Networking
When the Wi‑Fi drops, everything stops.
I plan, fix and look after small-business networks — switches, firewalls, cabling, and the wireless everyone notices only when it fails.
What this work usually turns out to be
Most of what I get called in for is not new equipment. It is a network that grew one device at a time, over years, and nobody ever went back to tidy it. Three things account for most of the work.
Setting one up
Routers, switches, firewalls and cabling, planned and installed — for a new office, or one that has outgrown what it has. Documented, so the next person to touch it can understand it. That includes you.
Wi‑Fi that reaches
Dead corners, the conference room nobody can present from, drops when the office fills up. This is usually placement and load rather than hardware, which means it is usually cheaper to fix than people expect.
Working out why it is slow
Slow connections, dropouts, device conflicts, hardware past its useful life. You get told what is actually wrong, what it takes to fix, and what can safely wait — including when the honest answer is that nothing needs doing yet.
Most small-business networks are flat
Which means anything on the network can reach everything else on it. That is the first thing I look at.
Nobody decided on it. It is simply what happens when a network grows one device at a time and nothing ever separates them. The security camera, the thermostat, the card reader, the printer that has not had a firmware update since it left the factory, and a visitor’s laptop that you know nothing about — all of them sitting on the same footing as the computer with your accounts on it.
Separating them is configuration rather than equipment. In most small offices it costs an afternoon and nothing else, and it changes a bad day from a business-wide problem into a single annoying device.
It is the same argument as everywhere else on this site: the cheap thing done early beats the expensive thing done in a hurry. More on that here.
Questions I get asked
When is it time to upgrade?
When it is costing you time. Slow performance, unreliable Wi‑Fi, frequent disconnects, or something new you need it to carry — any of those is a reason to look. Age on its own is not. Equipment that works and still gets security updates can stay where it is.
Can wireless dead spots be fixed?
Usually, and usually without buying anything. Dead spots are most often access points in the wrong place, channels overlapping, or too many devices on one radio. I would rather move what you have than sell you more of it — it might cost you a little in Ethernet cable, and that is generally the whole bill.
There is a limit to that. If equipment is genuinely old enough to be holding you back, or old enough that it can no longer be secured, I will tell you so plainly. Your business depends on this working. But age on its own has never been a reason to spend money.
Can you make the network more secure?
Yes. Firewall rules, who can reach what, keeping guest traffic away from your own, and making sure the equipment still receives updates.
How does this start?
A couple of hours looking at what you have, no charge and no obligation. After that you get a straight answer about what is wrong, what it takes to fix, and what can wait — whether or not you hire me to do any of it.
Some devices cannot see the guest network
Usually the network is set to WPA3 and the device is too old to speak it. Rather than failing with a message that tells you so, older laptops and printers simply refuse — sometimes the password box will not even accept typing. I ran into this at home with a visitor’s eight-year-old laptop: the field showed nothing but an X.
The fix costs nothing. You keep WPA3 where it belongs and give the older equipment somewhere else to go. Nobody buys a laptop.
Something on your network isn’t right?
You do not need to know what it is before you get in touch. Working that out is the job.