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In a few weeks, I'll be helping with the technical aspects of a conference. One of the things that participants will need is access to to documents, via a laptop as a document server (set up with MAMP and a PHP/MYSQL site). People will access the documents through an internal wireless network.

My question is how many wireless access points will I need in order to accommodate about 350 devices?

Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007
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user3684202
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    If the document server is on the same network as the clients then you'll need 0 routers. If the document server is on a remote network then you'll need 2 routers; 1 on the client network and 1 on the document server network, although I'd think that those would already be in place. Are you building the networks from scratch? You'll need to contract with an ISP on both ends in order to have internet access on both ends. – joeqwerty Jul 01 '14 at 20:07
  • Well, the conference is being held in a place where internet connections are unreliable and very slow if connections are even made. I created a PHP/SQL based site and put it in localhost on my Macbook. I then point MAMP to that folder. Keeping the router physically connected to my computer, I was able to access the files with different devices in my office by simply connecting to the router's wifi signal, then in the browser entering the hosting computer's IP Address. Everything in Localhost showed up on the other devices (in this case, it was the database with the files.) – user3684202 Jul 01 '14 at 20:21
  • Just to clarify: With "router" you mean "WLAN Access Point", right?! – mpy Jul 01 '14 at 20:24
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    OK. Understood. What you mean is `how many wireless access points will I need in order to accommodate about 350 devices?` NOT `how many routers will I need in order to accommodate about 350 devices?` – joeqwerty Jul 01 '14 at 20:30
  • Ah, okay. I'm definitely not a network guy so I get the device names confused sometimes. (Edited original post to reflect the correction) – user3684202 Jul 01 '14 at 20:32
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    How big of an area? Wide open or walled divisions? – YLearn Jul 01 '14 at 21:47
  • YLearn, it's a wide open room. – user3684202 Jul 01 '14 at 22:29

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amount of users doesn't regulate how many WAPs you need. WAPs are installed based on signal in a specific area. If you can get all 350 people into the bubble created by one WAP, then you only need one.

What you will need, however, is a DHCP server feeding either a classB or feeding more than one IP scope to cover 350 users. If you have a DHCP scope of 192.168.1.5-254/24, for instance, you can only feed 249 systems.

Rex Sheffield
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    I doubt you could ever actually serve 350 devices on a single AP (single radio). The protocol overhead, collisions, broadcasts and so on would make things ugly. Not that you were seriously suggesting that it could work. – Zoredache Jul 01 '14 at 21:43
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    Actually, the number of devices (remember, each user could have multiple devices) on an access point is an important design consideration. Designs based purely on coverage are based on older design models and not current needs. – YLearn Jul 01 '14 at 21:46
  • In a real deployment, yes I agree. For temporary use (conference) as long as his users have coverage he should be fine. I would never recommend that he actually only deploy one WAP, I was being a bit facetious in my reply. [based on the assumption that they will ONLY be doing what is mentioned above. If they are accessing public internet, forget about it.] – Rex Sheffield Jul 01 '14 at 22:04