Review and design
We check what is already there, measure the Wi-Fi in your rooms and draw what goes where. Out of that comes a quote split between what has to happen now and what can wait.
You will replace a switch after five years and an access point after four, but the cable in the wall stays for well over a decade. That is why with a network most of it rides on the decisions made at the start, while nothing is boxed in yet. This page is about the inside of the network: cabling, switches, Wi-Fi and the split into zones. What happens where it meets the internet, the firewall and access from outside, is on the secure company network page.
We usually arrive at one of three moments: a move to a new office, an extension of a hall, or the point where the Wi-Fi started dropping often enough that it could no longer be ignored. Each looks different, but the first step is the same, checking what is already there. You would be surprised how often the cabling turns out better than anyone assumed and only the devices at the ends need changing. A case of its own is the network in a trading company, where online fiscal registers hang off the line and the rules require a connection throughout opening hours.
It is the least impressive part of a network and at the same time the one you cannot fix later without opening walls. Three numbers are enough to discuss it sensibly.
A single run of copper twisted pair between devices is limited to a hundred metres and it does not care how good a cable you buy. Over longer distances, common in halls, you add an intermediate point with a switch or go to fibre. That one figure decides where the cabinet has to stand.
Category 5e gives a gigabit over the full hundred metres and suffices for most offices. Ten gigabits over category 6 only works up to 55 metres, and over the full distance you need category 6A. The difference in the price of the cable is small, the difference in the cost of laying it again is enormous.
Every outlet gets a number at both ends and the whole thing goes onto a drawing. It sounds trivial, but it is the difference between a fault solved in fifteen minutes and an hour of working out which cable is which. After laying we run the tests and you keep the results with the documentation.
A practical piece of advice that costs nothing during construction and a lot afterwards: plan more outlets than you need today and a wider cable route. An extra cable costs a token amount next to the labour, while a second trip through the same ceiling costs as much as the first. When rebuilding an office we always ask about the plans for the next three years, because that is the only moment when the spare capacity is cheap. This matters especially in agencies and studios, where editing stations sooner or later need ten gigabits and pulling cable after a refurbishment costs many times more.
The commonest complaint in companies is that the Wi-Fi drops. It is almost never about coverage, even though from outside it almost always looks that way.
One powerful access point serving sixty devices performs worse than three weaker ones serving twenty each. Neighbours broadcasting on the same channels do the rest. So we start with a survey inside your walls rather than picking hardware from a catalogue.
It is far less crowded, but in the EU it may only be used indoors and at low power, so it will not help on a yard or a forecourt. The second catch: only WPA3 encryption works in that band, so older laptops and scanners simply will not connect.
Racks full of goods absorb the signal differently from empty ones, and a trolley with a terminal has to move between access points without dropping its session. We design for movement and for a full warehouse, because a network tested in an empty hall always looks good.
We keep the guest network separate from the company one, always. It is the simplest thing in the whole network and at the same time the one most often missing: a courier phone on the same network as the document server has no justification whatsoever. A separate network for cameras and technical devices works on the same principle and likewise costs nothing beyond the configuration. The hardest conditions are a production hall with dust, sheet metal and trucks in motion, which we describe under support for manufacturing firms. A warehouse with high racking adds a problem of its own: the scanner on a truck clings to too distant an access point instead of moving to a nearer one. We set that out under IT support for warehouses.
A camera, an access point and a phone draw power from the same cable that carries their data. Convenient, until somebody adds up the power budget of the switch.
The oldest standard gives 15.4 W at the port, the next one 30 W, and the newest up to 60 or 90 W for devices such as pan-tilt cameras with heaters. The hardware has to match the standard of the switch, because a higher class camera plugged into an older port simply will not come up.
A switch with twenty-four powered ports will rarely carry twenty-four devices at full draw, because it has one shared budget of watts. We count it with fifteen to twenty per cent of headroom, so that adding two cameras does not mean replacing the whole unit.
Without a managed switch you cannot split the network into zones or see which port is causing trouble. The price difference in a small office is often small, and without it every later change means replacing hardware.
