i am doing a project on setting up a wi-fi city
what kind of software is required?
and what security measure is needed? :-/

mr. magoo might know. i'll see if he's available.

First you need to determine what your requirements are.  How many people are you serving?  Is the wifi free, or will you charge for access? Will users need to supply some sort of login? Who all will be allowed to use it?  How much security do you want to provide your users?  How much security do you need to provide the underlying network?  How reliable does the network need to be?

Any technical undertaking always starts with the requirements.  We would need to know your requirements before we can help.  The list above is just a starting point - there would probably be hundreds of considerations to take into account for a city wide wifi.  You'll need to do more homework than it sounds like you've done.

thanks
I have finish part of it
the wifi system will be used by around 60000 ppl (a city)
it will be free
each citizen will be given an login account, they just need to register by using their idenity card (i read from book)
every citizen will be able to use it
for security i think it does not need to be highly security but it cannot being attacked easily
the extend of reliable, may be similar to security

i don't know what software is need
-network OS ,firewall and ??
lastly i have a question what is the difference of mesh access point and normal access point?
Is mesh access point stronger than the normal one ?

@ stephanie


Quote:

i am doing a project

College course assignment?

stephanie wrote on Jan 31^st, 2010 at 7:19am:

Is mesh access point stronger than the normal one ?

It seems to me that you are not qualified to deploy WiFi for a city.  If you really are doing this project, I highly suggest you save your city a bunch of money and start by hiring a contractor who is qualified to consider these issues.

If you aren't really doing this project, and it is something hypothetical, then it would be best if you start doing some basic research and come back to us with any specific questions you have.


stephanie wrote on Jan 31^st, 2010 at 7:19am:

i don't know what software is need -network OS ,firewall and ??

There is no software suitable for 60K users that can do this.  You need dedicated hardware.  There are a few open source options, but they are difficult to maintain on such a large scale.


stephanie wrote on Jan 31^st, 2010 at 7:19am:

Is mesh access point stronger than the normal one ?

The difference is not in strength.  The difference is in how users communicate between each other.  Infrastructure mode ("normal mode" as you call it) uses a central control point for network communication.  Mesh networks allow hosts to get information from the network by talking directly to each other and even passing information on to hosts that are further from the source.


stephanie wrote on Jan 31^st, 2010 at 7:19am:

for security i think it does not need to be highly security but it cannot being attacked easily

There are many factors here and you'll have to have a few layers of security.  Again, if this is a real project, I hope you will take my advice and hire a contractor to make decisions like this.  If you don't, you will waste a ton of your city's money and expose all your users to significant risk.  You can contact me directly if you'd like some references.

If this is not a real project, you are going to want to do more reading.  We can't possibly cover all the things you need to think about in a simple forum thread like this.