As Prospect house tennants your business can benefit from connecting to our enterprise grade network to access Internet and building services such as VoIP telephone within your tennant space. The system has been designed to offer the most flexibility for your business IT needs, however there are specific ways to connect your equipment to get the best out of the system. The below document sets out some of the Do’s and Don’ts of connecting your hardware.
If you need any advice on setting up your equipment feel free to reach out to IT Support and we’ll be happy to advise.
Typical small unit setup (one user)
For the typical easy-in easy-out space we recommend connecting the supplied telephone to your network socket and then connecting your PC or laptop to the port marked PC on the telephone. The VoIP network is seperate from the data network, however the supplied telephone has been pre-programmed to seperate this out for you and have both working independantly. For reference the wired network you are connecting to is private to your business and cannot be accessed by other tennants providing a secure environment within your unit.
If you require more wired ethernet devices you can fit a switch and plug it to the PC port on the telephone which will give you multiple ports for wired devices.
Connecting without the supplied telephone
For most tennants this will not be the case as the telephone is a required part of the package, however the Prospect House management team can advise on this. That being said the network is designed to work this way, just plug in your laptop and you will connect with your private network. Again if you require more ports a switch can be fitted to enable other devices to be connected on the same secure network.
Please note, the supplied telephone will not be able to connect to the VoIP network if fitted after the switch in most cases. This is because a simple (unmanaged) switch does not have the ability to seperate the network required for the telephone services, a different type of switch is required (managed switch) which is programmable to allow for this type of connection. Please see Advanced Setups below for more information
Tennant and Guest WiFi Networks
The building has been provisioned with WiFi for the use of tennants and their guests for internet access. One thing to note is that the WiFi networks are seperated from your individual networks by a firewall to protect you from unauthorised access. This segregation will unfortunately stop you from accessing WiFi connected devices such as printers from your private wired network.
The work-around for these types of device is to connect via a web connected service such as using cloud printing services supplied with most network printers. Think of these devices as being in a different location and you’ll be fine, like printing at home while you’re away.
There are plans to provide a service to allow this in the future to enable connection of specific devices accross networks, feel free to check in with us to discuss if this is something you are having difficulty with and we may be able to make arrangements.
Advanced Network Setups
As noted previously, the system has been designed to offer maximum flexibility to your business. As such there are many options available to you regarding setup, the diagrams below are to give you an idea of what is possible when considering your network design.
If you are versed in networking then feel free to connect your equipment in a way that suits you, if you need any advice feel free to get in touch with IT Support. That being said there are a couple of peices of equipment that are likly to cause issues and should be avoided (or at least speak to us before connecting).
- Home routers – whilst most people are used to these offering simple functionality, they are designed to sit at a specific point in your home network. These devices are not suitable for connection in your unit without specific network knowledge. Adding this type of device is likely to cause interruption to your service and may incurr you additional charges for adverse affects on the building systems if done incorrectly. Call us first to avoid any issue please.
- WiFi access points – We actively discourage the use of individual WiFi provision as it can have a detrimental effect on the provided building WiFi, again speak to us if you have a particular need other than connecting equipment first please.
The provided network is incredibly flexible and can be provisioned for almost any use case, be it single users to 1000’s of employees. Give us a call to discuss your specific requirements. If you need help in sourcing equipment such as switches and cables we carry a stock suitable for use in the building as well as general IT hardware, you know where to find us for advice.