Managed Networks That Do Not Get Rebuilt Every 18 Months
Designed properly, segmented properly, monitored continuously. We standardize on enterprise network gear for SMB and enterprise firewall for mid-market and regulated industries. Both come with config-as-code so handoffs don't break.
A network designed properly the first time, segmented, documented, and monitored continuously, does not require emergency rebuilds when something fails or a new security requirement arrives. Most SMB networks are the opposite: grown organically, undocumented, with guest and corporate traffic on the same VLAN and network gear running years-old firmware.
North Star, based in Prince George, BC, designs and manages enterprise-grade networks for SMBs across British Columbia, Alberta, and Yukon. We standardise on proven hardware, configure properly from day one, and manage everything continuously so the network is an asset rather than a recurring problem.
What Is Included
Network Design
VLANs for traffic segmentation: corporate, guest, IoT, VoIP, and management separated so a compromised device on the guest network cannot reach internal systems. Redundant uplinks at critical sites. Documented logical and physical topology before deployment.
WiFi
Heat-mapped surveys to determine AP placement before hardware is ordered. WiFi 6 and WiFi 6E hardware for dense environments. Channel planning and power settings configured to eliminate co-channel interference. Roaming configured so mobile devices hand off cleanly between APs. Coverage you can verify, not coverage you assume.
Firewall Management
Enterprise-grade firewall configuration and ongoing management. Policy review and cleanup on a defined schedule. Threat intelligence feeds updated automatically. Remote access (VPN or zero-trust agent) configured securely. Firewall firmware maintained on a patching schedule.
24/7 Monitoring
Continuous telemetry from every managed network device: bandwidth utilisation, packet loss, latency, interface errors, and service availability. Alerts route to North Star's queue, not yours. Most network issues are caught and resolved before staff notice them.
SD-WAN for Multi-Site Businesses
Policy-based routing across multiple ISPs. Automatic failover if a link goes down. Load balancing across links for cost-effective bandwidth. Without the consultant complexity of legacy SD-WAN vendors.
Configuration-as-Code
Network device configurations stored in version control. Every change documented. Rollback possible. When hardware fails or a handoff happens, the configuration is not in anyone's memory, it is in a document.
How It Works
Step 1, Survey
Site walkthrough plus WiFi heat-map and switch port inventory. Everything documented before any design work begins.
Step 2, Design
Logical topology, VLAN plan, IP addressing plan, hardware list, and cabling plan. Reviewed and approved before anything is ordered. No surprises at deployment.
Step 3, Deploy
Off-hours deployment where possible to minimise disruption. Zero-touch provisioning where hardware supports it. Rollback documented before deployment starts.
Step 4, Operate
24/7 monitoring, firmware management, configuration backups, and quarterly review of network health, security policy, and capacity.
Who This Is For
- Prince George, Northern BC, BC, Alberta, or Yukon businesses with ageing network infrastructure that is undocumented and unmonitored
- Multi-site businesses with inconsistent network configurations across locations
- Organisations in sectors where network connectivity is operationally critical, healthcare, legal, financial services, resource industries
- Businesses that have experienced a network-related security incident and need to rebuild with proper segmentation and monitoring
What buyers ask before they sign
How is your hardware selection different from buying off the shelf?
North Star standardises on enterprise-grade hardware chosen for manageability, longevity, and security feature set. Consumer and prosumer hardware sold at retail stores lacks the monitoring APIs, firmware update cadence, and policy enforcement capabilities needed for a managed service. We use hardware we can manage properly, with configuration-as-code, centralised monitoring, and a support lifecycle that matches a business environment.
What does network monitoring actually catch?
In practice: a switch port with rising error counts before it fails and takes down a segment. A WiFi AP with degraded performance affecting a specific area of the office. A firewall interface with intermittent packet loss on the ISP link. A device on the guest network attempting connections to internal segments. These are real events that monitoring catches before they become reported problems.
Do you handle the internet provider relationship?
Yes. North Star coordinates with your ISP for service issues, escalations, and circuit changes. We also assist with ISP selection and provide a reference point for interpreting SLA performance data from your provider.
Can you manage networks at remote sites in Northern BC, Alberta, or Yukon?
Yes. Managed network services are delivered remotely for the majority of day-to-day operations. On-site visits for Northern BC locations are available. Remote sites in Alberta and Yukon receive remote management with local technician coordination for physical interventions.
What if we have an existing network that is partially up to date?
We assess what you have, document it, and produce a remediation plan that prioritises by risk. You do not have to replace everything at once, we can manage a mixed environment and upgrade in phases.
Why North Star
North Star is a Prince George-based MSP serving businesses across Northern BC, BC, Alberta, and Yukon. We manage networks under the same retainer as helpdesk, security, and cloud, no separate network support contract. Configuration-as-code means your network documentation is always current. 24/7 monitoring means issues are caught by us, not reported by your staff. Local to Northern BC with coverage across Western Canada.
Get a Quote on Managed Network Services
Tell us your site count and current network situation. We will start with a free network assessment.
Call 672-983-1174 or book a free network assessment online.
Get a quote on managed network.
Tell us a bit about your environment and we'll come back with a scoped proposal in two business days. No obligation, no pressure.
Request a Quote Back to Managed ServicesA network designed once and maintained continuously.
The network problems that cost BC and Alberta businesses the most are not dramatic outages but chronic, low-level failures: WiFi that drops in the conference room, a VPN that disconnects every few hours, a firewall nobody has patched in three years, a flat network where every device can reach every other device with no segmentation. These problems persist because nobody owns them. The IT person who set up the network left, the switch hasn't been touched since, and the firewall admin password is on a sticky note somewhere. North Star's managed network service replaces that situation with a documented, monitored, and continuously maintained network that someone is accountable for.
