Network Engineering and Wi-Fi in Central Texas
Network engineering is the design, remediation and upkeep of the firewalls, routers, switches, Wi-Fi and internet circuits an organization runs on. Engineer Austin designs, builds and documents networks for small and mid-sized organizations across Texas, to a written house standard, with our team working to house standards set by a licensed Professional Engineer.
Design, build and keep it running
- Assessment and remediation. As-found configuration saved before anything changes, firmware brought current, default and shared administrator credentials removed, DNS, DHCP and NTP corrected, as-left record signed off on the day.
- Firewalls and routing on MikroTik, FortiGate, Zyxel and UniFi, built to our written house standard: safe mode and rescue access on every change batch, administration access tightly restricted, and every inbound rule limited to a safe-list.
- Small-office network refresh. One fixed-fee project: firewall, PoE switching, Wi-Fi 7, a rack UPS and a locking cabinet, segregated staff, guest and IoT networks, and VPN for named users, installed on one visit.
- VLAN segmentation (separate virtual networks on the same switches) for staff, guest, IoT and voice traffic, with segments for cameras and building systems. At medical sites the isolation rules are treated as compliance controls and re-tested after any firewall change.
- Multi-WAN failover (more than one internet circuit) across fiber, cable, LTE and Starlink: continuous probes on each circuit, automatic failover and failback, and routing that works behind carrier-grade NAT.
- VPN. Site-to-site tunnels on WireGuard or IPsec between offices, clinics and vendor data centers, and remote-access VPN for named users.
- Wi-Fi design and management on the firm's own multi-site controller, which serves 378 sites and more than 1,600 devices, with Wi-Fi 7 access points where the device count warrants them, placed from a Wi-Fi site survey and spectrum analysis. For new buildings and renovations, bring us in at the design phase so the cabling and equipment the network needs are on the plans before construction starts.
- Wireless backhaul. Point-to-multipoint links that join a main office to outbuildings, yards and remote sites without trenching, managed from our own server.
- ISP circuit turn-ups and migrations. New fiber or wireless circuits patched in, WAN rules re-keyed before the cut-over, old circuits decommissioned.
- Network audit and discovery. An inherited or undocumented network mapped read-only: devices, addressing, VLANs, routing, firewall rules and circuits, delivered as diagrams and a numbered findings register.
- Managed network services. Network-only management for organizations that run their own desktops and servers: monitoring, firmware, configuration backups, changes and carrier tickets handled by us. Teams with their own IT staff can also use us as tier 3 escalation.
- Monitoring of client gateways from our office, so an outage is on record, with evidence for the carrier ticket, before anyone calls.
- Live-site conversions during business hours, staged in scripted batches with a pre-flight snapshot and a rescue rule ahead of each one. Steps that would interrupt staff are scheduled after hours.
Assess, design, build, document
Assess
We inventory what is there, on site where physical condition matters, and save the as-found configuration before anything changes. Every device gets one of six dispositions, Retain, Upgrade, Reassign, Repurpose, Replace or Retire, with the reasoning stated.
Design and propose
You receive a written design and a firm quotation with each line marked Required, Recommended or Optional, prepared and checked by our team to standards set by our licensed engineer. The hardware quantity may be zero. Nothing is ordered before your written approval.
Build
Equipment is pre-provisioned at our office, passwords changed and firmware updated before it ships. An installation technician works on site with our remote network specialists, and the finished configuration is verified rule by rule against the deploy script.
Support and document
As-built documentation, configuration backups and a monitoring probe follow every build. Under the Managed Service Program the network stays under firmware and configuration management with a two-hour response during business hours.
Documentation is the deliverable
- As-built documentation and network diagrams for each site: topology, addressing, VLAN plan, failover behavior and open items, kept current while the site is under management.
- Configuration backups taken before every change and after every build.
- As-found and as-left records for every remediation visit, signed off on the day.
- A hardening review with ranked findings whenever we inherit another provider's configuration.
- Written rescue procedures, including how to reach the firewall when the internet is down.
- Administrator credentials delivered to you. Nothing we deploy locks the network to Engineer Austin.
How AI speeds this up for you
Configuration diffs, failover scripts and hardening checklists are drafted and checked against our house standard with AI assistance, so review time goes to judgment rather than reading. Nothing runs on your network until a member of our staff has approved it, and every change is logged with a timestamp and a rollback. How we use AI.
Kept current. Our router and firewall standard is a living document: every build is checked against a pitfalls list, every outage that teaches us something becomes a new rule, and platforms such as Wi-Fi 7 access points and LTE or Starlink failover are re-evaluated each year before we recommend them.
Managed from our own servers, not a vendor's cloud
Every client network we manage reports back to management servers Engineer Austin runs itself: a UniFi Network server for access points, switches and gateways, and a UISP server for wireless links and radios. Today that is 378 sites and more than 1,600 devices, including 75 airMAX wireless radios. More about hosted UniFi and UISP management.
