Extend your coverage
In this section, you'll learn the basics of providing extra coverage for Tomizone. To do so, this could require the purchase of additional antennae, wi-fi routers and cabling.
You can assess which is potentially the best solution for your type of installation and target users.
Here are the top 3 tips to make sure you have the information you need to assess your requirements for expanded Tomizone coverage:
Site Survey
This is the most important aspect of your coverage survey. Typically you would draw a “site plan” with rough estimates of distance in metres or yards. A reasonable wi-fi router would provide indoor coverage for around 50 metres (approximately 45 yards) radius where it is positioned above head height in a room that is not enclosed by foil lined walls or reflective tinted glass. Outdoor coverage can extend this range up to about 100 metres (approximately 90 yards) and with good antennae, you can potentially direct signals to cover a vast area.
As you can see, by having the site survey completed pre-installation of a larger Tomizone installation, you’ll save money and time by specifying the right solution to suit your site.
Target Areas
Make sure you are providing coverage for the areas where people will use the service. If there are two separate areas quite some distance away, consider a provision of a second wi-fi router that is acting as a slave to your Tomizone gateway.
Infrastructure requirements (warning: you may need a geek here)
This is the hard part so you may need to be relatively skilled to start understanding the terms outlined here. Depending on the initial configuration of your wi-fi router, the typical router would broadcast at a power of about 50mw (milliwatts). There are some wi-fi routers that are more powerful but you really need to start getting smart on this stuff so you don't break your local law relating to maximum power output (or EIRPS - geeks go here) If this is all pretty hard to understand, we suggest for the sanity of yourself and the safety of your customers, you get a geek or an installer to help you with the requirements and installation. It might be a small cost but you will save some incredible time and hassle.
Here is your Infrastructure recipe:
Ingredients :
- wi-fi router (with Tomizone software on it)
- Additional wi-fi routers (if required)
- Antennae to suit your site
- Suitable mounting brackets, fasteners and hardware to suit the antenna
- Cables made up with the relevant connectors (TNC or SMA or other!) to plug into the wi-fi router (if required)
- Electricity outlets or 'Power over Ethernet' adaptors
- The internet outlet (broadband modem place)
- Additional computer cabling (if you need to install more than 3 metres away from your broadband modem or internet outlet)
- Time!
Method ::
Disclaimer - this method is offered as a guide only and you MUST refer to manufacturer's instructions for safety hazards. Alternatively, hire a professional to do this work for you. Tomizone Limited accepts no responsibility for any loss, injury or death whatsover.
- Place your Tomizone gateway at the point where you have allocated it on the Site Survey.
- Mount the antenna holder hardware at the point where the best coverage can be obtained. If it is to be mounted inside, choose a high point or inside a roof panel. If it is on a roof, make sure it is on a strong part of the building and mounted following the manufacturer's instructions with the full safety concerns in mind.
- Connect the cables to the wi-fi router
- Secure all cables and tidy up the installation so it is neat.
- Turn on wi-fi router and take a site survey to check out your coverage using a wireless laptop running net stumbler software or something similar
- Document your results and post it up on your "My Tomizone" listing.
If you want to get scientific about measurements and antenna strength, then check out our calculators or this Wikipedia site.
Some antenna sites we like:
- Turbowave - A nice antenna for directional wi-fi beams
- Buffalo - A good start here for an powerful indoor antenna
- Pacific Wireless - A comprehensive list from experts
Some useful tutorials we like: