Over the past 30 years, I’ve worked with businesses ranging from small offices to enterprise environments. Reliable networking is the foundation of everything else in IT. On this page, I share lessons learned, best practices, and real-world experiences from designing, upgrading, and supporting business networks.
Network Redundancy Series
Follow this practical series covering progressively resilient Cisco, Meraki, and UniFi network designs, including internet, firewalls, switching, wireless, power, cabling, phones, DHCP, DNS, support, and cost considerations.
Latest Networking Articles
Practical networking insights and real-world experiences.
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Designing Resilient Healthcare Networks — Part 2
Designing Resilient Healthcare Networks — Part 2 A practical Cisco design that progresses from a single firewall and switch to dual internet, active/standby firewalls, independent Layer 3 switching, and wireless recovery paths for phones and computers. Cisco networks are often described as reliable because the equipment is proven and widely supported. That reputation is valuable,…
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Designing Resilient Healthcare Networks — Part 1
Designing Resilient Healthcare Networks — Part 1 A practical framework for moving from single points of failure to dependable business continuity—without buying more technology than the organization can support. Healthcare organizations have little tolerance for technology failures. Phones, scheduling systems, medical imaging applications, cloud services, secure remote access, and everyday business communications may all depend…
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Building a Secure 3CX Backup Repository
Building a Secure 3CX Backup Repository A Practical Approach to Business Continuity By Gary Asher, The Lauer IT Group One of the realities of supporting modern business communications systems is that backups are only valuable if they can be trusted. Recently, I worked through the design of a secure backup repository for hosted 3CX PBXs.…
Networking Areas of Focus
Network Design
- Infrastructure assessments
- Cisco and UniFi architecture
- Internet and WAN design
- Capacity and growth planning
Switching and Routing
- VLAN design
- Layer 2 and Layer 3 switching
- Inter-VLAN routing
- Redundancy and failover
Wireless Networking
- Access-point placement
- Coverage and capacity
- Roaming and interference
- Secure guest wireless
Voice and Application Performance
- Quality of Service
- Latency, jitter, and packet loss
- 3CX and SIP traffic
- Application troubleshooting
Security and Segmentation
- Firewall integration
- VPN design
- Network segmentation
- Guest and IoT isolation
Documentation and Lifecycle
- Network diagrams
- IP address and VLAN records
- Configuration backups
- Equipment lifecycle planning
Practical Approach
A business network should be designed around how the organization actually operates. The best solution is not always the most expensive or complicated one.
My goal is to build networks that are reliable, secure, understandable, and maintainable—while documenting the environment well enough that future troubleshooting and upgrades do not depend on memory.
Work with Gary
Whether you are planning a network upgrade, troubleshooting performance problems, improving wireless coverage, or evaluating Cisco and UniFi, I can help you examine the complete environment and develop a practical path forward.