In the next few weeks I’ll be starting a project to wire up a castle for wireless. I hope to outline the process in a series of posts which will act as a form of documentation over the next few weeks. Like most castles it is quite a unique place and with that come unique issues along with a good few standard issues. Like for instance the castle is staffed an run by volunteers so this is a completely volunteer power project, the equipment is the same, donated by volunteers or purchased by their funds. Even though funds are low we’ll aim to build a robust network that will handle anything from a single person on a PC to several hundred smart phone users in a festival setting.
The main aims are
- Supply the main floor and kitchen area of the castle with good wifi coverage
- Supply the living area upstairs with good wifi coverage
- Link a workshop/site office/stage area outside via wireless to the network
- Provide coverage for the entrance to be used during festivals/events
At the moment only three access points are setup, they cover the most used area’s of the castle but these area’s are usually social points or smaller area’s used for office work and not suitable for large meetings or able to reach additional work area’s. One of the first unique problems we face is that the building is also a protected structure, any changes we make must have minimal impact on the structure, that means we won’t be able to drill holes anywhere, mounting any ducting is also out except in some special circumstances. Should be fun alright! 
