Doña Restaurant Network Rebuild in Oakland
2-story restaurant · Piedmont Ave, Oakland
The situation
2-story restaurant, Doña in Oakland called us about music dropping out on their Sonos speakers. During the walkthrough we found the real problem was bigger: the internet and Wi-Fi had been expanded over the years with equipment from several different systems — Eero, Deco, TP-Link and Ubiquiti gear all running at once. Those systems overlapped and competed with each other, which explained the unreliable music, the intermittent internet, and the POS and kitchen printing failures the staff had been working around.
What we did
We replaced the patchwork with one centrally managed system. We installed a Ubiquiti Dream Machine Pro Max gateway and a 24-port PoE Switch Pro Max, then removed the Eero, Deco and TP-Link devices from the network. The existing Ubiquiti access points were factory-reset and brought back onto the new controller, and we added a U7 Pro XG access point in the kitchen, fed by a new Cat6 run through the drop ceiling. We configured secure staff networks, reconnected the POS terminals, printers, computers, Sonos speakers and cameras, restored POS-to-printer communication, and gave the kitchen printer a static IP. Obsolete equipment came out of the rack and work areas. We tested internet, Wi-Fi coverage, POS communication and Sonos, then handed over administrative access and documentation.
The result
The restaurant now runs on one network instead of four. Music plays without dropping, orders reach the kitchen printer, and the whole system can be managed and monitored from a single controller. We walked the owner through everything in person; no follow-up work was needed.
Questions about this kind of job
Why does a restaurant's Wi-Fi get worse as more equipment is added?
Because each added router or mesh kit creates its own network, and they compete for the same airspace and hand out conflicting addresses. In this Oakland restaurant, Eero, Deco, TP-Link and Ubiquiti gear were all running at once, which caused dropped music, POS errors and printing failures.
Will a network rebuild fix Sonos speakers that keep cutting out?
Usually, yes. Sonos needs a single stable wireless network; once we consolidated this restaurant onto one managed system, the speakers held their connection. We always test the speakers in their installed locations before calling the job done.
Can you get Wi-Fi into a commercial kitchen?
Yes. We ran a new Cat6 cable through the drop ceiling and mounted a Ubiquiti access point on the kitchen wall, which also let us put the kitchen printer on a reliable connection with a static IP.
Services: Business network, Access points, Ethernet wiring, Network rack & cabling, Troubleshooting & tune-up, Security cameras