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Great Falls, Virginia · Fairfax County
Home network and Wi-Fi installation in Great Falls, for finished houses among mature trees.
Wired access points chosen floor by floor, a main internet line with a standby beside it, and a core you can read at a glance. Every project detail below comes from one Great Falls house, completed in March 2026.
The first conversation is free, and Eric Enkh replies personally. (571) 999-6915
01The house
Three finished levels, and Wi-Fi that faded at both ends.
A lived-in house with a finished basement, a main level, and a second floor, set on a lot of mature hardwoods. It was finished and occupied, so every cable had to find its way into rooms that were already done.
Great Falls is one of the parts of Fairfax County with larger wooded lots, where the house sits among mature trees. The trees matter for the backup line; the floors matter for the Wi-Fi.
02Floor by floor
One access point per floor, each chosen for its room.
Three Wi-Fi 7 access points, one on each level, each cabled back to the patch panel. The room decided the form: ceiling units in the hallway and the basement, a small wall unit in the living room.
- Second floor: a ceiling access point, a U7 Pro, in the hallway.
- Main level: a wall access point, a U7 Pro Wall, beside the living-room fireplace.
- Basement: a ceiling access point, a U7 Pro, in the drop ceiling.
- Each access point is cabled back to the patch panel in the core, a 6U wall rack drawn beside the section.
- Verizon Fios reaches the gateway as the main line; Starlink, on the roof, reaches it as the standby line.
- A rack battery carries the core.
- Main line
- Standby line
- Ethernet run
- Battery power
- Access point
Drawn from the project record and the controller’s device list. Not to scale.
Where each access point went
- Second floorU7 Pro
- Hallway ceilingA ceiling unit in the upstairs hallway, on the floor the owner had found weak.
- Main levelU7 Pro Wall
- Living-room wall, beside the fireplaceA small wall-mounted unit beside the brick fireplace. A wall unit needs a wall box and a cable, not an opening in a finished ceiling.
- BasementU7 Pro
- Drop ceilingA ceiling unit mounted on the drop ceiling, where a tile lifts out and the cable runs above it. The basement was the other weak floor.
03Two lines under the trees
Fios carries the house. Starlink waits behind it.
Verizon Fios is the main line. Starlink is connected to the same gateway as a standby, set to carry traffic only when Fios fails. The changeover is automatic, and it was tested at handover.
Under tall trees, the dish position comes before anything else. Starlink needs a wide view of the sky, generally to the north here, so the mount goes where the canopy opens: often a higher roof section, or on a larger lot a pole away from the trees. On this house the dish was placed for its view of the sky.
The core sits on a CyberPower rack battery, so a short flicker doesn’t restart the gateway. How long the battery lasts depends on what it carries. Anything not plugged into it goes dark with the power, so the provider’s box stays up only if it is on the battery too.
Placing a dish under canopy: Starlink installation in Fairfax County
- Main lineVerizon FiosCarries the house every day
- Standby lineStarlinkFailover only, switched by the gateway
- BatteryCyberPower rack UPSCarries the core through a flicker
04A rack you can read
A rack you can read, and a guide that explains it.
The core is a 6U wall-mounted rack: a numbered Cat6 patch panel, a UniFi Dream Machine SE gateway, and a CyberPower battery. Each access point arrives at the panel on its own cable.
What the owner guide covers
- Equipment listwhat is installed, and where
- Port mapwhich cable lands on which port
- Status lightswhat each light on the equipment means
- Troubleshootingwhat to check first, in order
- Monthly self-checka short test of the backup line and the battery, run by the owner
- Room to grow
- Gateway ports, both SFP+ ports among them, were left free at handover.
- Remote management
- Set up at handover, so status checks and firmware updates don’t need a visit. That is access to the system, not a monitoring service.
05The project
What the house needed, what was decided, what it has now.
Occupied home · Great Falls, VA · March 2026
- The problem
- One Verizon line with no backup, weak Wi-Fi in the basement and upstairs, and drops whenever the power flickered, as the owner described it.
- The decision
- A UniFi Dream Machine SE in a 6U rack on a battery, Starlink on standby behind Fios, and a Wi-Fi 7 access point on each level, cabled back to one patch panel.
- The result
- Three access points and two internet lines on one gateway, the standby line tested at handover, and an owner guide with a monthly self-check.
06What else we install here
The same work, sized for other houses.
Scope and price
A project like this one is quoted in writing after the free review. The planning range for a complete installation, and what moves the price, are set out on the Home Network Installation page.
07Questions
Great Falls questions.
Will Starlink work as a backup under the trees on a Great Falls lot?
It depends on where the sky is open. The dish needs a wide view, generally to the north in this area, so we check the positions that could work, often a higher roof section or a pole in a clearing, before recommending one. If none has a clear enough view, you hear that before anything is installed.
Does every floor need its own access point?
Not always; it depends on how the floors are built and where you use the network. In the Great Falls house on this page, the basement and the second floor were where the owner found the Wi-Fi weak, and each of the three levels now has its own access point. A smaller house, or one with an open stairwell, may need fewer.
Can access points go in without opening finished ceilings?
Often. A drop ceiling lifts out, and a wall-mounted unit needs only a wall box with a cable path to it. This house uses both: a ceiling unit in the basement’s drop ceiling and a wall unit beside the living-room fireplace. Where neither works, the options are explained before you approve anything.
What happens when the Fios line goes down?
With a standby line on the gateway, traffic moves to Starlink until Fios is back. A video call or VPN session may drop and reconnect at the changeover. The standby was tested at handover on this house; we don’t promise how quickly a changeover happens.
Which internet providers reach a Great Falls address?
It varies by address, and some low-density lots have fewer wired choices. The FCC National Broadband Map shows who reports service at an address, and the provider’s own check confirms it. Where a wired line reaches the house, Starlink more often serves as the standby than as the main line.
Can you see the system remotely after handover?
If you want that. Remote management can be set up at handover so status checks and firmware updates happen without a visit. It is access to the system, not a monitoring service, and the owner guide’s monthly self-check covers what you can look at yourself.
08Initial Project Review
Describe the house, floor by floor.
Tell us how many levels there are, which rooms struggle, and how the internet reaches the house. You’ll get a recommended next step, even when the answer is a smaller job.
Mon-Sat 8am-6pm
Great Falls is in Fairfax County, inside the area we serve: Northern Virginia, Washington, DC, and Maryland, from Reston, Virginia. Select projects outside the core service area may be considered based on scope and scheduling.