The Challenge
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| "D-Link's product offering combines power, flexibility and price, helping us to create the ideal solution to fit the Eagle Point Marina, while staying within our budget," said Scott Orr, CEO, Floating Access. |
Floating Access is a Texas-based solution provider specializing in implementing and servicing Wi-Fi hot spots in marina and resort locations throughout the US. The wireless access gives lake visitors the ability to stay overnight and stay connected while enjoying fishing, relaxing and vacationing at the lake, enabling them to stay longer and bringing incremental revenue to marina owners and local businesses. Once each hot spot is created, Floating Access manages the logistics and billing elements of the service, charging a reasonable daily or monthly service fee to the marina's Wi-Fi users.
Floating Access's most recent project, a large-scale wireless networking implementation at Eagle Point Marina at Lake Lewisville, Texas proved the typical marina challenge. With over 700 boat slips, 450 over water, and multiple boathouses and local businesses, the Eagle Point Marina required a special configuration of wireless access points and antennae in order to deliver seamless wireless coverage through the heavy metal bars of the boathouses, across the wide expanse of water and to each individual business. Aside from providing public access to lake visitors on boats in the slips, the Eagle Point Marina Office, Slalom Shop Yacht Sales and Sneaky Pete's Restaurant each needed to keep Internet access secure from one another.
Working with reseller partner CompuCom, Floating Access CEO Scott Orr and his team VP of Sales Tim Jones and CFO/COO Kelly Stone carefully researched the available wireless networking product options, examining range, power, scalability and cost for the best available product solution. They required a flexible solution with multiple access points and a wide range of antennae to provide the wireless Internet access coverage. They also required a secure backbone to separate the Internet traffic load across the four businesses. The key was finding all of the products to fit the project design at a price that fit Eagle Point Marina's budget.
The Solution
Floating Access and CompuCom found the ideal product solution in a combination of D-Link's Enterprise-level 802.11b AirPremier Access Points combined with several different high-range D-Link antennae. The AirPremier Outdoor Access Points are housed in industrial-grade housing that can withstand Lake Lewisville's most violent weather. Both the Outdoor and standard AirPremier access points provide enterprise-level power and security. The D-Link antennae extend the wireless network coverage area and each antenna is specially designed to redirect the wireless access in a certain direction or omni-directionally, ensuring the maximum coverage area of the wireless hot spot. Floating Access and CompuCom came up with a specific engineering design that uses the D-Link antennae to point the wireless signal through the boat slips and directly into the docked boats, a challenge not easy to overcome with all of the metal and water involved.
The Eagle Point Marina's Internet backbone is delivered from a T1 line into D-Link's enterprise-level DES-3226SM Managed 24-port Switch and is further directed with secure D-Link DSS-5+ Routers at each business location. The large and varied D-Link product offering enabled Floating Access to choose the exact product solution that was right for Eagle Point Marina's hot spot configuration needs.
D-Link Product Solution:
 | DES-3226SM
Managed 24-port switch D-Link's DES-3226SM is a high-performance, managed, stackable Layer 2 Switch with (24) 10/100Mbps Fast Ethernet ports and additional support for optional GBIC modules. |
| DWL-1700AP
Outdoor 2.4GHz (802.11b) Wireless Access Point D-Link's AirPremier DWL-1700AP is a 2.4GHz IEEE 802.11b-compatible Wireless Access Point designed to operate in the harshest of outdoor environments. It is encased in a die-cast watertight housing and offers a wide-range of Enterprise level connectivity features. |
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DWL-1000AP+ Enterprise 2.4GHz (802.11b) Wireless Access Point D-Link's DWL-1000AP+ is an Enterprise level 2.4GHz IEEE 802.11b-compatible Wireless Access Point capable of transfer rates of up to 22Mbps*. It features 802.1x support for improved wireless security and a redundancy option that allows it to be configured to backup a primary access point. |
| DSS-5+ 5-port
Switch D-Link's DSS-5+ is a 5 port 10/100Mbps desktop switch designed for easy installation and high performance. Each port on the DSS-5+ supports automatic MDI/MDIX detection providing true 'plug and play' capability eliminating the need for confusing crossover cables or crossover ports. |
| ANT24-1400 14
dBi Panel Antenna D-Link's ANT24-1400 is a weatherproof and corrosion resistant 14dBi high gain directional antenna that provides extended coverage for existing 802.11b wireless local area networks. |
| ANT24-1801
Yagi Antenna D-Link's ANT24-1801 is a weatherproof and corrosion resistant 18dBi high gain outdoor directional Yagi antenna that provides extended coverage for existing 802.11b wireless local area networks. |
| DWL-G650 High
Speed 2.4GHz (802.11g) Wireless 108Mbps Cardbus Adapter D-Link's AirPlus Extreme G DWL-G650 is a 2.4GHz 802.11g wireless cardbus adapter capable of transfer rates of up to 54Mbps**. It features both 802.1x wireless user authentication and WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) providing an exceptionally high level of security for wireless data and communications transfers. |
Benefits
With the D-Link-powered wireless hot spot in place, now Eagle Point Marina and its local business owners and marina-located businesses can benefit monetarily from offering wireless hot spots to lake visitors, receiving incremental income from Floating Access's daily and monthly 802.11b Wi-Fi service.
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| The wireless access gives lake visitors the ability to stay overnight and stay connected while enjoying fishing, relaxing and vacationing at the lake. |
Additionally, since 60% of the lake's visitors are busy executives and business owners, offering Internet access to lake visitors allows Eagle Point Marina's visitors to stay connected, allowing them to stay longer at the lake and enjoy all the marina has to offer.
Floating Access currently has several more marina-wide wireless Internet access implementations in progress and plans to continue its partnership with D-Link and CompuCom to design and configure the best Wi-Fi hotspot to fit each project. To learn more about Floating Access visit www.floatingaccess.com.
"Each marina has a different configuration and requirement to ensure the wireless signal is available to all visitors, whether on a boat or in a restaurant. D-Link's product offering combines power, flexibility and price, helping us to create the ideal solution to fit the Eagle Point Marina, while staying within our budget," said Scott Orr, CEO, Floating Access. "We look to D-Link as an excellent product providing partner to help us create the best fit solution for each of our marina projects."
* Maximum wireless signal rate derived from IEEE Standard 802.11b specifications. Actual data throughput will vary. Network conditions and environmental factors, including volume of network traffic, building materials and construction, and network overhead, lower actual data throughput rate.
** Maximum wireless signal rate based on IEEE Standard 802.11g specifications. Actual data throughput will vary. Network conditions and environmental factors, including volume of network traffic, building materials and construction, and network overhead, lower actual data throughput rate.