A proper home office network for directors and remote staff

A proper home office network for directors and remote staff is a small business network in a house. It needs good coverage where the work happens and work kept apart from everything else. It also needs a secure way back to company systems, just like the office.

Why the broadband router isn't enough

Most homes run on the box the broadband provider posted out. It sits by the front door, does routing, Wi-Fi and firewall in one unit, and puts every device on the same network. That includes the work laptop, the children's consoles, the smart TV and the doorbell camera.

For a director handling payroll, contracts or client data, that's a real exposure. And when the video call drops in the back bedroom, nobody can say why. Slow Wi-Fi can come from where the kit sits, channel planning, cabling or configuration. Guessing which one usually means buying a mesh kit and hoping.

Start with a survey, not a shopping list

We survey the house before recommending hardware. That means looking at the building, the existing equipment and how the space is used: where the desk is, where calls happen, what else is on the network. Thick walls, loft conversions and garden offices change the answer.

The fix is often a Cat6 run to the office room and an access point placed properly, with mesh only where a cable can't go. A wired desk beats any wireless setup for calls. The survey has a fixed fee, credited against the job if it goes ahead, and you get a written scope and a fixed price before any work starts.

Keep work apart from the household

The single most useful change is separation. Work devices go on their own network. Guests, smart-home gear and the family go on others. If a cheap camera or a child's laptop picks up something nasty, it can't reach the machine with the company's files on it.

It's the same principle we use in offices. Our piece on separating guest Wi-Fi from the office network covers how that works on a bigger scale.

Secure access back to the office

We can treat a director's home as another site. That can mean a firewall at home with secure remote access back to the office or cloud systems, rather than a VPN app someone installed years ago. If you already run more than one office, the thinking in our multi-site office network article applies here too.

It's also worth asking who can reach what. Remote access and router configuration are both in scope for an Eight Mile security audit, if you want an independent check across the business.

Choosing the kit for a home office

Where it suits the house, we fit Ubiquiti UniFi. Cisco and Meraki come in where a home is part of a larger enterprise estate. Our article on when UniFi is enough and when you want Meraki or Cisco sets out the trade-off.

A second internet connection, such as a mobile backup, is worth considering if a lost line would stop you working.

Home office options compared

• Broadband provider's router: no extra cost, but one device on one network, placed wherever the line comes in.
• Off-the-shelf mesh kit: better coverage in many homes, but usually no separation for work devices and no secure link back to the office.
• Surveyed home office install: cabling and access points placed for the work, separate networks for work and household, secure remote access, and a fixed price agreed up front.

Which one does your business need?

Building a proper home office network for directors and remote staff usually starts with the directors. If you work from home most of the week, or handle money and client data from the house, get it installed properly. For remote staff, set a standard spec for each role so nobody depends on whatever their provider sent. Our networking installs cover London and the South East, are covered for twelve months, and businesses can add monthly support with monitoring. Enterprise contracts can include remote support for staff further afield.

Tell us the address, what isn't working and roughly how many devices the network needs to serve. Talk to an engineer about a home office survey for you or your team.