Networking Solutions: Need Better Wi-Fi?

New Home Networking:
The best time to wire up a house is during the construction stage.  You’re able to run the wires and the network you need before the drywall goes up with minimal aesthetic effects. Contact us today if you’re interested in a quote for networking your building.

Wired Networks: 
The most reliable and consistent option for networking. While wireless networks can run into interference, wired connections don’t run into that vulnerability. The moment you plug a device into a router, you have yourself a wired network. Printers and other devices that come with an RJ45 network port are called Ethernet-ready devices.

Routers:
Routers are the devices that in many cases allow you to connect multiple devices both wired and wireless to the network, and thus, the internet. A home router usually has 4 LAN ports, meaning that straight out of the box it can host a network of up to four wired devices. Routers can also be the largest bottleneck in the house. Routers come in different speeds and capabilities, and thus a router can actually slow your internet connection if it’s not current technology.

Wireless Networking: 
Everyone loves wireless networks, as there is no need for unslightly wires all over, but it is also the least reliable way to run a network. Wireless signal is normally provided by routers, but there are modem/router combos that do have wireless capability. Wireless networking is prone to interference from your neighbours networks, baby monitors, cellular and microwave devices to name a few. There are routers such as dual-band routers that can help by allowing you to change the frequency band the wireless signal is being sent on. Some times troubleshooting is required to find out why a wireless signal is not working as it should.  It could be a multitude of issues. It could be the router’s range, frequency band interference, it could be your building’s materials or devices either in or exterior to your building causing issues.

Power Line Networking:
In some homes and buildings power line networking is a great choice.  It allows you to run the signal through the powerlines of your building into other rooms and areas that would otherwise be unserviced. Powerlines can service both wired and wireless networks and help you avoid the issues faced when you need to run cables. They usually come as a kit pair of two devices that carry the Wi-Fi signal from a strong area to a weak area and simply plug into an ac outlet in each area.

Cell Phone Boosters:
If you find that your cell phone drops constantly at home or work, a cellular booster will dramatically increase your signal and eliminate most if not all cellular issues.

Networking Products

All of these products are in stock at Skyview, but models are constantly changing. Please contact us for availability and advice on the best networking devices for your home or office.

Wireless Mesh Networks:
These are devices in your home that work together to cover the area with wireless internet coverage (WiFi). Generally these networks are designed to allow your computers and wireless devices to seamlessly switch to the closest and fastest connection.

Switches:

A network switch is a small hardware device that centralizes communications among multiple connected devices in one local area network (LAN).

A network switch physically resembles a network hub. Unlike hubs, however, network switches are capable of inspecting incoming messages as they are received and directing them to a specific communications port — a technology called packet switching.

A switch determines the source and destination addresses of each packet and forwards data only to the specific devices, while hubs transmit the packets to every port except the one that received the traffic. It works this way to conserve network bandwidth and generally improve performance compared to hubs.

Switches also resemble network routers. While routers and switches both centralize local device connections, only routers contain support for interfacing to outside networks, either local networks or the internet.