Network and firewall services for Metro Detroit plants and offices

Networks, firewalls and multi-site connectivity

Plants, warehouses and older office buildings across the region each bring their own network problems. We design and manage firewalls, switching and Wi-Fi, and we separate the shop floor, engineering, office, phones, cameras and guest traffic so each one reaches only what it needs. Plant-floor equipment running older operating systems is isolated behind firewall rules that allow only the connections it needs.

For companies with several locations, such as an office in Troy and a plant in Sterling Heights, or a warehouse near the bridge, we connect the sites securely and manage everything from one place. Remote engineers and sales staff get secure access that doesn't depend on leaving ports open to the internet. Firewall configurations are backed up and change-logged, which answers a common question on supplier assessments.

Plant floors with old operating systems

Walk into an established shop in Warren or Livonia and you'll often find a Windows XP or Windows 7 PC running a CMM, a heat-treat controller or a press monitoring system. The equipment works, the vendor won't support a newer operating system, and replacing it would cost far more than the PC. Those machines can't be patched, so the network has to protect them instead.

We put that equipment on isolated segments with firewall rules allowing only the specific connections it needs, often just a file share for programs or a single reporting server. Internet access is blocked unless there's a documented reason, and USB use is controlled where practical. Customer auditors generally accept this approach, and it's a standard way to address legacy systems in a NIST SP 800-171 System Security Plan.

Remote access without open ports

Remote desktop exposed directly to the internet remains one of the most common ways ransomware crews get into manufacturers. Equipment vendors sometimes add their own remote tools, and engineers working from home sometimes ask for a port to be opened 'just for a week.' We find and close those openings, then replace them with remote access that requires MFA, logs every session and reaches only what each person needs.

For machine and controls vendors, that means access requested and approved per session, limited to their equipment, with your staff able to see when it's active. For engineers and sales staff, it means a modern VPN or zero-trust access client tied to their Microsoft 365 identity, so leaving the company shuts off network access automatically along with email.

Warehouses near the river and the airport

Logistics businesses along the Detroit River and around the Ambassador Bridge, and the warehouses near Detroit Metro Airport in Romulus, depend on wireless scanners, label printers and dock-door terminals. Steel racking and tall loads cause dead spots, and a slow connection at the dock holds up trucks. We survey, place access points for the racking layout, and tune the network for scanner roaming.

Customs brokers and forwarders also depend on internet links to customs systems and carrier portals, so an outage stops shipments rather than just slowing email. We add a second provider or cellular failover with automatic switchover and monitoring. Firewall configurations, VLAN layouts and IP schemes are documented and backed up, so a failed device or a new building becomes a planned job rather than an investigation.