WiFi Archives - NuTech Services LLC

Oct, 2020

How to Establish Fast, Secure Wi-Fi for Guests to Your Healthcare Organization

Patients and hospital visitors have come to expect Wi-Fi internet access. It’s no longer seen as an extra convenience, but a requirement for the comfort and confidence of your patients. That said, it’s your responsibility to provide reliable Wi-Fi access that is reasonably fast, secure, and easy to sign into.

Your Main Hospital Wireless Network Needs to be Locked Down

First of all, your main office Wi-Fi cannot be used for guest access. The same network that your computers, tablets, laptops, and other equipment run on needs to be completely segregated from the rest of the traffic and secure. This might be pretty obvious for most healthcare professionals, especially those who have an understanding of HIPAA compliance, but it’s worth mentioning because it poses such a huge security risk (and breaks compliance).

Your guest network allows anyone to log in, which means a malicious person could log into it, or an honest person who has a compromised device. Both scenarios can result in serious problems if sensitive health data is accessible.

You need to ensure that your internal network is properly locked down, and that the password is never given out publicly, and is regularly updated. We can audit your existing network to look for vulnerabilities and shortcomings, and help you meet compliance standards—just reach out.

Guest Networks Don’t Necessarily Mean New Hardware

As long as the routers and access points you already have are capable, you usually don’t need to purchase additional hardware in order to establish a separate Wi-Fi network for guests. This is a huge perk—not only are you obviously not having to purchase new equipment, but you don’t need to worry about the installation of additional hardware. Of course, if your network is older, your requirements might be a little different.

One thing to think about, is how much bandwidth your existing wireless network allows. Most modern access points can be split so bandwidth usage is segregated between staff and visitors. You’ll want to make sure that the network can handle guest traffic without interfering with internal operations. You don’t want a visitor in your waiting room streaming Netflix to prevent your front desk from being able to print or access records.

It’s important to establish restrictions—not just deciding what a guest can see or do on the network, but how much bandwidth they are allocated.

Even Guests Require Policies

You don’t want to simply deploy a free-for-all network for your patients to access without setting some ground rules. You should require users to agree to terms of service, and you should definitely be able to monitor logs to detect any fraudulent activity. Depending on your practice, you may consider setting time restrictions so unauthorized users can’t access the network when your facilities are closed. We can also restrict access to certain locations to prevent access from outside your facilities.

Deploying a guest network doesn’t have to be extremely expensive, but it does require a lot more than simply enabling a feature on your wireless router. If you’d like help, we can start with a network audit and review your existing network, and help you establish the security and best practices you need to keep your visitors and patients safe and happy.

Give us a call at 810.230.9455 to get the process started.

Nov, 2018

How to Get the Best Wireless Connections in Your Office

There are plenty of small irritations to be found in the office, from a pot of coffee that someone neglected to refill to the sound of a squeaky chair under the office fidgetier. However, none are quite as infuriating (or as detrimental to productivity) as an inconsistent Wi-Fi signal. What makes the Wi-Fi so spotty, and how do you resolve that?

What Do You Expect from Your Wi-Fi?
Many businesses have a tendency to either deal with their Wi-Fi as-is or will haphazardly add new networking components to their infrastructure as needed. Neither of these approaches is ideal, especially in light of the fact that you’ll need your Internet connections to be reliable as you grow your network.

A much better alternative is to design your Wi-Fi network keeping a few additional factors in mind, including your office’s particular setup and any future growth plans you may have. This way, you will not only create a network that works for your current needs but is also flexible enough to shift and adapt as your business does. Whether you’re first designing your office’s floor plan or taking another look at its setup, the key is to go about it from a strategy-first perspective.

The Process
Your first order of business is to determine where the demand for a signal will be the greatest. After all, if you have a group of employees reliant on their wireless connectivity huddled together in one area of the office, you aren’t going to want to place your equipment in a way that creates a dead zone there. This will help you to identify obstacles and inform you of where you may want to consider placing additional routers to make up for their effects.

Once your Wi-Fi has been set up and your employees are settled, you should still be collecting performance data and listening to the input that employees have about their connections. Remember, wireless is still an evolving technology, so as it develops it is likely that you will need to adjust your strategy to accommodate it.

Long story short, you’ll probably need to make this an ongoing process to ensure that your Internet is as usable as possible for everyone in the office.

The professionals at NuTech Services are also here to assist you with any of your technology needs. If you need help with your business’ IT solutions, give us a call at 810.230.9455.

Oct, 2015

Tip of the Week: Improve Customer Experience With a Guest WiFi Hotspot

As a business owner, you rely on your WiFi router to reliably broadcast a network connection to your entire office. This is generally a private network that you won’t want to share with just anyone. The only problem with this is that guests visiting your office might want to use the wireless Internet, and allowing them to do so can improve guest relations. So, what’s the solution to this dilemma? It’s simple: integrate a guest WiFi hotspot specifically for visitors.

