Signs the network is the problem
Most people call us about "slow internet" when the internet itself is fine. The line coming into the building tests well at the modem, and then everything falls apart somewhere between that box and the laptop in the back office. That gap is the network, and it's the part nobody has looked at since the day it was plugged in.
- Video calls freeze in one room and work in another.
- The card reader or the front desk computer drops offline a few times a day, then comes back by itself.
- Printers vanish from the list and reappear after someone restarts them.
- Customers, patients or house guests are on the same Wi-Fi as your accounting files.
- The Wi-Fi password is taped to the wall and hasn't changed in years.
- There's a box from the internet company, a second router someone added, and two plug-in extenders, and nobody knows which one is in charge.
- The casita, the garage or the patio gets one bar, or nothing.
Any one of these is fixable. Several at once usually means the network grew a piece at a time and was never designed.
What we do first: find out what's there
We don't start by selling you equipment. We start by walking the space and writing down what you have: where the internet line comes in, what it plugs into, every switch and access point, and which cables in the walls work. Then we test signal and speed in the rooms where you do your work, at the desks and not in the hallway next to the router.
A lot of problems turn up right there. Two devices both trying to hand out addresses. An access point sitting on top of a metal filing cabinet. A long cable with a bad end that drags the whole back office down to a crawl. A network closet that's really a garage shelf, cooking all summer. Heat is hard on network gear out here, and our desert computer guide on pdgeeks.com covers that side of it.
After the walkthrough you get a plain list of what's wrong, what we'd change, and a quote. Nothing gets replaced before you've seen it.
Office networks
A business-grade firewall
The box your internet company supplies is built to get a household online. It isn't built to protect patient records or a bookkeeping system. A business-grade firewall sits between the internet and everything in your office, inspects what comes in and goes out, gets security updates, and keeps a log you can read after something odd happens. It also lets staff connect from home over an encrypted connection without leaving a door open to everyone else.
We size the firewall to the number of people and the speed of your line, set it up, and document the settings so you aren't locked out of your own equipment. For the wider picture on protection, see our page on cybersecurity and backup.
Keeping guest Wi-Fi away from office systems
If a visitor's phone and your file server share one network, the visitor's phone can see your file server. The fix is segmentation: we split one physical network into separate lanes that can't talk to each other unless we allow it.
A typical small office ends up with four lanes.
- Office computers and the server or shared storage.
- Guest Wi-Fi, which reaches the internet and nothing else.
- Payment terminals, kept on their own because card processors expect it.
- Printers, cameras, thermostats and other gadgets that rarely get security updates.
Phones often get their own lane too, so a big download doesn't chop up a call. If you're thinking about changing phone systems, read our business phones and VoIP page before you buy anything, because call quality depends on the network under it.
Cabling and access points
Wi-Fi is only as good as the wire behind it. We test the cable runs you already have, label both ends, and tell you which ones have failed. We don't pull new cable ourselves. When a desk or an access point needs a new run, we tell you exactly what to ask a cabling contractor for, then connect and set up the equipment once the cable is in. Access points go on the ceiling or high on a wall, near the people using them, and each one connects back to a switch. We set channels and power levels so they don't shout over each other.
When we're done you get a simple map: what's plugged into what, which port feeds which room, and where the passwords are kept. If you'd like someone watching that equipment and applying its updates month to month, that's part of managed IT.
Large homes, casitas and guest houses
Homes in Indian Wells, La Quinta and Rancho Mirage give Wi-Fi a hard time. They're wide, single-story and spread out. Stucco walls often have wire mesh inside them, and block walls, stone, big mirrors and low-e glass all soak up signal. One router in the office at the far end of the house was never going to reach the primary suite, let alone the pool.
Mesh or wired access points
A mesh system is a set of small units that pass the signal from one to the next over the air. It's quick to install and needs no new cable. The catch is that every hop gives up some speed, and a unit that gets a weak signal from its neighbor can only hand out a weak signal itself.
Wired access points each get their own cable back to the router, so every one of them delivers full speed. That works when the house already has network cable in the walls, or when you have a cabling contractor add it, since we don't pull new cable ourselves. In a large house, wired is what we recommend when it's practical. Many homes land in the middle: mesh units with a cable feeding each one where a cable already exists, and wireless hops only where there's no other way.
Detached guest houses
A detached casita is a separate building, and a signal from the main house has to cross a courtyard and two exterior walls to get there. Plug-in extenders rarely survive that trip. What works is a real link between the buildings: a cable between the buildings if one is already there, or a pair of small outdoor radios aimed at each other, one on each building. Then the casita gets its own access point inside, on the same network name as the main house.
If the house sits empty part of the year, the network also has to come back by itself after a power blip and tell you when it doesn't. Our seasonal home tech page covers that. For a home office that needs a steady connection for work calls, see home office setup.
How the work goes
Network work is mostly on-site, because the walls, the wiring and the dead spots are where you are. Changes to settings on equipment that's already in place can often be handled over remote support. For an office, we plan the changeover so you know ahead of time when the network will be down and for which part of the job.
Before we leave, we test from the places that were failing, not from the easiest spot in the building. You keep the documentation and the admin passwords. It's your network.
When a simpler fix is enough
Try these before you call anyone.
- Move the router. Out of the cabinet, off the floor, toward the middle of the house. In a small home or condo this alone can fix it.
- Use the cable you already have. If there's a network jack near the desktop or the TV, plug in. Wired beats wireless every time.
- Unplug the extenders. Old plug-in extenders often cause more trouble than they cure. Take them out and see what changes.
- Check the age of the router. If it's been in service for many years, a current off-the-shelf mesh kit will do fine in an average-size house, and you can install it yourself.
A two-person office with no guests, no card terminal and no shared files doesn't need four network lanes either. A decent router with a separate guest network turned on may be all it takes. Where we earn our keep is the bigger house, the office that handles other people's information, and the network nobody can explain anymore. If you run a medical or regulated office, start with our small business IT support page, since the network is one piece of a larger job there.