From $900 per site · Remote · Fixed written quote
Get the network you already paid for.
A remote review and tune of the switches and access points you already own, through the controller or cloud dashboard you have today. Channel and power plan, VLANs, QoS, firmware, roaming and PoE budget, applied in an agreed change window and measured before and after.
The problem.
In the 2.4 GHz band only three channels do not overlap. Access points left on automatic power at full strength hear each other and spend airtime waiting.
Roaming problems are usually settings. Minimum data rates, band steering and transmit power decide when a laptop lets go of one access point and joins the next.
A switch installed with VLAN 1 as the native VLAN on every trunk, no QoS marking for voice and a PoE budget nobody checked will work on day one and degrade as devices are added.
I have traced a wireless complaint that had lasted ten years to the cabling the builder ran inside the walls and the patch panels behind it. The access points were never the problem, and the data pointed at the cabling before anyone opened a wall.
What I do.
Before I start.
A short questionnaire, floor plans if you have them, read-only access to the wireless controller or cloud dashboard and to the switches, configuration exports, and the help desk's list of complaints with locations.
Remote review.
I read every access point's channel, power, neighbor and client data from the controller, check each switch's PoE budget, uplink speed, duplex errors and spanning-tree topology from the configurations and counters, and map the complaints onto the floor plan.
Wireless plan.
A 2.4 GHz reuse plan on channels 1, 6 and 11 (or 2.4 GHz turned off where 5 GHz covers), 5 GHz channel widths that fit the density, DFS channels where the clients support them, transmit power limits, minimum data rates, band steering, fast roaming (802.11k, v and r) where the clients support it, fewer SSIDs, and client isolation on the guest network.
Switching.
An unused native VLAN on trunks, allowed-VLAN lists, portfast and BPDU guard on edge ports, storm control, LLDP-MED and a voice VLAN, QoS trust and marking for voice, PoE priority for phones and access points, port descriptions, a firmware plan and configuration backups.
Change window.
Changes applied remotely with rollback ready, then the same measurements repeated from the controller, plus a short walk test that your on-site contact runs on a continuous call with me on the phone.
Report.
The channel and power plan drawing, the configuration diffs, the before-and-after numbers, the PoE budget sheet and what to watch next.
What you get.
- A written report with the channel and power plan drawing and every configuration diff.
- Before-and-after measurements from the controller and from the walk test at the complaint locations.
- A firmware plan and a PoE budget sheet per switch.
- Configuration backups of every device touched.
- Thirty days of follow-up by call or text.
What the report looks like.
Two illustrative artifacts from a tune-up, typeset the way you will receive them.
Sample · 5 GHz channel plan with DFS ranges
Four non-DFS channels at the bottom of the band and two at the top. The hatched ranges are usable only where clients support DFS and radar is not nearby.
Sample · Switch port change from a tune-up
interface GigabitEthernet1/0/24
description Uplink to AP-2F-East
- switchport mode access
- switchport access vlan 1
+ switchport mode trunk
+ switchport trunk native vlan 99
+ switchport trunk allowed vlan 10,20,30,99
+ spanning-tree portfast trunkHow long it takes.
- Questionnaire, access and exports
- One week before, about an hour of your time.
- Remote review
- 1 to 2 days.
- Change window
- A scheduled window, 2 to 4 hours, with your on-site contact on the phone for the walk test.
- Report
- Within 5 business days.
Pricing.
Per site, remote, with add-on rates so a larger building can price itself.
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Remote site tune-up
Covers up to 8 access points and 4 switches through your controller or cloud dashboard.
$900 per site -
Each access point beyond 8
Channel, power and roaming settings reviewed and applied.
$75 per access point -
Each switch beyond 4
PoE budget, uplinks, spanning tree and port configuration included.
$90 per switch -
On-site visit
Placement check, signal and noise measurements and a roaming walk, only when the data says the problem is physical. Travel at cost.
$750 per day -
Multiple sites or a campus
Quoted per site at a volume rate.
quoted -
Included
Everything above.
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Extra
New hardware, cabling, moving or adding access points, firmware that requires a vendor support contract, travel for an on-site visit at cost.
Every quote is fixed in writing before work begins.
Questions.
Can you really tune a network remotely?
Yes, for any cloud-managed or controller-based platform. The controller already holds the channel, power, neighbor and client data I need, and the switches give me their configurations and counters. An on-site visit only matters when a problem is physical, such as a badly placed access point, and the data usually shows that before anyone drives anywhere.
Which vendors do you work with?
Ruckus, Aruba, Meraki, Cisco and UniFi day to day, and any other mainstream cloud-managed or controller-based platform. I do not resell hardware and I am not a partner of any vendor, so the recommendation is only about your building.
Do we need to buy anything?
Usually no. If the data shows an access point in the wrong place or a switch past its PoE budget, the report says so and you decide.
Will there be downtime?
Changes happen in an agreed window. Most take minutes with rollback ready. Wireless changes cause a brief reconnect for clients.
What if the real problem is the internet circuit or the firewall?
The questionnaire and the controller data separate the two. If the numbers show the problem is upstream, I tell you that day and we re-scope.
Send the complaint list and the configuration exports. The quote follows within one business day.
Networks drift. The fractional senior engineer retainer includes a periodic look at what changed.