01 The Problem
A VP of Engineering at a Series B startup had relocated from SF to Hermosa Beach and was working fully remote. His home setup was a consumer WiFi router shared with his family's Ring cameras, smart TV, and kids' gaming consoles. Video calls dropped multiple times daily, his company's VPN disconnected frequently, and he had no physical separation between work and personal devices on the network. His IT team flagged his setup as a security risk during a routine audit.
02 Our Approach
We installed a Ubiquiti UniFi Dream Machine Pro as the network backbone with three dedicated VLANs: work (isolated, QoS-prioritized), family, and IoT/smart home. His office got a dedicated UniFi AP with a wired backhaul to the main router. We configured his company VPN with split-tunnel routing for optimal performance, set up a dedicated NAS for local file caching, and installed a UPS to prevent meeting interruptions during power flickers. A wired Ethernet connection to his desk ensures zero-latency video calls.
03 The Result
Video calls haven't dropped once in 3 months. VPN uptime went from ~94% to 99.9%. His company's IT team approved the setup after a remote security audit. The family's streaming and gaming traffic no longer affects his work connection, and vice versa.