Dealership Network Setup in Savannah, GA

Dealership Network Setup in Savannah, GA: Secure, Compliant Infrastructure from COMNEXIA

Auto dealerships in Savannah and Chatham County run on interconnected systems where a misconfigured switch or an unsegmented network can expose customer financial data, stall a DMS transaction, or trigger an FTC Safeguards Rule violation. COMNEXIA, headquartered in Roswell, GA and in business since 1991, designs and deploys dealership network infrastructure built around security first, not added as an afterthought. If your store runs CDK Global, Reynolds and Reynolds, or Dealertrack, the physical and logical network underneath those platforms directly determines whether your F&I closings stay protected and your compliance posture stays intact.

Why Dealership Networks Require Purpose-Built Architecture

A general-purpose office network is not adequate for a franchise dealership. Your environment mixes DMS traffic, guest Wi-Fi for the showroom floor, technician workstations in the service bay, IP cameras across the lot, and payment terminals at the cashier desk. Without deliberate VLAN segmentation, any compromised device on the guest wireless network can communicate directly with the server running Reynolds and Reynolds ERA or CDK Drive. The FTC Safeguards Rule (16 CFR Part 314, effective requirements under 314.4) requires covered automotive dealers to implement access controls, encrypt customer nonpublic personal information in transit and at rest, and maintain documented network monitoring. A flat network architecture fails those requirements structurally, not just operationally.

What COMNEXIA Delivers for Savannah Dealerships

COMNEXIA engineers scope and deploy every component of a dealership network, from the perimeter firewall to the structured cabling in the service lane. The engagement includes documented onboarding, a physical site survey of your Savannah location, and a written network diagram delivered at project close. Here is what the buildout includes:

• Next-generation firewall deployment: COMNEXIA provisions and configures Fortinet FortiGate or SonicWall appliances sized to your dealership's concurrent session load. FortiGate policies are configured with application-layer inspection to identify and control CDK Global and Dealertrack traffic separately from general internet browsing. IPS profiles are enabled and tuned, not left at factory defaults.
• VLAN segmentation and DMZ design: Separate VLANs are created for DMS servers, F&I workstations, service department terminals, guest Wi-Fi, IP surveillance, and VoIP. Inter-VLAN routing rules are written to deny lateral movement by default, with explicit permit rules only where a verified business need exists. A DMZ is configured for any externally accessible dealer portal or OEM integration point.
• Business Wi-Fi with Ubiquiti UniFi or Cisco Meraki: Access points are deployed with separate SSIDs mapped to their corresponding VLANs. The showroom guest SSID is isolated and rate-limited. Technician SSIDs in the service bay use WPA3-Enterprise authentication tied to Active Directory or Microsoft Entra ID, so credentials are individual and revocable rather than a shared passphrase written on the service counter.
• VPN and ZTNA remote access: Dealer principals and office managers who need remote access to Reynolds and Reynolds or Dealertrack are provisioned through a Zero Trust Network Access policy rather than a traditional open VPN tunnel. Access is conditional on device compliance and identity, reducing the attack surface compared to legacy SSL-VPN configurations.
• Structured cabling: Cat6A cabling is specified for new runs to support 10-Gbps uplinks between distribution and access switches, which future-proofs throughput as DMS vendors increase data transfer requirements. Cable runs are labeled, tested, and documented in the as-built network diagram.
• RMM integration and patch management: Once the network is live, all managed endpoints and network devices are onboarded into NinjaOne for continuous monitoring, automated patch deployment, and alerting. Network device firmware updates for FortiGate, UniFi, or Meraki are scheduled and applied under change management procedures.

Securing DMS and F&I Integrations

CDK Global, Reynolds and Reynolds, and Dealertrack each publish integration guides that specify firewall port requirements and recommended network segmentation for their platforms. COMNEXIA engineers review those specifications and configure firewall rules that open only the documented ports to the documented destination IP ranges, rather than creating permissive outbound rules that satisfy the application but expose the network broadly. F&I workstations that connect to RouteOne or Dealertrack credit bureaus are placed on a dedicated VLAN with egress filtering that blocks all outbound traffic except the specific routes those integrations require. This configuration directly supports the access-control obligations under FTC Safeguards Rule section 314.4(c).

Serving Savannah from COMNEXIA's Georgia Operations

COMNEXIA has served Georgia businesses for 35 years from its Roswell headquarters, and the Savannah market sits within our established service footprint for on-site network deployments. Dealerships along the Abercorn Street corridor, near the Savannah Airport, or across Chatham County can schedule a site survey and receive a written network design proposal before any equipment is ordered. Monthly reporting on firewall event summaries, patch compliance, and network health is included in ongoing managed services engagements.

To schedule a network assessment for your Savannah dealership, call COMNEXIA at (877) 600-6550. Bring your current network diagram if you have one, and we will identify the segmentation gaps before the next compliance review does.