Monitoring
The firewall, switches, and access points watched continuously. A device that drops, a link that flaps, or a circuit that goes down is seen by us, usually before anyone in the office notices.
Network and Wi-Fi
Managed Network and Wi-Fi Services for Your Office
The firewall, the switches, and the Wi-Fi your office runs on, designed and managed as one network. Most small business networks are flat, everything can reach everything, and that works right up until one device is compromised. Then it works for the attacker too.
What this covers
What Managing Your Network Means
Managed network services means we run the equipment your office runs on: the firewall, the switches, the wireless, and the internet connection behind them. Configured properly, kept up to date, backed up, and watched. What that involves differs from one location to the next, so it is quoted per site. These are the kinds of work it covers, month to month.
Firewall settings
Rules kept tight and current: what can reach in, what can reach out, and why each rule exists, written down so the next person knows.
Keeping settings current
Firmware and configuration kept up to date on a schedule, every change recorded, and the configuration backed up, so the network on paper matches the one in the closet. A replacement plan before hardware reaches end of support.
Wi-Fi
Access points managed as one network: coverage, capacity, the staff network, the guest network, and the passwords and additions as your office changes.
VPN and remote access
Secure remote access into the office with multi-factor authentication, managed as people join and leave.
Your internet provider
We manage the ISP for you. When the line drops or a change is needed, we open the ticket, chase it, and translate what the provider says. You do not spend the afternoon on hold. A second line or SD-WAN failover where it applies.
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi That Was Designed, Not Just Plugged In
Wi-Fi is the part of the network everyone notices. It is also the part most often built by adding one more box when the signal got bad.
Coverage from a survey
Access points placed from a walk through the building, not a guess from the floor plan. Walls, ceilings, and the back office all count.
Capacity for a busy day
Sized for everyone in the building with two or three devices each, and a meeting room full of laptops, not for a quiet Tuesday morning.
Guests kept apart
A guest network that reaches the internet and nothing else. Nobody in reception sits on the same network as your files.
Managed like the rest
Firmware kept current, the equipment monitored, and one place to change a password or add a network, instead of a stack of consumer boxes nobody remembers configuring.
Why segmentation
What a Flat Network Costs You
These are the most common findings on a small business network, and every one of them is common enough to expect rather than unusual enough to remark on.
Guest Wi-Fi on the same network as the server
The most common finding, and the easiest to exploit. Anyone in the parking lot with the password sits on the same network as your accounts system.
Cameras, printers and door controllers
Rarely patched, often shipped with default credentials, and almost never replaced. They are a foothold, and a flat network turns a foothold into full access.
Personal phones on the staff network
An unmanaged device with an unknown patch level, given the same reach as a company laptop that is monitored and encrypted.
One compromised laptop
On a flat network, ransomware reaches every share, every server, and every backup that is reachable from it. Segmentation is what turns that into one machine rebuilt on a Tuesday.
Segmentation does not stop an attack. It decides how much of your business one attack reaches.
How it works
How a Network Engagement Runs
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Assessment and baseline
We document what is actually there before changing anything: circuits, equipment, firmware levels, rules, and where the boundaries are or are not.
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Design and remediation
A segmentation plan and a rule set that matches how your business really works, scheduled around your operations rather than applied on a Friday afternoon.
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Monitoring and maintenance
Continuous monitoring of the equipment, firmware kept current, and configuration backed up so a failed firewall is a swap rather than a rebuild from memory.
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Change and review
Additions, moves and rule changes handled through a process that leaves a record, with a periodic review of what the network is doing against what the business now needs.
Where it sits
Where It Sits in the Plans
Network and infrastructure management is quoted per location on top of a plan, because a single office with one firewall and three access points is a different job from four sites with a VPN between them. Every other rate is published on the pricing page, including the hourly rates that would apply to project work.
Frequently asked
Network Management: FAQs
What is network segmentation and why does it matter?
Segmentation divides one network into several, so devices that have no business talking to each other cannot. Guests on one, staff on another, cameras and printers on a third, servers behind the tightest boundary. It matters because almost every serious incident involves an attacker moving from wherever they landed to wherever the valuable data is. Segmentation is what makes that movement difficult, and it is usually the single largest security improvement available to a small business network.
Why is the Wi-Fi fine at the front desk and bad in the back office?
Because the access point is at the front desk. Signal drops through every wall and ceiling it crosses, and one access point placed where the internet comes in rarely reaches the whole building. The fix is placement, not power: a walk through the building, then two or three access points where the people actually are, managed as one network so a phone moves between them without dropping.
Our internet works fine. Why would we pay for network management?
Because working and being defensible are different things. A network can pass traffic perfectly while running firmware three years out of date, with a flat structure, default credentials on a switch, and a remote access rule somebody added in 2019 and forgot. None of that affects whether email loads. All of it affects what happens when one device is compromised.
Do we have to replace our equipment?
Not automatically. The assessment establishes what is capable of doing the job and what is not. Equipment past end of support, or unmanaged hardware that cannot enforce a boundary, does need replacing, and we will say which and why. We are Fortinet and NETGEAR partners, so where hardware is needed we can specify, supply and support it rather than handing you to somebody else.
Can you deal with our internet provider?
Yes, and it is included. Vendor management means the circuit is our problem: raising the fault, chasing it, and translating what the provider says. It eats an afternoon on every outage, so we include it.
Start With an IT Assessment
A thirty-minute call where we go through what you run and what is not working. We reply within one business day, and there is no obligation.
Schedule an IT assessment