Case study · Home office and household network

Rebuilding a 5,200 sq ft home network around a working home office

Joseph Moreno, a lawyer and media analyst, works from a home that also runs a busy household. In planned phases through 2026, Orbit Tech gave the office its own network, added Starlink as a second internet path behind Verizon Fios, and moved three camera systems onto one UniFi platform.

Location: Alexandria, Fairfax County, VA
Property: About 5,200 sq ft · basement through third floor · garage
Timeline: Assessed April 2026 · installed in phases, May–October 2026
Client: Joseph Moreno, lawyer and media analyst

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The rack in October 2026: patch panel, 48-port core switch, gateway, storage, UPS, and the Starlink router on the shelf.

Internet Paths: 2; Verizon Fios 5 Gig, with Starlink as automatic failover, tested at handoff
Camera Platforms: 3 → 1; Alarm.com, Google Nest, and a legacy wired system, replaced by UniFi Protect
Separate Networks: 3; Office, household, and smart-home devices kept apart
Gateway Speed Test: 4.70 / 6.30Gbps; Download / upload on the Fios line, October 2026

“They overhauled my network infrastructure with internal UniFi hardware and 5gb fiber service coupled with a Starlink dish for redundancy coverage. … Cannot recommend them enough.”

Joseph Moreno, Lawyer & Media AnalystGoogle review · October 2026

The project

Starting point: The home office handles live calls, conferencing, and large file transfers in a house that also carries a busy household. At the April 2026 assessment, every device shared one flat network on Verizon equipment and Wi-Fi extenders, with weak coverage in the kitchen and garage, a single Fios line, and cameras split across Alarm.com, Google Nest, and a legacy wired system.
Constraints: The house was occupied and finished, its in-wall Ethernet would stay, and the household’s Fios TV service and Apple TVs had to keep working.
Approach: Rebuild the core and switching on UniFi, give the office its own network, add Starlink as a second internet path behind Fios, and bring the cameras onto the same platform — in scheduled phases rather than one long disruption.

Key decisions

1.Give the office its own network
Office, household, and smart-home devices run on three separate networks (VLANs), kept apart so a device on one cannot freely reach the others. That separation controls access, not internet bandwidth: the office still shares the same connection, and no traffic-priority rules are part of this record.
2.Keep the in-wall runs; replace the switches at their ends
Opening finished walls across an occupied 5,200 sq ft house would have turned a network project into a construction project, so the existing runs stayed. The unmanaged switches at their ends offered no way to assign a port to a network or see its status; managed UniFi switches replaced them. The trade-off is that each room’s speed depends on how its existing run negotiates.
3.Keep Fios primary, and add a path that does not share it
Fios stays the primary connection on the gateway’s 10 Gbps WAN port and now runs on Verizon’s 5 Gig tier. Starlink, supplied and mounted by Orbit Tech, is the second path: it does not depend on the fiber line, and the gateway moves to it automatically. Failover was tested at handoff; no switchover time was recorded.
4.Plan around the TV and streaming the household uses
Fios TV boxes rely on Verizon’s equipment for the program guide and on-demand features, so replacing the gateway had to account for them, and the Apple TVs had to work on the new household network. Keeping both working was written into the May scope.
5.One UniFi platform, not four separate systems
UniFi Network and Protect run on the UDM Pro Max, and the UNAS Pro 4 runs UniFi Drive on its own hardware. All of it is managed in the UniFi app — 37 devices in October 2026 — where the house used to manage its network and three camera systems separately.

How the system fits together

A logical view of the October 2026 system. Cable paths, port assignments, and the link rate of each access point and camera are not shown.

