Networking – How to support more than 500 users at one time on a WiFi network

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What I want to achieve is to serve an HTTL server on a LAN. Let's call it a server and give it the address 192.168.0.2. I would like to let people access this server via the browser on their mobile devices but only if they are connected to the LAN via WiFi (they can not connect from outside the LAN area like via WAN or something).

Normally it would not be a problem unless I want many people to connect at the same time. I've heard that the maximum amount of users that may connect via WiFi is 256 (including a server and router) with the subnet mask 255.255.255.0. Changing the subnet mask may increase the amount of users (is that true?) but in reality more than 20-30 would halt the router.

Here come the questions:

  • Are there routers that allow simultaneous connection of more than 200 users?
  • Will changing the subnet mask give me the opportunity to have more than 255 clients in the network?
  • Does WiFi radio bandwidth allow so many users at the same time?
  • Can it be solved via multiple access points? I mean one router and 3-5 or more access points?
  • Is it possible to have a DHCP server give users IP addresses from 192.168.0.1 to for example 192.168.3.255?

Additional info:

  • Security issues don't concern me; there may be no encryption for logging into the network if that makes the problem easier to solve.
  • If there are more expensive but better solutions — feel free to give them to me. A greater amount of access points or a better router is not a problem to buy.

Best Answer

Your questions answered one-by-one:

Are there routers that allow simultaneous connection of more than 200 users?

YES - I'm not making product recommendations so simply search using your favorite search engine. Common brands are Ruckus, Cisco, Aruba, Zyxel, etc.

Will changing the subnet mask give me the opportunity to have more than 255 clients in the network?

YES - see more below.

Does WiFi radio bandwidth allow so many users at the same time?

YES and most decent APs have features to manage bandwidth.

Can it be solved via multiple access points? I mean one router and 3-5 or more access points?

YES, that would be the normal way to do it. AP's are limited to a maximum number of clients due to wireless protocol limits, however routers scale much higher, so 1 decent router will be sufficient for 500 users. Number of AP's depends on the actual AP(s) you buy.

Is it possible to have a DHCP server give users IP addresses from 192.168.0.1 to for example 192.168.3.255?

YES - very simple - a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 (means the last part of the mask can give 0 to 255 numbers, for a total of 256). Out of that the .0 and the .255 are not used because of how IP routing works, so you have 254 usable. Then one gets used by the gateway leaving you 253 available client addresses. When the subnet mask is 255.255.0.0, that means a total of (256 x 256) = 65536 IP addresses are possible and after removing the .0.0 and .255.255 and one more for gateway you have 65533 available.

Since you are in a subnet behind a firewall, the only limitation that I can think of, will be placed by the router or AP (home ones can be typically limiting to the last part at 0, but even in the home market not all devices impose the limit). Keep in mind, the subnet mask is simply an IP addressing related "limit" and in private networks, it is essentially an arbitrary limit.

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