Re: Handheld bar code scanners

At my previous employer when we first started doing wireless we hired a
guy from IBM to come out and do a site survey of one of our manufacturing
locations. He would pick a spot in the general area needing coverage, put
up an antenna, and then walk around taking readings of signal strength and
quality. He sketched out the coverage area on graph paper, Depending on
the layout of the area he might move the access point and antenna and
repeat the process. It wasn't cheap to bring him in. The thing is that
every year or so the people at the plant tended to rearrange
things--sometimes a little and sometimes a lot. This was true at other
locations so as more sites were added I started doing it myself just
walking around with a laptop. Even if you do map it out sometimes
conditions change on a daily basis as products are shipped out and new
products are shelved. At my current employer we use access ports but I'm
not involved with wireless devices. They seem to work just fine. Access
ports and power-over-ethernet tend to reduce issues that you may with AC
power.


Dave Parnin