October 8, 2013

The first step while planning a big office network is to evaluate the capacity needs of your current network. For this, you need to perform an inventory of all your network locations, which should include the available internet bandwidth, internet access type (VPN, DSL, etc.), and the location name. It is also important to take into consideration the building blocks of your office, which might influence the strength of a wireless network. You must consider the number of access points and bandwidth that your business will need to achieve the expected productivity gains. Along with this, you must also take into account the long-term maintenance of these access points, through centrally-managed controller appliances.

Once you have decided on the number of WLAN access points for your large business, you need to determine the power requirements of these access points, which is usually less than 15 watts. You can consider using power injectors placed along the line within 100 meters, as these provide greater flexibility than conventional power sources.

The next important consideration should be the security of your network. This is critical, considering that you depend on your network for a vast majority of your business functions, including communication, billing, inventory, sales, and trading. A network security breach could cost you heavily in terms of lost revenue and customer litigation.

While it is important to ensure that your network is highly secure, you must ensure that the security of the network does not come in way of its usability. Having a well-drafted network security plan is a good way to ensure effective network security. This should include all the major aspects of network security, such as email and communications activities, identity policy, remote access policy, encryption policy, password policy, antivirus policy, and acceptable use policy. Your network should be equipped with security technologies like firewall, Virtual Private Network (VPN), identity management, content security, and compliance validation.

Avoid interchanging home access points with multiple access points at the office. Even though these might be cheaper, they are likely to interfere with the seamless connection required at the workplace. Also, remember that just because an access point is at an easy location, does not mean it is the best location.

We at Centex Technologies design and implement computer networks for medium and large businesses. For more information call us at – (855) 375-9654