Diagnosing and Resolving Network Failures for a Utah County Medical Office

The Challenge

This medical office reached out to Utah Technology Solutions after losing internet connectivity entirely — a referral from another local computer service that didn't handle networking themselves. For a practice like this, losing connectivity isn't just an inconvenience; it can mean lost access to scheduling, records, and communication with patients who may be counting on a same-day response.

A technician was dispatched and found that the internet connection itself was working correctly up to the gateway, but traffic wasn't forwarding through the office's switch — the connection was reaching the building but never making it to the office's devices.

Days after that first visit, the office called again: this time their WiFi had gone down entirely, with no internet loss this time, just no wireless signal anywhere in the office.

Underlying both incidents was a deeper issue that would only become clear later: the office's network equipment was tied to a former IT provider's cloud dashboard, with the office holding no administrative control over their own equipment.

The Solution

Utah Technology Solutions diagnosed and resolved both incidents, then uncovered — and began addressing — the structural problem underneath them:

• First visit — switch failure — Diagnosed the loss of connectivity down to the switch, which was receiving a working internet signal but not forwarding traffic to the rest of the office. A factory reset of the switch restored full network connectivity.
• Second visit — access point failure — When the office lost WiFi days later, a hardware problem with the same switch seemed likely — a failure this soon after a factory reset would typically point to a switch nearing end of life. Further diagnosis found the real cause: the office's wireless controller appliance, the device responsible for managing and broadcasting WiFi through the access points, had completely locked up. Rather than simply restarting a device likely to fail again, Utah Technology Solutions replaced the access points entirely with controller-independent hardware, configured to replicate the office's existing WiFi network. Connectivity was restored immediately.
• Uncovering the ownership problem — In the course of this work, it became clear that the office's network equipment was tied to a cloud dashboard controlled by their former IT provider — a company that had previously billed the office for work that was never completed, and dropped them as a client when they refused to pay for it. The office had no administrative access to their own hardware, and lacked sufficient proof of ownership for the manufacturer to release the equipment on their behalf. Utah Technology Solutions has since provided the office with a quote to fully replace the affected hardware and take over both network and computer management going forward.

The Result

• Connectivity restored same-day on both visits, minimizing disruption to the practice's scheduling and patient communication
• A more resilient WiFi setup, with controller-independent access points replacing a single point of failure that had already caused one outage and was likely to cause another
• A previously hidden ownership problem identified, giving the office clarity on why they'd never had real control over their own network equipment
• Trust built through two successful visits, leading the office to call Utah Technology Solutions back a second time and, since then, request a quote for full network hardware replacement and ongoing managed services covering both their network and computers

This engagement is ongoing — Utah Technology Solutions is currently in discussions with the practice about taking over full managed services, which would give them, for the first time, complete administrative control over their own network.

Utah Technology Solutions provides network troubleshooting, hardware replacement, and managed IT services for medical practices across Salt Lake County, Utah County, and the surrounding Wasatch Front.