Computer Network Support

Your network provides the glue which connects your business system together. A well designed network from Altrigen, comprising of the correct networking components, structured cabling and professional installation will make your I.T. infrastructure fast, efficient and reliable.

Local Area Networks (LANS) comprise the systems you will use in your business offices, and when you connect to other offices, using leased lines, broadband or SDSL, you create a wide area network (WAN).

Structured Cabling Types

Cat 5e is the standard networking cable commonly available, and comprises of 4 twisted pairs of cores in a plastic jacket, and for voice and data Ethernet networks, cables are limited to a maximum of 100 m (328 ft) in length (normal practice is to limit fixed (“horizontal”) cables to 90 m to allow for up to 5 m of patch cable at each end.

CAt 6 cable is provides more protection against crosstalk, and is a structurally thicker cable. It is more expensive, and both cabling systems currently have a maximum bandwidth of Gigabit ethernet (1000 MB/sec).

Cable Free networking

Altrigen can provide cable free alternatives for situations where cabling is not an option.

These range from wireless solutions designed to connect notebooks and similar devices in office buildings, to solutions designed to connect buildings together over a small or large distance. These specialist solutions use concentrated microwave or laser technologies to connect networks wirelessly over distances of up to 20km.

Why not just use wireless everywhere ?

A question our Altrigen experts are asked quite often, is why do I have to have these cables everywhere, why not just use wireless, then I can move my PCs around whenever I want. And its a good question. But in practise, wireless networking, whilst a good thing in the boardroom or to provide network access for a handful of notebooks, and ideal in a domestic setting, just doesnt cut the mustard when supporting the average size office.

Cabled networks, unlike wireless, provide a constant, dropout free high bandwidth connection for all PCs, printers and other networked devices at speeds of up to 1GB/second, much faster than that achievable with todays wireless systems.

But as technology changes, we will continually revisit this opinion, and over time, perhaps cabled networks will be replaced by wireless equivalents.