School learns the joys of wireless

The Guardian Angels Primary School in Ashmore, Queensland, has replaced their existing network with a wireless network, enabling notebooks to be used in different classrooms and giving greater control to the IT administrator.

The school ultimately decided on the Netgear WFS709TP ProSafe Smart Wireless Controller, which offers seamless roaming between access points (APs) and management of up to 16 access points and 256 users.

ICT administrator for Guardian Angels Primary School, Brett Coad, explains: "This is our second go at deploying a wireless network at the school. We tried access points from another vendor earlier this year and three days after deployment everything started going wrong."

"Teachers were having a lot of difficulty connecting to the network and the internet with laptops during class. We purchased more APs thinking it was a coverage issue, but the signal was still dropping out."

Guardian Angels Primary School has several trolleys called pods, containing 10 notebooks, which are rotated around the school. The old wireless network required teachers to authenticate each of the notebooks in a pod with the nearest AP before the start of a lesson. If one or more of the notebooks couldn't be authenticated, teachers had to call on ICT support to resolve the issue or else continue the lesson without the required number of laptops.

Under the new system, the wireless network is viewed as one AP, rather than multiple APs with separate identification requirements. This means teachers do not have to authenticate their pods as they move classrooms - and therefore APs. This simplifies lesson set-up and significantly reduces the number of calls to ICT support.

"The equipment was up and running on the first day and we haven't had any problems with signal strength or coverage since, meaning classes are no longer being interrupted and teachers don't have to manage roaming between APs - it just works," said Coad.

The school is left with one integrated wireless network extending across 300 m long by 150 m wide, covering most of Guardian Angels Primary School.

Coad said he is very impressed with the strength and coverage of the new network: "I can walk around the entire school with a laptop, check emails, access the network and surf the internet. We've also tested coverage walking around the school while talking on a Skype Wi-Fi phone to a mobile phone and didn't lose the connection once."

"Two adjacent classes can be using the wireless network at the same time, and the network will direct each user to whichever AP will give them the strongest signal. This means we don't have problems with the network connection dropping out and interrupting classes or study time and I'm not getting frustrated phone calls from teachers anymore."

Coad has configured the Smart Wireless Controller in master mode, which means the configuration and security parameters are standardised for the entire wireless network.

"I'm still reviewing all the capabilities within the Smart Wireless Controller," said Coad. "The device allows me to log onto any AP and analyse loading, signal strength or interference issues. I can reboot individual APs if needed from where I'm sitting, which means I don't have to interrupt classes - it's all so easy to use and the device will alert me straight away if something is wrong. It's an extremely intelligent device."

The school has around 700 students from prep to year seven and 53 full-time and casual teaching and administration staff. The APs supports 120 laptops, around 50 PCs and 20 printers.

Coad will deploy four more access points and 1-2 9 dBi antennas during the next few months to extend wireless coverage to the sports area and new school buildings which are under construction. This will increase the footprint of the wireless network to 400 by 250 m.

"Because the wireless network will cover the entire playground, teachers will be able to take photos during athletics and swimming carnivals, load them onto a laptop and post them to the website without having to go back to the office. This means that parents who weren't able to make it along to the carnival can log on during the day and see pictures of their kids competing," said Coad.

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