OK?

6.  I can get an ADSL, router, firewall, and switch built into one
hardware unit, right?  Is this a good thing?  And would it be possible
to also get a unit that had all that plus wireless capabilities as
well?  Is this integrated approach the easiest way to implement
something like this?

7.  Does anyone know of an ISP that would be friendly to this type of
hook up?


Thanks,
Dan

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