Internet & fiber
Router, switch and firewall setup in Islamabad and Rawalpindi
This is the equipment the whole network depends on: a router that routes, a managed switch that can be diagnosed, and a firewall with rules someone wrote deliberately. A small-office set installed and configured runs PKR 45,000 to 150,000, sized to how many devices you actually run.
- Typical price
- From PKR 45,000
- How long it takes
- A small office is one day including documentation; a segmented multi-VLAN site takes two
- Site survey
- Free in Islamabad & Rawalpindi
Count devices and sessions, not people
A twelve-person office is rarely twelve devices — it is laptops, phones, printers, cameras, a recorder and a till, so forty sessions is normal. Routers are chosen against that number. Most 'the internet is slow' complaints we are called to turn out to be a router out of session capacity, not a line out of bandwidth.
Segment before configuring
Cameras and recorders on one VLAN, staff on another, guests on a third, the till on its own. Segmentation is what stops one compromised laptop reaching the recorder, and it costs nothing but planning on a managed switch. Doing it later means re-addressing a live network.
Write firewall rules deliberately
Default-deny inbound, only the ports you actually need open, remote access through a VPN rather than by forwarding a port to a recorder. Port-forwarding a DVR straight to the internet is how most of the hacked-camera calls we get started.
Document, back up the config, put it on the UPS
Addresses, VLANs and rules written down and handed over, configurations exported, and the whole rack behind a UPS so a load-shedding cut is not a reboot of the entire network.
What the price covers. PKR 45,000 covers a capable small-office router and an eight-port managed switch, configured and documented. A twenty-four-port PoE switch with a firewall appliance for a larger office runs PKR 110,000 to 150,000. Rack, UPS and patch leads are quoted with the cabling.
Included on every visit
- Device and session count taken before sizing anything
- VLAN plan separating staff, guests, cameras and the till
- Firewall on default-deny with only necessary ports open
- Remote access through VPN rather than port forwarding
- Configurations exported and handed to you
- Addressing, VLANs and rules documented
- Rack on a UPS so an outage is not a full network reboot
Questions people ask
The line is fast but the office still feels slow. Why?
Usually the router, not the line. Cheap routers run out of concurrent sessions long before they run out of bandwidth, and the symptom is exactly this: a speed test that looks fine while everything feels sticky. Count your real devices — an office of twelve people often runs forty — and size the router to that.
Do I need a managed switch, or will an unmanaged one do?
An unmanaged switch works until something goes wrong, at which point you have no way to see which port is flooding the network or to separate the cameras from the staff. For a home, unmanaged is fine. For any office with a recorder or a till on the same wires, the managed switch pays for itself the first time you have to diagnose something.
I want to view my cameras from outside. Is port forwarding fine?
No. Forwarding a port straight to a recorder puts it on the public internet where it will be scanned within days, and it is how nearly every hacked-camera call we attend began. Use the manufacturer's P2P service or, better, a VPN into the network. Both give you the same access without leaving the recorder exposed.