For a Kamloops construction company with two office locations and 30 field staff on VPN, "managed network" means we designed the firewall rules and VLAN segmentation, we monitor the uptime of every site, we get an alert before you notice the internet is slow, and we apply firmware patches during the maintenance window we agreed on. For a larger manufacturer in the Peace Region running OT equipment on a separate VLAN, it means we maintain the segmentation boundary between the production floor and the corporate network so that a ransomware event on the office side cannot reach the PLCs. The architecture is documented in code so that if anything changes, we can redeploy it consistently.
Network management deliverables.
- Firewall management: rule review, firmware patching, traffic logging, and quarterly policy audit. Standardized on Cisco Meraki for SMB and Sophos XGS or Meraki MX for mid-market.
- Managed WiFi: Cisco Meraki or Ubiquiti UniFi access point deployment, SSID design (corporate, guest, IoT), and coverage validation. Continuous uptime monitoring with automatic alert on AP failure.
- VLAN segmentation: separate VLANs for corporate, guest, IoT, OT, and VoIP where applicable. Firewall rules enforced at each boundary.
- VPN management: site-to-site VPN between locations, remote access VPN for staff, and split-tunneling configured to keep local traffic local.
- SD-WAN (multi-site): multiple internet connections load-balanced and failed over automatically. Prioritization of VoIP and critical application traffic.
- Continuous monitoring: uptime, latency, packet loss, and bandwidth utilization monitored 24/7. Alerts trigger before users notice problems.
- Firmware and patch management: scheduled firmware updates to firewalls, switches, and access points during agreed maintenance windows.
- Network documentation: IP addressing, VLAN map, firewall policy, and device inventory maintained as living documentation, not a Visio file from 2019.
Multi-site businesses and industries where connectivity is operational.
Managed network services are most valuable for businesses where a network failure directly stops operations. A logging company in the Yukon with a satellite uplink and a local server needs someone monitoring that uplink and ready to switch to a backup connection if it degrades. A retail chain in BC with 8 locations needs consistent WiFi and POS connectivity at every site without having a different network setup at each one. A professional services firm in Edmonton with staff working remotely needs a VPN that is reliable and fast enough that people don't work around it.
Industries like oilfield services, mining, construction, and forestry operating in remote BC and Alberta locations often have connectivity challenges that urban MSPs are not experienced with. Starlink business connections, cellular LTE failover, and satellite uplink management require different skills and configurations than a typical office with fibre internet. North Star has experience with these environments.
If you have a network that works most of the time and you're not sure who to call when it doesn't, that is the gap managed network services fills. One point of accountability, one phone number, one monthly invoice that covers everything from a failed access point to a firewall rule change for a new software vendor.
Site-based pricing bundled with managed IT services.
Managed network is priced per site per month, with the rate depending on the complexity of the environment (number of devices, number of VLANs, whether SD-WAN or OT segmentation is required). Hardware (firewall appliance, switches, access points) is quoted separately and can be purchased or provided under a hardware-as-a-service model where North Star retains ownership and replaces failed hardware. Network management is typically bundled with helpdesk and endpoint management as part of a complete managed IT services agreement. Contact us for a site survey and proposal.
What clients ask before starting.
We already have a firewall from our ISP. Do we need this?
ISP-provided routers are consumer or prosumer grade, rarely patched, and not suitable for business use. They lack the logging, traffic inspection, VLAN support, and management visibility that a business network requires. A business firewall (Cisco Meraki, Sophos, or Fortinet) gives you proper network segmentation, threat inspection, centralized management, and a documented configuration that can be restored after a failure. Most ISP routers are also a liability from a security standpoint because they run unpatched firmware for years.
What is VLAN segmentation and why does it matter?
A VLAN (Virtual Local Area Network) separates network traffic at the switch level so devices in different segments cannot communicate directly. In practice, this means guest WiFi users cannot see your file server, a compromised IoT device cannot reach your accounting system, and if ransomware hits a staff workstation, it cannot spread across the network to servers on a different VLAN. Flat networks, where everything can talk to everything, are the primary reason ransomware spreads so fast inside businesses. VLAN segmentation is the structural fix.
Can you manage Starlink and LTE connections?
Yes. We configure and manage Starlink Business, LTE failover, and multi-WAN SD-WAN setups for remote sites in BC, AB, and the Yukon. Starlink Business works well as a primary connection for remote sites or as a failover for sites with a single terrestrial ISP. We configure automatic failover so that when the primary connection goes down, traffic routes over the backup without any user intervention or noticeable disruption for most applications.
How do you handle network changes?
All network changes go through a change management process. You request the change (new firewall rule, new SSID, new site-to-site VPN), we document what will change and what the impact is, we schedule the change during a maintenance window if it requires downtime, and we test and confirm after the change. Every change is logged and the network documentation is updated. You always know who made a change and when, because it is all documented.
Enterprise network design for SMB budgets in Western Canada.
North Star is headquartered in Prince George, BC, and covers BC, Alberta, and the Yukon. We standardize on Cisco Meraki for SMB network management because it gives us centralized visibility across all client sites, automatic firmware updates, and a cloud management platform that lets us respond to issues faster than if we were managing each device individually. For mid-market clients with more complex segmentation requirements, we also work with Sophos XGS and Ubiquiti. Our network configurations are documented as code so that a handoff, a hardware replacement, or a new site deployment is consistent and repeatable. No mystery settings, no undocumented exceptions, no single person who holds all the knowledge.