What Are The Big Operational “Don’ts” ?

Don’t DIY your Wireless Access Point and expose your private network to people unless you really know what you are doing.
Adding a public wireless hot-spot can expose private information on your internal network if not done correctly. Never just plug a WAP into your internal router or a switch port in your comms cabinet as this will let anyone who connects to the hot-spot to see and access everything you see on your network, shared drives, printers, voip phones, financial systems etc. If you really insist on doing DIY networking you should get a dedicated ADSL link for the hot-spot (an unlimited access plan would be highly recommended) and never connect that LAN to your internal LAN. The Flexicast Terminators will have to live on that same LAN also to provide services to the hot-spot. A competent network technician can configure a router to block all but TCP ports 745 & 746 (needed by Terminators) that could give locked-down access via your internal LAN, but if you don’t understand how to do this very well, don’t attempt it yourself.

Don’t reboot routers serving DHCP!

If using a Router with separate WAP, never reboot the router without taking the WAP offline for a time as well to force DHCP lease renegotiation or severe IP clashes will ensue. If the network is shared with wired connections or other WAPs it is nearly impossible to reboot a router without IP clashes. In a modern network rebooting a router (and losing the current DHCP Lease Pool) should be avoided at all costs as the network will not stabilise until all leases expire (could be up to 48 hours dependant on settings) and listeners will suffer terrible service issues with short bursts of audio only. Rubbish technicians don’t understand this and will reboot a DHCP router without forethought.

Don’t use home grade WAPs in commercial situations (see ‘Importance of a quality WiFi system’) for more on this.

Don’t neglect your customer, be aware of service difficulties in case your Wifi system is not keeping up with the load.

While the Flexicast Wifi Audio system is very low cost versus alternative venue audio systems, do not underestimate the value it brings to your customer and neglect it’s operation over time. As you get more users you may find that budget constraints at install time are causing service quality issues as user numbers grow beyond what your Wifi system can handle. If the system is worth having, its worth getting it right, you can bet a venue down the road is doing it right and customers will know you are running a sub-standard service. If your user numbers are growing then you are getting great value out of the service, consider a regular review of the total system and upgrade any sub-standard components.

Don’t waste the opportunity, Flexicast Wifi Audio is new, tell your customers about it!

Don’t expect your all of your customers to understand what it does it out of hand. Do a bit of basic in-venue marketing, ask them to try it, grow your point of difference and a more satisfied customer, satisfied customers stay!