Network Fault Finding

The advantages of a decent enterprise WiFi network for your business or educational organisation are huge. However, when things go wrong it is very easy for users to lose faith in the system and that can have a negative impact on both reputation and operations.

Network issues need to be resolved quickly and with minimum impact. The longer service is unavailable or poor, the more likely it is that users will be unhappy and complain. But resolving the issue quickly is not always so simple.

Prevention is better than cure

It is far better to be proactive. Identifying and resolving issues before users are even aware of them is part and parcel of successful management of your network. To do this effectively you need to know that your infrastructure is capable of meeting the needs of your operation.

Because every site is different, a first good step is to undergo a full diagnostic survey with network fault finding. This will help identify faults that already exist, and also advise where future problems could occur, so you can plan future maintenance and improvement or replacement.

It also makes sense to have active monitoring tools in place, such as wireless intrusion prevention (WIPS). This will identify internal and external threats early, allowing administrators to act quickly to contain or eliminate the threat before it becomes a problem.

Understand the impact

Proactive management of the network will reduce incidents, but they can still happen. When your support team begin fighting that fire, they need to get to the bottom of the issue quickly.

The basic first step is to identify the exact symptoms. Is the network inexplicably slow? Is loss of connectivity intermittent or completely lost? Can the issue be repeated? Gaining detailed knowledge of the problem means you can start to rule out potential causes.

Secondly, what is the impact on users? Is it all users or just some? What tasks are those users doing? What devices are being used and what location are they in?

If the answers to these questions do not help find a solution, then at least you are informed enough to assist the experts when they come to resolve the problem.

Get help from the experts

There may come a point where you need an experienced technician. They will have a deep level of experience to be able to tell the difference between a physical fault, such as a cable break or damaged sockets, or device failures, such as transceivers or network switches.

They will be able to identify and provide replacement parts quickly. They will also be able to review capacity and demands on the network to diagnose potential causes.

If you are struggling with network fault finding, a WiFi survey from Redway Networks is an ideal solution.

Find out more about WiFi Site Surveys