Network Support in Boston
Switches, cabling, firewalls, VPN and network segmentation for Greater Boston offices. Designed, documented and built so it keeps working after we leave.
The network is the part of your office nobody thinks about until everything stops at once. It is also where the cheapest decisions cause the longest problems.
We design, fix and maintain the wired infrastructure for small and mid-sized offices across Greater Boston — and we build it so it survives us leaving.
What we handle
Switching. Properly specified switches with the port count you actually need, managed where management earns its cost. Enough PoE budget for the access points and cameras, with room to grow.
Cabling. Cat6 or Cat6a, terminated properly, tested and labelled at both ends. Labelling is not cosmetic — it is the difference between a five-minute fix and an afternoon of tracing.
Firewalls. Configured with rules that reflect how your business works, not the vendor defaults. Reviewed when things change, because a firewall rule added for a project three years ago is still open today.
VPN and remote access. Staff working from home reaching what they need, without exposing your whole network to do it.
Segmentation. VLANs separating guest Wi-Fi, workstations, servers, cameras and payment systems. This is the control that turns a compromise into an incident instead of a catastrophe.
Documentation. A diagram of what connects to what, an address plan and a record of every firewall rule and why it exists. You own it.
What we find in existing networks
The pattern is consistent across the offices we take on:
One flat network. Everything can reach everything. The guest on your Wi-Fi, the smart TV in the conference room and the thermostat are all on the same network as the machine holding client records.
Unmanaged switches daisy-chained. Someone needed two more ports, bought a five-port switch, plugged it into a wall jack. Then it happened again. Now there are four hops between a desk and the server, and nobody knows where the boxes are.
No addressing plan. Printers and access points on DHCP, so they move. Half the recurring “the printer disappeared” calls trace to exactly this.
Firewall on defaults. Sometimes literally default credentials. We check this first on every engagement, and we still find it.
Cabling nobody can trace. Unlabelled, running to a patch panel wired in no discernible order. Every future change costs hours it should not.
No one knows what is plugged in. Devices on the network nobody can identify. Occasionally something a former employee installed and forgot.
Older buildings
Much of Greater Boston is brick, plaster and structural steel built long before Ethernet. In practice this means cable paths that do not exist, landlords with opinions about drilling, and walls that block wireless far more than modern construction does.
We survey before quoting rather than discovering it mid-job, and where a wall genuinely cannot be crossed, a wireless bridge is sometimes the honest answer instead of an expensive fight.
Related
- Wi-Fi support — the wireless layer that sits on top of this
- Cybersecurity — segmentation, firewall policy and monitoring
- Managed IT support — ongoing care rather than one-off projects
Frequently asked questions
- Our internet is fine but the network is slow. How?
- Those are different things. Internet speed is the connection to the outside; network speed is how traffic moves inside your office. A failing switch port, a duplex mismatch, a cable damaged during a renovation or a loop between two switches will all leave your internet test looking perfect while everything internal crawls.
- Do we need a business firewall or is the ISP router enough?
- For a handful of people doing email and web, the ISP router is often adequate. Once you have on-site servers, remote access, guest Wi-Fi or any regulatory obligation, it stops being enough — mostly because you cannot segment traffic or see what is happening. If you handle client financial or personal records, assume you need the real thing.
- Can you run cable in an older Boston building?
- Yes, and we plan for it. Plaster with metal lath, brick partitions, asbestos-era construction and landlord restrictions are normal here. Sometimes the answer is a wireless bridge rather than fighting a wall, and we will tell you when that is the better call.
- What is network segmentation and do we need it?
- Separating your network into zones so a compromise in one does not reach the others — guest Wi-Fi away from workstations, payment systems away from general traffic, cameras and smart devices away from everything. Most small offices have one flat network where the thermostat can reach the accounting server. If you hold client data, segmentation is one of the highest-value things you can do.
- How long does a small office network project take?
- A survey and remediation is typically a few days. A full cabling and equipment installation for a small office is usually one to two weeks from order to working, most of which is waiting for hardware.
Tell us what stopped working
Text or email is usually faster than a call. We serve Boston and everything within 20 miles — and remote support has no radius.