I don't know that the demand for blocking is significant enough to justify a consultant, but I'm certainly going to float the idea. If that doesn't happen, though, the yshield paint recommendation (along with basic ideas, like making sure they keep their power levels down low) should at least give me some best effort protection.
thanks! Frank Sweetser Director of Network Operations Worcester Polytechnic Institute "For every problem, there is a solution that is simple, elegant, and wrong." - HL Mencken ________________________________ From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv <WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU> on behalf of Chuck Enfield <chu...@psu.edu> Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2017 4:51 PM To: WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU Subject: Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Wifi blocking paint? If the lab needs to be completely isolated you’re going to want to hire a consultant to design a shielding system. If you just need enough attenuation to mitigate significant interference, I’ve heard good things about the yshield paint. You can add about 30-40dB of loss to a wall. If you can keep your radios 40-50 feet apart, this should isolate them from each other enough that they disappear into the noise floor. Keep in mind that it has to be grounded for maximum effect, and if I’m skeptical about the efficacy of the paint it’s mostly to do with this. Good bonding and grounding is hard, and carbon paint doesn’t strike me as a great medium for reliable bonding. That said, at Wi-Fi wavelengths ground quality shouldn’t be too much of a factor in attenuation as long as you keep antenna elements far enough from the walls to avoid near field effects. But if the grounding isn’t effective you could end up with excessive internal reflection in the lab. No problem if there’s a normal amount of absorptive material in the room, but could be a problem otherwise. Just my two cents. Chuck From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU] On Behalf Of Sweetser, Frank E Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2017 3:27 PM To: WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU Subject: [WIRELESS-LAN] Wifi blocking paint? Hi all, we just got word that a professor here wants to start running a certificate program around a wireless lab setup. To mitigate any potential problems from this, we'd like to try to isolate the lab wireless to the one room as much possible. Does anyone have any recommendations for wifi blocking paint, or other building material choices and techniques? thanks! Frank Sweetser Director of Network Operations Worcester Polytechnic Institute "For every problem, there is a solution that is simple, elegant, and wrong." - HL Mencken ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/discuss. ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/discuss. ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/discuss.
