Hello everyone, I have been working on upgrading the wireless internet at my company's office for the past month or so with various degrees of success and frustration.
Some background: I've been in-house IT for this company for less than a year, we are small but growing. When I got here, they essentially had a home network set up for this office through a Comcast modem and router. It is an old building made of brick and steel which are never conducive to good wifi, but it's also a large open space for the most part, so I wouldn't think building interference is the major issue.
I have a lot of experience in system administration but I'm not a network engineer. When people started complaining about internet speeds and performance, I thought at the very least we need to upgrade to a real "business" speed and service from Comcast.
So step 1: We upgrade to a higher Comcast speed and get Comcast's "WiFi Pro" service, which essentially just means they give us two APs connected to the gateway. The APs are placed on opposite sides of the office and they broadcast both Private and Public (guest) networks. Speeds are noticeably better right away on the Private network, so that's great.
What's not great is we discover that some people can't print. Everyone on the side of the office close to the printer can print without issue; everyone on the other side can't seem to "see" or connect to the printer. I've tinkered with settings on the router and APs to try to get them communicating to each other so that you could print regardless of which AP you're connected to, to no avail. If I'm connected to the AP furthest from the printer, I cannot print, cannot install that printer, cannot ping its IP address.
The printer is a Canon LBP250 series, connected wirelessly to the Private network, and this is an all-Mac company. Everyone uses Airprint to connect and print; I am not sure if that is complicating matters or not.
I will be meeting with a Comcast tech soon to troubleshoot, but I am also exploring other options. I'd like to get advice from some networking experts, which is why I'm here. Should I be looking into MSPs / contractors who could help me set up Meraki, Ubiquity, or some other product along those lines?
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