Before and after

Before · April 2026After · October 2026

InternetBefore: One Verizon Fios lineAfter: Fios 5 Gig primary, Starlink automatic failover

Office devicesBefore: On one flat network with everything elseAfter: Their own network, kept apart from household and IoT

Room switchingBefore: Five unmanaged switches, no per-port controlAfter: Managed UniFi switches; each port assignable to a network

Wi-FiBefore: Verizon extenders, weak in the kitchen and garageAfter: Four wired U7 Pro access points

CamerasBefore: Alarm.com, Google Nest, and a legacy wired systemAfter: UniFi Protect only

What was measured

Each line says how it was recorded: a measurement, a pass/fail test, a link rate the UniFi controller reported, or nothing at all.

WhatHow it was recordedResult

Internet speed at the gatewayMeasuredUniFi gateway speed test, October 20264.70 Gbps down · 6.30 Gbps up

Internet speed from a deviceMeasuredOokla multi-connection test to a Manassas, VA server, October 20263,822 Mbps down · 5,576 Mbps up · 6 ms idle latency (11 / 10 ms under load)

Starlink failoverTestedTested at handoffSwitchover time not recorded

Gateway to core switchController readingNegotiated rate in the UniFi device list10 GbE

Storage linkController readingNegotiated rate in the UniFi device list10 GbE · file-transfer speed not measured

Room switch linksController readingUniFi device list, October 12, 20262.5 GbE, 1 GbE, or 100 Mbps, depending on the room

Wi-Fi coverage and speedNot recordedNo readings takenNot measured

UPS runtimeNot recordedNo runtime testNot measured

Reading these numbers

Both speed tests describe the Fios connection at one moment — not a plan guarantee, and not what every room receives. The device test exceeded 2.5 Gbps, so it ran over a faster path than any room switch provides. A room’s wired speed is capped by its own switch link: on October 12 those links negotiated at 2.5 GbE, 1 GbE, and in one room 100 Mbps. Negotiated rate depends on the run and the equipment at both ends, and that 100 Mbps link was not diagnosed as part of this record.

Project record

Photos and test screens

Each in-wall run lands on the patch panel and patches down to the core switch, with the gateway directly below.
UNAS Pro 4 storage above a vented panel and the UniFi UPS 2U.
Gateway speed test in the UniFi app, October 2026.
Speed test from a device on the network, October 2026. Public IP address redacted.
UniFi device list, October 12, 2026, with each switch’s negotiated link rate.

How the work was phased

April 2026
Assessment
On-site review of the house and a written proposal: the core network first, camera consolidation as a later phase.
May 2026
Core network
Three site visits for the UniFi deployment: the rack build, gateway, switching, Wi-Fi across the house, and the separate networks, with keeping Fios TV and the Apple TVs working in the same scope.
June 2026
Doorbell
The doorbell camera at the front entry.
October 2026
Service upgrade
By October 12 the Fios line ran on the 5 Gig tier, the cameras ran on UniFi Protect with the legacy systems retired, and the UNAS Pro 4 and UPS 2U were in the rack. The speed tests and device list were recorded.

Each phase was a separate, scheduled visit — not six months of continuous work.

Equipment

Gateway & core

UniFi Dream Machine Pro MaxGateway and firewall · runs UniFi Network and Protect
UniFi USW Pro Max 48 PoECore switch · 10 GbE to the gateway

Rooms & Wi-Fi

UniFi USW Flex 2.5G 5Managed room switchQuantity ×7
UniFi USW UltraManaged PoE switch · garage
UniFi U7 ProWiFi 7 access point · wiredQuantity ×4

Internet

Verizon Fios5 Gig tier · primary
StarlinkAutomatic failover · supplied and mounted by Orbit Tech

Storage, power & rack

UniFi UNAS Pro 4UniFi Drive storage · 10 GbE
UniFi UPS 2URack battery backup
Open-frame wall rackPatch panel · shelf for the Starlink router

UniFi Protect

UniFi Doorbell LiteWith a UniFi Chime
UniFi Protect ViewPortLive camera view on a display
UniFi SuperLink GatewayFor Protect wireless sensors

Cameras are UniFi G5 Turret Ultra and G4 Instant models. Their number and positions are left out of this record on purpose.

Case record EXEC-ALEXANDRIA-016 · published October 12, 2026

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