When you consider the prevalence of public WiFi hotspots, you’ll realize that this is a great idea that can dramatically increase customer satisfaction. Fast food restaurants and cafes are seeing this, as customers come in to use their wireless, but in the process also wind up purchasing food or coffee. Guest WiFi hotspots work for the service-type industries, and translating this to the professional environment might be a bit of a stretch. Although, you’d rather have only trusted users accessing your organization’s private wireless network, so it’s best to set up a guest wireless network that they can use to access the Internet, but not the rest of the network.

Here’s a process that you can use to approach the idea of a guest WiFi hotspot.

How’s Your Internet Connection?
It goes without saying that your business wants a strong, stable wireless connection that it can use for Internet access. So, before you consider allowing even more users to connect to your wireless, you want to make sure that your Internet connection can withstand more traffic on it than normal. How many users will be taking advantage of it at any given moment? Is it going to be meant for just simple web browsing, or will it be used for streaming music, videos, and other content? Consider these questions carefully, and ensure that your Internet can accommodate more users than you anticipate. This will minimize any risks of the network speed grinding to a halt when you need it most. Some guest WiFi solutions even let you restrict bandwidth per user, allowing you greater control over your bandwidth.

Use Consistent Security Measures
Just because you have a wireless signal for guests, doesn’t mean it needs to go without security protocol. It should be set up to require a password that is provided by someone in your office. Otherwise, you might get any number of miscreants trying to leech your wireless signal without your consent. This gives your organization a semblance of control over the network while still having it available for users when the need arises. Similarly, you should keep an antivirus, firewall, content filter, and other security measures active on your network to prevent incriminating content from being browsed from your WiFi location. There are even WiFi solutions that enforce users to have antivirus running on their device before letting them connect, as added protection.

Contact a Professional IT Technician
When you think you’re ready to set up your guest WiFi hotspot, you will want to contact an IT professional who understands the individual needs of your business’s computing infrastructure. They will make sure that your hardware can handle the extra traffic, and discuss exactly what your business needs. NuTech Services can help your organization set up and utilize a guest WiFi solution that’s designed to keep your organization safe, while allowing your guests to benefit from the web. Give us a call at 810.230.9455 to learn more.

May, 2015

USB vs Wireless vs Bluetooth: Which is the Best for Tethering?

Using your smartphone to tether another device like a laptop to the Internet can come in handy when you need to accomplish a task that can’t be done on your phone (which is becoming increasingly rare these days). Most smartphones present the user with three ways to tether their Internet signal. What are they and which is the best?

Connecting with a WiFi Mobile Hotspot

Advantages
Using your smartphone as a mobile hotspot to broadcast a WiFi signal is the easiest way to connect your WiFi-enabled device to the Internet. Additionally, depending on your phone’s reception, today’s smartphone’s are capable of producing signals that are on par strength-wise with a wireless router. In fact, many smartphones are capable of connecting as many as five devices to the Internet from their mobile hotspot.

Disadvantages
Security is one disadvantage of using your phone to create a mobile hotspot. Your phone’s WiFi signal will be vulnerable to any hacker within range. Be sure to take the same WiFi security measures that you do with your office’s wireless routers. Also, using your phone as a mobile hotspot can quickly drain your battery, so plan your battery usage accordingly and have a charger handy.

Tethering with a USB Cable

Advantages
Battery life isn’t an issue when going with USB. Your phone will receive a charge via your device, so you will only have to worry about the battery of one device instead of two. Additionally, the Internet signal is pushed only through your USB cable, making it a more secure option than a mobile hotspot. Plus, in most cases a wired connection yields a faster signal.

Disadvantages
Having to carry an extra cable around can be a bit of an inconvenience, and so is having to keep your smartphone within arm’s reach. Tethering with USB may also require special software and configurations for each device, so there might be a few more hoops to jump through than using mobile hotspot, but if you’ve got a cable handy and you’re planning to work while sitting in one spot, then it’s probably worth it.

Make an Mobile Internet Connection with Bluetooth

Advantages
Similar to WiFi, you can use your phone’s Bluetooth signal to wirelessly broadcast an Internet signal for your device. Thanks to Bluetooth being specifically designed for mobile needs, it uses less battery power, as well as offers better security thanks to Bluetooth not being as common as WiFi.

Disadvantages
The disadvantage to Bluetooth is that it’s not as easy to configure as WiFi. According to Pocketnow:

It’s a little more involved to set up than WiFi, and a little more involved every time you want to use Bluetooth tethering. If power consumption is a concern, Bluetooth is probably the way to go, if you’re willing to configure it.

So which tethering option is the best? It really depends on your needs.

Do you need help with tethering your mobile devices, or want to securely equip your office with mobile technology like cloud computing? Then call NuTech Services at 810.230.9455.