- One view of every network. Device status, Wi-Fi health and firmware versions come to our team, so a failed access point or a dropped link is visible to us without waiting for a phone call.
- Remote fixes. Most configuration changes and troubleshooting happen from our office, without a site visit.
- Firmware on our schedule. Updates are rolled out in scheduled windows with notice, not left to install themselves in the middle of your business day.
- Settings held centrally. Network and Wi-Fi settings live on the server, so a replacement device picks up the site's configuration when it is adopted.
- No third-party cloud account. Your devices report to servers we operate, and administrative access is limited to our staff.
- Still yours if you leave. The hardware, your administrator credentials and the documentation of what is installed are yours. On request we release your devices so they can be adopted by a controller you or your next provider run. Our custom UniFi and UISP configurations are licensed for your use while you are a client.
Built to a written standard
Designed on engineering principles
We treat a network the way an engineer treats any structure: measure first, state the criteria, design in writing, build to a standard, test the result and keep the record, with capacity, headroom and failure modes calculated rather than assumed.
Roughly eighteen router sites have been built to the same written house standard, so an independent review is a comparison against a document rather than an opinion. Engineer Austin is Texas Registered Engineering Firm F‑15739; network design is done on engineering principles under a licensed engineering firm, and our team does the work to house standards set by our licensed Professional Engineer.
Platforms and who this is for
Platforms we build on: MikroTik, Fortinet FortiGate, Zyxel and Nebula, Ubiquiti UniFi and UISP, with years of hands-on experience across Microsoft, Cisco, VMware and MikroTik platforms. Where it fits the risk, we favor MikroTik and Ubiquiti gear whose licensing is included for the life of the device, so your network does not carry a renewal bill every year; where a security subscription is worth it, such as FortiGate threat protection, we recommend it.
Who this is for: medical practices and home-health agencies, local governments and special districts, multi-site field businesses, professional offices, schools, churches and nonprofits, and multi-tenant buildings that need a shared core. Network engineering pairs with our structured cabling, fiber and hosted VoIP services.
Network engineering, answered plainly
Can you replace our firewall without taking the office offline?
Usually, yes. We stage the change in scripted batches, take a snapshot before each one and keep a rescue rule in place so we can reach the device if a step goes wrong. Pre-staging that carries no traffic happens during the day. Steps that would interrupt staff, such as the final cut-over, are scheduled for an agreed window after hours.
Do we need separate networks for guests, phones and other devices?
For most offices, yes. Staff, guest, voice and IoT traffic belong on their own VLANs with isolation rules between them, so a visitor's laptop or a smart thermostat cannot reach your file server. At medical sites we treat those rules as compliance controls and re-test them after any firewall change. Cameras and door controllers get their own segment, though we do not supply those systems.
What happens when our internet connection goes down?
With a multi-WAN build, the router probes each circuit continuously, moves traffic to the backup within seconds and returns to the primary when it recovers. The backup can be fiber, cable, LTE or Starlink, and the routing is designed to work behind carrier-grade NAT. Our monitoring server records the outage so you have evidence for the carrier ticket.
Will you work with the equipment we already own?
Yes, where it is supported and can be secured. We start with a hardening review of the existing configuration and rank the findings. Devices that are out of support, unlicensed or cannot be managed safely are called out with a replacement priority, and the written assessment is yours to keep whether or not you buy anything.
Can you connect a second building without running cable?
Often, yes. A point-to-point wireless bridge, or a point-to-multipoint link for several buildings, can join a main office to a shop, yard or remote site when trenching is impractical. We scan the spectrum, check line of sight, design the link and manage the radios from our own server. Where fiber is the better answer, our cabling and fiber teams can build that instead.
Who owns the configuration and the passwords?
Your network is yours: the hardware, the administrator credentials and the as-built documentation and diagrams of what is installed are delivered to you, and our remote access is tightly restricted and protected with MFA. Our scripts, templates and custom configurations, such as our firewall rule standards and UniFi and UISP configurations, are our intellectual property, licensed for your use while you are a client. If you leave Engineer Austin, your data, credentials and administrative access are returned promptly on request. Terms are set out in a written agreement.
Is network engineering part of the monthly program or a separate project?
Both. Ongoing firewall, switch and access-point management, firmware, configuration backups and monitoring are included for devices covered by the Managed Service Program. A redesign, a new site build or a multi-WAN conversion is quoted as a fixed-fee project, and we stand behind our work and correct our own mistakes at no charge. Hardware is itemized in the written quotation, and nothing is ordered without your written approval.
Start with a written assessment.
Tell us what you have and what is not working. Someone from our team, not a salesperson, replies within one business day by email or phone, and brings in our engineer when your request needs one. The assessment report is yours to keep whether or not you buy anything.