Networking

Managed and unmanaged switches

An unmanaged switch connects devices and nothing more. A managed one lets you split the network into isolated segments, give voice traffic priority, and watch the ports to see which one is causing the problem. The difference shows on the day something breaks.

Power over the network cable (PoE)

A camera, an IP phone and a wireless access point all run on power delivered over the same network cable: one cable per point instead of two — provided the switch supports it and has enough power budget for all of them at once.

Wi-Fi is not fixed by adding more hardware

Adding access points at random increases interference and makes things worse. A wireless survey sets the positions, channels and transmit power — and often the fix is fewer access points, placed properly.

The bottleneck is the uplink, not the ports

Your ports are a gigabit per desk, and the link between the switches is a single gigabit that everyone passes through. That is the usual bottleneck, and it never shows in a speed test from one machine — it shows on the day everybody is working at once. The fix is a faster uplink between switches, or two links bonded into one, and it is decided on day one because it determines which switch you buy.

The cable sets the ceiling

Cat5e carries a gigabit, which is enough for most offices today. Cat6 leaves room for ten gigabits over short runs, and Cat6A gives it over the full distance. The price difference is small while the cable is being pulled and very large afterwards, because replacing cable inside walls costs more than all the hardware put together. Whoever pulls cable today is pulling it for the years ahead, not for this one.

Rack, patch panel and labelling

Cables that go straight into the rack become, within months, a mass nobody dares touch. A patch panel turns every point into a known number, and labelling both ends turns tracing a fault into minutes instead of half a day. This is not tidiness for its own sake: it is the difference between a quick repair and a lost working day.

What you get after the work

A network plan showing which point lands on which port, a schedule of point numbers and where they are in the office, the switch configuration recorded, and the credentials in your name. And every point tested with a cable tester before handover, not tested on someone's desk the day they complain.

Installation and handover

ZEMAVO Technology installs networks with labelled cabling and a documented plan, supplies the switches and access points, links branches together and maintains them afterwards — from New Maadi, next to the Technology Village.