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WM Office Wifi Network

WM Office Wifi Network

Subject: Bell Giga Hub
Primary SSID: BELL565
Situation: 34 devices total · 27 on Wi-Fi · 1 access point today

Almost everyone in the office is on a laptop and moving around, so the fix isn't cables — it's more access points and seamless roaming, so no single radio is ever the bottleneck.

The idea

Today all ~27 wireless devices talk to one radio inside the Giga Hub. An access point can only hold one conversation at a time per band, so as the room fills, everyone waits in line. Spread those devices across two or three access points — wired back to the network and sharing one Wi-Fi name — and each one carries a third of the load while laptops hand off automatically as people move.

What actually changes

Today — one access point

flowchart TD
  I[Internet] --> H["Giga Hub<br/>router + the only Wi-Fi radio"]
  H --> D["≈ 27 devices share one radio set<br/>→ airtime contention when the room fills"]

Proposed — multiple APs, one network

flowchart TD
  I[Internet] --> H["Giga Hub<br/>(bridge mode)"]
  H --> S["PoE switch"]
  S -->|Ethernet| A1["AP · ch 1"]
  S -->|Ethernet| A2["AP · ch 6"]
  S -->|Ethernet| A3["AP · ch 11"]
  A1 --> C1["~9 devices"]
  A2 --> C2["~9 devices"]
  A3 --> C3["~9 devices"]
  A1 -. "roam · one SSID (BELL565)" .- A2
  A2 -. roam .- A3

Each AP is wired back and on its own channel, carrying ~9 devices. Laptops hand off between them automatically — same name, no reconnecting.

Why this fits a room full of laptops

Signal in every room — APs placed across the floor mean strong Wi-Fi wherever people sit, not just near the hub. Dead corners and the far conference room stop being a gamble.
Seamless hand-off — one network name with fast-roaming (802.11k/v/r) lets a laptop move AP-to-AP mid-call or mid-VPN without dropping. People never see it happen.
No one device drags the rest — roaming assist nudges a laptop off a far AP it's clinging to, so a single weak, distant connection can't hog airtime for the whole room.

Four things that make or break it

Wire each AP back — run Ethernet to every AP ("wired backhaul"). Letting APs relay over Wi-Fi roughly halves speed per hop and undoes the benefit.
Plan the channels — give neighbours different lanes: 2.4 GHz on 1 / 6 / 11, a separate 5 GHz channel each. Same-channel APs just talk over each other.
One name, everywhere — identical SSID + password on every AP so devices roam automatically. Keeping BELL565 means nothing has to be re-paired.
Enough APs, spread out — roughly one AP per 10–15 active devices or ~1,500 sq ft, placed apart with overlapping coverage — not clustered in one spot.

Two ways to build it

	Business APs + Giga Hub in bridge mode (recommended for your size)	Bell Whole Business Wi-Fi pods
What	e.g. Ubiquiti UniFi / TP-Link Omada on a small PoE switch	Add Bell's mesh pods to the existing hub
Strengths	Best roaming, coverage & control; scales; relieves the hub's Wi-Fi and router load; one dashboard	Simplest to add; Bell provisions and supports it
Trade-offs	One-time setup; you/IT manage it	Less channel/roaming control; still best wired back
Effort	One-time setup	Low
Manages	You / IT	Bell
Ceiling	High	Moderate

What it takes (rough shape)


2–3	access points for your floor
1	small PoE switch to power + wire them
~½ day	to mount, cable and configure
$400–$1,000	hardware, depending on brand & count

Cutover — how the switch-over goes (after hours)

Keep the current network name — configure the new APs with SSID BELL565 and the same password so every laptop and phone reconnects on its own.
Cable and place the APs — mount them spread across the floor (ceiling or high on a wall), each wired to the PoE switch. Set channels 1 / 6 / 11.
Hand routing to one device — business-AP route: put the Giga Hub in bridge / Advanced DMZ mode behind a router. Pod route: just add the pods — no bridge needed.
Walk the floor to confirm roaming — take a call and walk end to end. The connection should hand off between APs without a drop. Adjust placement if a spot is weak.

*Figures are planning estimates for an office of this size; final AP count and cost depend on floor layout, wall materials and the gear chosen. This plan addresses the Wi-Fi bottleneck — spreading ~27 mobile clients across several APs. If the Giga Hub's router/NAT load is also a limit, the bridge-mode path is what relieves it.