So you're fine with being asked to provide proof of citizenship during a routine traffic stop? Keep in mind that your driver's license isn't proof of citizenship. Given that the US is a country of immigrants and therefore anyone and everyone looks like an immigrant, police can detain you until you prove that you are a citizen. You obviously don't care if that happens to brown citizens going about their day, because, and this is a wild guess, you're white and don't think this law would affect you, but think for a second about what that means if you happen to be protesting something the government doesn't like. Can't prove your citizenship? Detention for you.

Second everything Kizeh says. I run wireless for 400 - 1000 person tech conferences and use a combination of Xirrus arrays (generously donated) Cisco APs and Meraki APs. The Arrays are perfect for high density wireless without a lot of supporting infrastructure. Of course, I couldn't use them if they weren't donated.

One tip I heard from another person who runs tech conference networks is to place the APs under the chairs if you have to support a very dense room. POE would be really helpful there, and the 1200s do it on EOL'd Catalyst switches, but unless you have the extra radio you'll be missing out on 5GHz, and you really really really want 5GHz. Unless you're really lucky, the venue will probably have wireless installed or nearby that will encroach on the 2.4GHz channels you want to use, but there is very little 5GHz gear deployed.

Oh, and don't think about things like mesh; you want those radios dealing with client traffic once, not relaying it.

You haven't mentioned what you're going to do to route the traffic, hand out DHCP and resolve DNS. If you can, run two DNS boxes forwarding to the ISP's resolvers. Slow dns makes an oversubscribed network worse. If you're using a PC for the router, use Gigabit network cards - they handle lots of packets better than 10/100 cards.

Good Luck!

From a management perspective, that IT department is what the magic cloud will substantially replace. Software as Service means no expensive hardware to own and no expensive IT staff. Well, a reduction in SysAdmins anyway. Spending money on core-competencies blah blah blah. There's work being done to make cloud hosted data secure - see

http://www.usenix.org/events/hotcloud09/tech/

Yes, I work for USENIX.

The paper is free next week when it becomes published.

Paper here: http://www.usenix.org/events/usenix09/tech/full_papers/toomey/toomey.pdf

Program here: http://www.usenix.org/events/usenix09/tech/

Yes, I work for USENIX.

USENIX's ;login: is handled the same way. Paper versions sent to current members, and pdf and html archives from 1997 forward online. Some online content is free, some requires membership.

Disclaimer: I work for USENIX