Networks > Getting A Network

A Wireless Network for the Latin American Womens' Rights Service

By Lasa Information Systems Team

This article describes some of the issues that arose when one small organisation used wireless technology to upgrade their existing network.

The Latin American Womens' Rights Service (LAWRS) is an organisation based in Central London that provides various advice services to Latin American women.  Their focus is on welfare benefits, education, and employment. They also run training courses, outreach for housebound clients, and provide counselling, advocacy and volunteer interpreters. In addition, they also offer a reception service and give users and volunteers access to their computer facilities.

LAWRS had a Lasa ICT Healthcheck as part of their involvement with a London Voluntary Service Council (LVSC) initiative to improve IT in selected agencies. LAWRS are also involved in Lasa's Circuit Rider Project. At the Healthcheck, LAWRS staff identified various problems with their existing computer system:

• The existing computers and peer-to-peer network were frustratingly slow -- because of the situation with the network, computers were sometimes not used at all;
• Insufficient knowledge of how the network or its components work;
• Internet access was slow and unreliable and was not accessible from all machines;
• No knowledge of IT or how to administer the IT network;
• No maintenance solution or contract in place to support the network;
• Only one email account;
• No computer in reception area; and
• Lack of a central shared electronic diary.

The existing network had been put in place some time ago using a small hub and loose cabling to five PCs with two further PCs being used as standalones. One machine was identified as a "server" and was being used to store some of the shared files for the organisation. PCs were Pentium 3 and Celeron based with 64Mb RAM running a mixture of Windows 98 and ME. Two PCs were hooked up to the Internet using a dial up account. The LVSC project enabled groups to have access to a grant of £1,700 to help them improve their IT.

Lasa consulted with the staff at LAWRS and concluded that the network needed upgrading to:

• provide improvements in network speed and reliability;
• allow the remaining two machines to be connected;
• share broadband access to the Internet; and
• share printers and files.

LAWRS occupy one floor of an office block with minimal partitioning which it was thought should be suitable for wireless. In addition, the budget meant that fixed cabling would have eaten up too much of the money available. As one of the machines could be moving in the future to the reception area the flexibility that wireless gives also pointed in that direction. Further loose cabling was also not an option as one PC was on the wrong side of a room to allow cabling to reach it safely without causing a trip hazard. Lasa drew up a network requirements specification for a contractor to:

1. Initially survey the office to determine the feasibility of a wireless network solution;
2. If feasible, install a wireless ADSL modem/router/access point with firewall and wireless network cards in all PCs;
3. Install an extra 128Mb RAM on all PCs;
4. Upgrade PCs to Windows 2000;
5. Install an additional 40Gb hard drive to the machine acting as server;
6. Set up a 512Kb Broadband service and register lawrs.org.uk; and
7. Set up email addresses for all staff.

A budget was drawn up which came over the amount which LAWRS had been granted but they agreed to fund the difference. It was agreed that the Circuit Rider project would carry out the RAM installation and operating system upgrades to help save money on labour.

The requirements specification was sent out to four companies.

One company declined tendering, suggesting that the only way forward for LAWRS was to replace all their existing hardware immediately for which there was insufficient budget.

After looking at the remaining tenders, appiChar were chosen to carry out the installation.

A Claranet ADSL Solo Business account was selected and Claranet were contacted to arrange for the broadband to be installed.

This was the first hitch -- the existing line was a digital ISDN line which was part of LAWRS's telephone system and which couldn't be converted to broadband. A quick call to BT and a new line was ordered but it meant that our project was now over the tight budget.

Next step was the upgrading. Ian and John from Lasa's Information Systems Team spent a day at LAWRS and encountered the next problem -- the generic RAM purchased for the upgrades wouldn't work in some of the Gateway Celeron machines. Since Gateway are no longer operating in the UK it proved impossible to find a supplier of compatible memory. With a bit of judicious juggling, five PCs had their memory upgraded, disks cleaned and defragmented and Windows 2000 and service pack 4 installed.

A week or so later, with the BT line installed, appiChar came in to install the ADSL and wireless. They had budgeted for a day of their engineer's time but ended up spending considerably longer. Not all of the PCs were happy with the USB wireless cards - appiChar put some of the PCs back onto wired connections which helped.

A few days later LAWRS were in contact with Lasa to say that their network was worse than it had been before the work was carried out and were, not surprisingly, unhappy! appiChar sent their engineer back on site for a morning, at no cost to LAWRS, and Ian from Lasa also visited to see what the problem was.

It was thought that viruses on the machines were causing an inordinate amount of traffic on the network which the wireless cards could not support. LAWRS had anti virus only on some PCs and opening them up to the Internet on the broadband connection caused the Nachi virus to infiltrate most of the PCs. In addition, pop up advertising from spyware or adware was proving annoying. So, Ian and Aba from Lasa spent another day at LAWRS making sure that:

• the network was accessible from all PCs and that the wireless connections were stable;
• all PCs had anti-virus installed, updated and all drives cleaned;
• Ad-Aware was installed to combat spy and adware;
• every PC could print to at least one printer;
• all email addresses were working; and
• miscellaneous issues with Office installations were resolved.

From the point of view of the Circuit Rider and the network contractor, although the outcome was eventually successful, a few lessons were learned:

• The overlap in roles carried out by the Circuit Rider and the contractor was sufficiently vague for the job to be done, but it did cause some problems for LAWRS — they weren't sure who was doing what, or who to contact when things went wrong;
• The budget was insufficient to allow for all the work to be carried out and to cover contingencies;
• LAWRS expectations of what the contractor would do for them was greater than what actually happened;
• Insist that the organisation has Antivirus on all PCs – appiChar spent a long time on virus cleaning which was not envisaged at the time of tender; and
• Ensure that the exit strategy from the work includes ongoing technical support.

However, apart from a few minor technical problems (now solved!) LAWRS's network has settled down and the staff are pleased with their new email addresses and ability to print documents without having to walk around with floppy disks and disturb their colleagues.

As part of Lasa's Circuit Rider project, LAWRS will benefit from ongoing strategic advice and help with their technology planning over the next few months. The work done on the network will mean that there is a firm foundation to work from.

Thanks to Erika, Claudia, Virginia and the other staff and volunteers at LAWRS and to Ian and Adam at appiChar.