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Wi-Fi-only Control4 System?


BaZa

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Has anyone installed a system using a bunch of wi-fi pieces yet? Maybe a job using a bunch of wi-fi mini-touch panels and wi-fi speaker points?

Any major hurdles or issues?

I know they are telling us to limit the pieces in a wi-fi system. I just wondered if anyone has pushed the boundries yet.

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Not any big ones, but we are having an issue with a MTS that will lockup ever day. Changed out to new MTS with Linksys G-band router and static IP's on all. C4 support puzzled, too! I have noticed and told TS that the 2nd DNS will not save a manual setting. Anybody have any ideas? THX!

At this point I would vote for a C4 Zigbee MTS without audio jacks!

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Agreed.... Zigbee would be great. I have a Wifi Minitouch and speakerpoint and the audio from the speakerpoint streaming audio cuts in and out constantly. The MTS seems to control it well enough with a little lag time, but not unreasonable. At this point, I won't sell anything wireless that will have to stream audio.

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Disclaimer: The following is my opinion. Many might have "this or that" experience with certain wifi pieces. I'm simply talking from my experience with wifi which is fairly extensive.

So anyone who knows me will say I'm a huge advocate for wifi, as long it's for the right solution. What I mean is mission critical devices over wifi I totally shy away from... unless you do it correctly. The only way to do wifi solidly is to build it out a meshed wifi environment (the way zigbee works). This means that linksys routers are (most likely) not going to do it. They're great for their market, and you don't want to build out a whole wireless system on them as your foundation (for "rock-solid" reliability).

Option A

WDS - "Wireless Distribution System" [point-to-point-to...-point... wireless distribution] (i.e. apple airport's) are a great solution for the price. They're solid pieces and I would totally recommend them over linksys anyday (especially the cool PoE model). Plus, the look slick, and nobody has a problem with buying apple hardware these days. Easy sale.

Option B

If you want to kick it up a notch (reliability, true meshing, advanced manageability, stronger wifi signal, MIMO, etc.) and are willing to shell out a bit more money, check out SOHOware's AGN1200 APs. They're great devices. $1250/unit. You'll have to become a dealer too, or buy from one (CYTEXONE is one). Again, this is for a mission critical environment and/or if you don't want wireless issues. You'll have to get at least 3 of them to make some form of mesh, and the more the better obviously. Actually, in our experience, even one is solid and can blanket a 3000 sq. ft. house very nicely. Tip: Stick it in the attic for great performance, and use PoE somewhere downstairs where you can reset the device if necessary (no going up to the attic once it's installed).

Now, for the warnings for this device...WEP encryption is busted (last I used it - about 3 months ago). I sent out an exchange unit, and the problem was pervasive throughout the line. They're WPA works great. Unfortunately, Control4 equipment doesn't support it (yet). The solution that we've found for lock-down is MAC Address filtering. It's the best solution we've found until WPA is supported with wifi Control4 devices. Also, the first installation is a bit wacky (soooo many options) and once you get it down, it's easy.

P.S. I would talk about modding AP's, and I feel that's not the discussion here - so I won't take it there. I feel it defeats the purpose of "buying a device, installing it, and getting the job done."

Andy

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I checked out SOHOware's AGN1200. Truely commercial grade equipment. Nice. I noticed they talked about mesh networking, but I noticed in one of their documents that they stated the mesh backhaul would only work properly if the dual radio model was used (1202 from memory). Is that true?

To touch upon your original question Baza, my limited experience in IT related endeavours has shown me that too many WiFi products within a small area causes dramatic decreases in bandwidth and therefore an increase in packet collisions. I imagine that placing multiple consumer brands within a small area is a reciepe for disaster. No doubt each manufacturer optimises their products to run most efficiently with certain other products from that manufacturers range. They probably don't even bother optimising for previous generation equipment. A great place to go and get your IT related wireless fix is over at Tom's Networking.

On a side topic, once we start moving into RF products, it becomes critical to perform spectrum analysis in the client's house. There are many commercial software packages (all cost '000s of dollars), but for a quick and dirty method just use NetStumbler. Load it onto your laptop, and as long as you have a compatible WiFi card, you should be able to see a list of available WiFi networks and their relative strengths. There are only three channels in WiFi that cause almost no overlap in frequency - they are 1, 6 and 11 (or 12 depending on the country). Therefore if you see WiFi networks on 1 and 6, move your network to channel 11 (or 12 if you can).

If my understanding of ZigBee is correct, channels 14 and 15 on ZigBee correspond approx. to the gap between WiFi channels 1 and 6. Therefore, the factory default ZigBee channel of 14 is actually a very safe value to use. If you feel confident that there is no WiFi traffic around channel 1, you could slowly move the ZigBee channel down from 14.

Please note that if you use NetStumbler, remember that it is no replacement for proper spectrum analysis equipment. NetStumbler will not measure interference from electronic devices such as microwaves and some cordless phones. However, if you are observent enough, you might be able to discern it from the signal strength and SNR values.

The next step up is a cheap spectrum analyser. You can find a review of one (MetaGeek Wi-Spy) over at Tom's Networking. It only costs US$100. That's dirt cheap!

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I checked out SOHOware's AGN1200. Truely commercial grade equipment. Nice. I noticed they talked about mesh networking, but I noticed in one of their documents that they stated the mesh backhaul would only work properly if the dual radio model was used (1202 from memory). Is that true?

Yep, you're right, Samer. The 1202 is what I was referring to. There are 2 cards in the device - one to talk to each AP (and transfer data = backhaul = 802.11a), and one to talk to the clients (802.11b/g).

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  • 5 weeks later...

I have installed some 10in TS withouth having any problem, althought last install had very thinck concrete and brick walls so the wifi had lots of trouble, i tried using some range expansors from linksys (as the router) but the TS seems to block for half a minute while going from one expansor to another... has anybody had the same problem? can I stop this from happening?

CHEMO

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  • 9 months later...

Guys,

Here in the UK we are great fans of the Netgear RangeMax range supporting MIMO...although that said we did have issues integrating this with the Netsreams product..in your experience in the US...MIMO & Control 4 make a suitable marriage??

I will look at the other ideas mentioned also..

Pete

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