Then there is backup power, the thing most often forgotten around networks. The server usually sits on a battery, but if the switch and the router do not, a brief power cut still stops everybody working and the cameras stop recording. We check this at every review, because the cost is small and the consequence of skipping it shows immediately.
From design to upkeep. You can order the lot or join at any point, for instance when the cabling is already in place.
We check what is already there, measure the Wi-Fi in your rooms and draw what goes where. Out of that comes a quote split between what has to happen now and what can wait.
We match the units to the number of outlets and to what will draw power from them, with the budget worked out. We leave room to grow, because cameras and access points are usually added later.
We put up access points under one management, separate the guest, camera and company networks, and set up roaming between points without dropping the connection.
The meeting point with the internet, the firewall and remote access are a separate layer that we do in the same project but describe separately, because tidying the edge alone can be ordered on its own.
Switches, access points, cabinets and cabling you can buy through us or on your own from our list. We have no interest in talking you into a more expensive shelf.
Once running, a network needs updates and watching, because trouble with a link or an overloaded access point shows up in the data before it shows up in tickets from people.
Cable work is done by a crew we have worked with for years, while the design, hardware, configuration and handover stay with us. For you that means one contract and one phone number when something fails, instead of working out whether the cabling crew or the configuration company is at fault. For smaller changes, such as adding a few outlets, we do everything ourselves.
The timing depends on the floor area and on whether the building is empty or working. The order does not change.
We walk the building, measure the Wi-Fi where people actually work and check the existing cabling. Without that visit any quote would be guesswork.
You get a drawing with the outlets, a hardware list and a price split into stages. If the budget is tight we say what to do first so that the second part does not mean redoing the first.
We lay the cabling, fit the cabinet, the switches and the access points, and plan the switchover for a time when the company is not working. After go live we run the tests and hand over the documentation.
We come back to see how the network behaves under real load, because only then do the things an empty building hides come out. Corrections at this stage are included in the price of the rollout.
A warehouse, a production hall, a clinic and an office in a townhouse are four different jobs, even when the hardware looks similar. See how it works in your case.
The pages the conversation moves to around networks.
In a typical office the largest item is the labour on the cabling rather than the hardware, so the price depends mostly on the number of outlets and on whether cables can run in a suspended ceiling or the walls have to be opened. We quote after the visit, split into stages, so you can see what may be deferred. The visit and the survey themselves are free.
Often not. Category 5e carries a gigabit over the full hundred metres and that still suffices in most offices, so instead of replacement a test and new devices at the ends will do. We propose replacing it when the measurements come out badly, when you need ten gigabits, or when there are simply no cables where the desks are meant to be.
Because Wi-Fi is rarely about power. Usually one access point is serving too many devices or broadcasting on a channel the neighbours already occupy, and a stronger aerial merely widens the area in which the same crowding is audible. The answer is normally several weaker points under one management rather than one stronger device.
In a new office yes, because the band is empty and that will not change quickly. Two limits are worth remembering: in the EU it may only be used indoors and at low power, and only devices supporting WPA3 encryption will connect to it. That is why we always keep the older bands running for the equipment that needs them.
Yes, and that is usually how it goes. The cabling is laid while the company works, because it is work alongside the desks, and the switchover itself is planned for an evening or a weekend. Before switching we agree the point at which we go back to the old configuration if things turn out differently than assumed.
Because it costs only the configuration and it changes the consequences of a failure or a break-in. Cameras, technical devices and guests have no reason to see the document server, and a camera recorder is often the weakest point in the whole company. With managed switches it is an hour of work, with plain ones it means replacing hardware, which is why we ask about it at the design stage.
We are, as one party to the contract. The cables are laid by a crew we have worked with for years, but the design, hardware, configuration, handover and warranty are on our side. So when a fault appears you are not working out whether the fitter or the configuration is at fault, you ring one number.
The first meeting takes 30 minutes and commits you to nothing. We will tell you straight whether we can help and what we would propose.
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