I am installing a br1 max mini in a school bus. It will be using 4g out on the road and wifi when back in the yard. My question is how do I set up the unit to offer wifi to the kids on the bus when out on the road? Step by step would be nice. I made an wifi access point but it has no Ip adress assinged.
Wifi ap question
Why do you have to offer WiFi to them? There on the phones all day as it is.
Have them sing songs in unison. Or maybe have them take turns reading a short story to all. Do something that gives them moral strength, something that teaches values. Provide love not WiFi.
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Our state may mandate wifi in our school buses, I just trying to be ready for the day.
Hi Lance:
The Mini does have built-in Wi-Fi AP functionality to serve up a signal to riders. Your point-of-sale should be able to help out with the config.
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Hello @lance,
How are you planning to run the Wi-Fi?
We recommend that you use the Peplink SpeedFusion (or PepVPN depending on model) for all network traffic on the Student Wi-Fi within the bus and have that traffic going back through the school. You can ensure all outbound connections are filtered by the school’s firewall/content filtering while the students use the internet plus giving them access to the school’s intranet. This both protects the school & the students from inappropriate use and will allow you to better manage the data usage on the bus.
Out of interest, where in the world are you located? This sound like an exciting project for you and Peplink have many proven solutions that work exceptionally well in this space to support.
FYI: From our experience, we would initially look at for a bus deployment:
- 1 x Pepwave HD2 Dome with the SIM Injector on the bus
- 1 x Pepwave AP One Rugged on the bus
- 1 x minimum of a Peplink Balance 380 or virtually hosted Peplink FusionHub back at the school.
All of this system can be monitored and managed from the Peplink InControl2.
The Pepwave MAX BR1 Mini we suspect will not provide enough future usage growth for you once you get this project operational.
If the bus is not operational, is there any need for Wi-Fi WAN? If the Bus is within range of the Wi-Fi then surely the Students will also be.
Peplink Partners have helped organisations all around the world to accomplish this form of deployment many times. As @Jason mentioned, contact your point of purchase or look up you local Peplink Partner here
Happy to Help,
Marcus 
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Marcus,
The Clark County School District has a limited budget for this purpose. We hope to use the br1 mini to its fullest extent. As for paid options, we are not interested at this time. We what a device that once set up will cost nothing to maintain operation. We will use the incontrol2 for a few years, but that is it. We cannot have any more monthly charges. We are looking into a private APN from our wireless provider. This will route all traffic through our current filters. Thanks for your input. Our main use for the pepwave will be getting video from the bus camera system. As for the wifi for the kid will just be an added benefit. When in the yard we will use our wireless network to offload video. When on the road it will be 4G.
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