Recommended Wireless Access Point Hardware

Question

I'm looking to install WiFi in one of our locations. We are going to need about 3 or 4 Wireless Access Points. So I'm looking for a product recommendation. The requirements are:

• Easy to install, can install directly into switch but also into a free network port in other areas.
• Easy to manage, ideally each WAP could be managed from one interface and create one coherent network. Rather than having to configure each one using a separate admin interface.
• Wall mountable

Answer 1

You might want to look at http://www.pcengines.ch/ for hardware. The ALIX boards support a wide range of software, so you're likely to find something which meets your administrative needs:

http://www.pcengines.ch/alix.htm

Answer 2

I've made VERY good experience with Mikrotik access points. They are based on Linux and are capable of everything (WLAN (anything you can dream of) - you can extend the feature with different cards, BGP, MPLS, switching (with a special switch chip), scripting (alarms), hotspot feature ...).
Take a look at:

• http://www.mikrotik.com
• http://www.routerboard.com

Answer 3

In the end I went for a Cisco WAP. As long as you keep the SSID and channels the same they support roaming via 802.11F