Do NOT Put APs in Hallways

[@Masterked]

In office spaces where most of the space is cubicles and glass, hallways is a better choice by far. In a case like the hotel you mentioned then going through sheet roc walls is the way to go. Different scenarios, different ways to do installations

[@TofuInc]

In very few scenarios it is necessary to account for WiFi usage in a hallway while walking. Also most modern devices roam very quickly as long as there is another AP available. In your second point, I assume you have the wall type set to fit your narrative. As someone who has installed WiFi in many hotels and has been in during construction to do the rough in wiring, I can tell you every hotel is not the same. Many hotels have very dense sound deadening or even concrete between the rooms. A blanket statement of "APs in hallway = bad" is doing a disservice. A much more careful assessment is needed. I've done many installation where very few APs mounted in hallways with careful RF planning worked very well and kept the project within budget.

[@j0mbie]

I agree, this is all very much a "it varies building to building" situation. I've been in several hotels and office buildings where the hallway walls weren't load bearing in the traditional sense -- that function is served by the structural steel. In fact, I believe most modern tall buildings don't use load bearing walls at all, and just rely on this steel skeleton. In many hotels of this nature, the walls between suits are double insulated for privacy, whereas the walls to the hallway are single insulated because the hallway itself (plus the wall to the suite across the hall) acts as another sound barrier. If the insulation choice is rockwool, then while the insulation is an improvement over fiberglass for fire resistance, it is a detriment to wi-fi. And since these are fire-stop walls, wi-fi considerations are done after fire resistance, privacy, and cost considerations during building. There's also the consideration of access. If an access point goes out in a hotel, you can't just go into the room and fix it if the room is occupied. In a medical office, there may be lots of patients going in and out of that room that obviously require privacy. Busy medical offices don't want to shut an exam room down for hours if they're booked. If it's an office building, you have more leeway, but heavy furniture may need to be moved, or in extreme cases disassembled entirely. Also, a lot of spaces are designed so that the rooms and offices may have finished ceilings, whereas the hallways have drop ceiling. Plus there's the fact that hotel guests can be (rightfully) a little paranoid about any electronic device that looks "out of place" within eyesight of where they change clothes, sleep, or enjoy "personal recreational activities". Though you and I know it is just an access point, you don't want any reason to diminish your guests' absolute faith in their privacy, founded or unfounded. It also increases the possibility of vandalism or accidental damage when it's in an private area. All in all, wi-fi coverage isn't just about coverage. There's a lot of other factors that go into it. Most wi-fi client devices don't roam anywhere near quickly enough, even in 100% perfect coverage, to base the installation decisions on that first and foremost. I need to look at the robustness of the entire solution, including coverage, maintenance, and security. Requiring more access points for the same coverage may cost more up front, but the total cost of ownership is lower when considering possible downtime of an access point and what issues that may cause. Throwing 24 APs down one long hallway is a pretty extreme example of course, but I've not come across that kind of hallway walls that had such a huge deadening factor that weren't also shared by the other interior walls.

[@CommentsAllowed]

Very informative. Ekahau looks like a fun tool to just play around with. Too bad there's no home license for it.

[@WiFiTube]

Hey Keith, thanks for sharing! As always you selected very good examples and explained the idea very well.

[@KlausEngelmann]

Awesome video !!! Using Ekahau to explain the reasons was great !!!

[@omegacsblog]

The assertion that a device in the hallway will have roaming problems going around the corner is only true if you *only* have APs in opposing corners of the hallway square. In reality, you're going to have an AP in each of the four corners and set an RSSI threshold, which means roaming is going to happen somewhere along the length of each hall before you get to the corner. The entire example is contrived.

[@matthewmiller6068]

Agree with most of what you said about RF but there are also other factors - the wiring and the physical access to it. If you put it in someone's room they may go "this blinky thing is annoying" and unplug it. Now you have an outage and don't know why, and most lay-people won't understand that it affects others outside of their room. Ideally you could do something like that with locked utility access panels to keep them more locked away while putting them where you want but that isn't always possible either (and now you put a metal door over it potentially which will screw up the RF characteristics).

[@Alwaysziv]

You sound like you know a thing or 2. Do you agree with installing them above a shower/toilet in a hotel room?

[@kevinwang0206]

My college dorm literally moved all APs from hallway to each apartment, and Wi-Fi was so much better.

