Improve Your Business’ Wi-Fi

Today, most businesses (and homes) depend on their Wi-Fi. It provides a lot more flexibility and value than a wired connection in many instances simply because people use a lot of wireless devices today. Today’s wireless internet is easier to install, is faster than ever, and works to protect network security better than ever before, once it is set up correctly. Today, we’ll give you a few tips you should know on how to successfully implement a Wi-Fi platform. 

Identify Purpose

There are pros and cons to utilizing a wireless network. If you are considering enhancing mobility and bringing more flexibility to your workforce, setting up a WLAN is the easiest and most cost effective way to do so. Sharing network attached resources with users inside your network is an absolute must for most businesses, so in that case, having a wireless strategy is mandatory. Wireless is very customizable as well, so you can do a lot more things, more simply with Wi-Fi than if you choose to wire everything up.

Plan Coverage Area

Your Wi-Fi has to do what you need it for, it’s that simple. If you are looking for a way to connect your users to your business network and don’t want the signal available outside the building, you can absolutely do that, but one would suggest that you’d by-in-large see faster transmission speeds if you used a wired network approach, but that can be costly. You will want to plan the space you need your Wi-Fi to go and then start planning where you will place your hardware.

Bandwidth 

You need to know how much bandwidth your business will need at the time of implementation and an estimate of how much it will need in the years to come. By estimating your organization's bandwidth needs you will be able to know a couple crucial details: How much you will pay for the bandwidth and how your bandwidth will be spent. Once you know all the particulars, you can successfully calculate your business’ networking costs. 

Procure Hardware

Getting the hardware you need is a pretty simple job, but you will want to consider what standard you plan on using. The most prevalent for high speed wireless transmission are 802.11a and 802.11g. 802.11b delivers slower Internet speeds, but also reduces the prices of the hardware substantially. For your business you will want something that meets the wireless needs of your business. 

Deployment

The placement of the hardware is the biggest and most important consideration. If you need more than one network to fill your business’ needs then you will need to work that out with your ISP. Most businesses build their wireless network to include guest use, so you will also want to consider how available your wireless signal is in order to fulfill the next task. 

Plan and Implement Security

Just like you work to secure your user accounts with password protection and other forms of security, you will want to ensure that all of your security steps are taken care of. Most times, this is a little more complex so your business would really benefit from a professional perspective. While you may understand that you need to update firewall permissions, assign user access, and much more, a professional will understand the specifics of it and can really work to keep your Wi-Fi network much more secure than it would otherwise be.

Here are a few suggestions, should you want to undertake this procedure yourself:

1. Change your router’s admin password - The first step in most security practices is changing the password. It is the same for setting up your router(s).
2. Turn off Service Set Identifier (SSID) broadcasting - This doesn’t allow passersby to see that your wireless network is up and available. 
3. Change default SSID - Since a lot of factory-provided SSID values are available, you can avoid them altogether by changing the SSID login name.
4. Enable MAC address filtering - This gives you control over which users have access to what access points. 
5. Add EAP authentication and enable encryption - Requires secure authentication from each user on the network. 
6. Consider secure remote access or virtual private networking - This provides users operating outside your network the means to send and receive data securely. 

Operability and security are the keys to any technology deployment, and to get there you may need the knowledgeable SMART Services technicians. Call us today if you have any questions about your business’ technology at 586 258-0650 .