Wireless Networking

Connexion have been providing Faulkner Heating with their IT support and services for over 5 years. When Faulkners decided to expand their business, moving to a new office in the local area, a new leased line for their data connectivity was ordered and paid for but something went wrong at the telecoms supplier and the new leased line wasn't going to be available until several months after they moved offices. Obviously the business couldn't survive that long without any connectivity to the outside world.

Wireless Connectivity

Faulkners initially thought about a quick and dirty temporary solution, getting a standard, low speed ADSL connection to tide them over until the proper leased line could be installed. But this would tie them in to a 12 or even 18 month contract, plus up front installation fees, making it a relatively expensive option. Not to mention the fact that the performance would be poor. Connexion suggested a better temporary solution using wireless connectivity.

Because Faulkners were keeping their old building and they still had all their existing data connectivity up and running there without any issues, Connexion could quickly and easily install wireless, high bandwidth point-to-point data connectivity between the old office and the new one, which was approximately 1.6km (1 mile) down the road.

Connexion installed external wireless connection antennae on both buildings, configured and connected these into the network at either end and the result was seamless, high speed data connectivity in the new building, all for less than the cost of a 1 year contract for a standard ADSL line which was Faulkner's only other option.

The Circle Agency operate 2 buildings in Reading (the Head Office and a warehouse) and each have their own leased line providing data connectivity. Connexion had worked with The Circle Agency for 5 years, supporting (amongst other things) their IT infrastructure and had configured a Virtual Private Network (VPN) between the 2 sites to allow for low level data connectivity between them.

However, as the IT requirements of The Circle Agency grew, a Disaster Recovery system was implemented which mirrored system critical data between the 2 sites. This in turn led to a massive increase in data moving between the 2 sites via the VPN and dramatically reduced the performance of the network in both buildings as a whole.

The Circle Agency looked at upgrading the leased lines in both buildings to improve performance but it would have meant big increases in cost for both lines that would need to be paid every year. Connexion proposed a wireless networking solution instead.

Cost Effective Wireless Networking Solution

Connexion could install wireless point-to-point networking to cover the 2 kilometres between the separate buildings, meaning that both of the previously independent networks could now effectively operate as one. The old VPN could be removed and any data travelling between the 2 systems, including the high bandwidth Disaster Recovery information, could now move across the wireless link rather than via the VPN across the internet. It also had the added advantage of being more secure as any data shared between the 2 systems could be sent directly rather than via the internet.

And best of all, the one-off cost for installing and configuring the new wireless connectivity was around the same as operating the 2 upgraded leased lines for a year, meaning that the wireless system would effectively pay for itself after a year as there would be no further ongoing costs.