[@Bisto17]

Unfortunately cabling then becomes the issue. Its not always possible to get a cable into a room without massive refurbishment after. There isn't always an easy cable route in

[@rarbiart]

"all AP in the hallway" will cause airtime problems. channels are limited and even if the APs limit their power, they will definitly frequently have to wait for a neighbor AP on the same ch to finish it's transmission. if more than 5 APs are within 70dB range: you will see drastic loss of overall performance as soon as real start loading the network.

[@Coz131]

Not if you're in a different channel?

[@rarbiart]

@@Coz131 how many collision free Channels are there, 9n case you want to use HT40/VHT80 (yes another NoGo, but even VHT40.)

[@Coz131]

@@rarbiart I don't deploy 40/80 in high density scenarios. 20 is appropriate for offices 95% most of the time. Also reduce signal strength to as low as you can? Of course don't deploy them in hallways too but that's a given.

[@RichmondBaker]

What about residential homes? seems like it should not be a problem at normal houses?

[@dadadodo1134]

Excellent thanks for the video...

[@Alwaysziv]

Your design has some APs in the hotelroom bathrooms. I suspect a electronic device installed in the ceiling in a hotel bathroom would cause a lot concern from non-techy and/or paranoid customers not to mention the constant humid environment. I'm a novice so maybe this isn't an issue.

[@akshaychavan9308]

Great...thanks for the video

[@gastonhitw720]

but what if I'm in a small house, 2 floors, 1 small office in the first floor, 4 offices in the second floor, up to 9 people using wifi, the corridor is very short, all offices in the second floor are very close to each other, should I invest in more AP's rather than just one in the corridor itself?

[@andyrandy0815]

Usually yes. Best have one access point in each office. Whenever you want to have maximum performance, place an own AP in that room, low signal strength, own channel. Then 5 GHz channels works perfectly. Even better is creating own names for 2.4 Ghz and for 5 Ghz. Place the static devices to 5 Ghz and use 2.4 for cell phones and moving devices. 2.4 Ghz is slower in general but is stronger to penetrate walls, so it's perfect for granting mobile devices a stable but slower connection like for WhatsApp or doomscrolling of Twitter on the toilet. But computers or 4k streaming devices should get 5 Ghz and should be connected to an AP within same room or at least very close range. If your offices on the second floor are close to each other and from the hallway there is each just one drywall in between the AP and the computers, one AP for all offices should word. If you expect high bandwidth use from several clients simultaneously, better choose a 'mumimo AP' (with more antennae inside the AP to have more simultaneous connections). Unify APs are great. Even the standard ones should work great for you (no need for the pro or flex versions for high density areas). To avoid: APs using the same or neighbouring channels, cheap 35 USD access points (they do not offer mumimo and can not server multiple connections well at the same time), using wifi repeaters (instead: use mesh, and use wired APs where possible, repeater or wifi connected mesh AP is fine in your garden cabin 50 feet away from the house since you will use it for increase coverage (cell phone), but not for daily working with a dozens of workstations simultaneously)

[@fabiovitoriano7]

At least in Brazil hospitals and medical centers always use AP on hallways for sanitary reason.

[@anverHisham]

Really important point! Thanks a lot :-)

[@chryspelegris2731]

Great video thank you

[@fabricembomda2045]

very good video thanks

[@tvtime1]

i do what i want. i put them in hallways.

[@KevOzY]

In Europe are al walls made of bricks or concrete so it doesnt matter 🙂👍

[@Antoshka007]

This is so wrong... I thought I was going to learn something new. The hotel rooms don't have that attenuation on the walls. Even if they did what you would do is place in wall APs and hallway APs. There would be a full roaming capability. I managed a very (very) large installation with thousands and you DON'T want to do this in a commercial environment. Cabling routes, maintenance and so forth is going to be a nightmare. Then you manage the power throughput. This video is wrong at many levels.

[@Coz131]

I think the speed of the speech can be faster?

[@WirelessLANProfessionals]

there's a function built in by KZbin on the video (the little gear icon) you can watch in faster speed :)

[@rarbiart]

there is a button in YT to adjust, it's up to your choice!

[@harx]

If put aps in rooms, it should be above the ceiling. Otherwise customer will complain about lights.

[@FR_SMRTT]

What about behind the tv ? Or under the bedside table ?

[@FR_SMRTT]

Also you can disable leds on some access points.

[@harx]

@@FR_SMRTT Disabling leds would be an option.