Robust & Secure Network Infrastructure Upgrade

We upgraded and expanded the network infrastructure of Huddersfield Rugby Union Football Club to allow them to fully utilize their new leased line. This included a new Draytek Router, Netgear managed network switiches and ubiquiti WiFi equipment. We oversaw the installation of structured cabling by one of our trusted partners. We are also excited to be supporting HRUFC with all their IT needs moving forwards.

Huddersfield Rugby Union Club based at Lockwood Park, Huddersfield had just upgraded to a Leased Line and had a requirement to upgrade their network infrastructure for a number of reasons. The first was to provide better WiFi coverage for match day attendees across the estate as well as for functions hosted in their Waterloo Suite. Secondly, they have a number of tenants in serviced offices that they wished to share their internet connectivity with, this provided to be a challenge due to the size of the estate and the majority of the tenants being located in a different section of the building. We were tasked with making this a reality with a cost-effective but robust solution.

We recommended re-using the existing comms cabinet in the main HRUFC office but upgrading the equipment. We proposed a Draytek Vigor 3910 router for the numerous internet connections along with a Netgear GS324TP managed switch, these would service one of the tenants and the Rugby Club itself. The remaining tenants were a little more challenging as they were in a completely separate part of the building, around 100m away. To minimise the amount of cabling to be run and provide a solid connection with proposed running a fibre link from the main comms cabinet to the other part of the building and installing an additional cabinet with an additional Netgear GS324TP. This would then be connected to new data points installed in each of the serviced offices.

With this hardware configuration each tenant would have their own VLAN to keep traffic segregated offering them both security and privacy.

The installation was over a number of days as there was a large amount of cabling to install as well as configuration of all the hardware.

We tidied up the existing comms cabinet as best we could and installed our new hardware. We then installed the new comms cabinet in the loft space above the majority of the serviced offices with our hardware.

The installation went smoothly with minimal disruption. The Rugby Club were moved over first to the new hardware and leased line followed by all the tenants. The hardware and configuration we had provided meant that it was plug and play for the tenants making for a smooth transition.

The combination of a leased line and robust networking hardware mean that the infrastructure and connections are much more stable. There are no longer internet drop outs and the rugby club no longer need to frequently restart their router.