DSL expectations for small/medium business?

Jun 02, 2005 9 Replies
DSL expectations for small/medium business? open original image

Our small company has used DSL for 5 years, and I'm starting to wonder if we've outgrown it. We have about 30 client computers, mail server, etc., sharing a 3.0Mbps/384Kbps DSL line. The connection is good, and as long as no one is uploading anything, the downstream is fine. Of course, as soon as someone sends a big email or uploads something to an FTP site, our entire upstream bandwidth is consumed, so regular web requests have to wait in line. This leads to the perception that our download speeds are bad.



Anyway, I'm wondering what DSL expectations are among business users in this group. On average, how many users, and what kinds of services would you expect business-class DSL to support? I'm expecting a sales call today from our ISP about upgrading to a partial T1, but I'm hoping to get some unbiased opinions first.



Thanks for reading to the end :)



Joseph


Hi Joseph, there is plenty of technologies such as QoS and IP shaping that would allow you to control how much of bandwidth will be dedicated to certain service/port/protocol/IP address which means you could set that traffic on port 25 (standard smtp port) can't get over 60% of total available bandwidth in upstream direction which would allow you to continue browsing on other workstations without experiencing much of speed degradation.... Good luck....

additional DSL line

of both the

Yes, a frac T-1 will provide an overall better experience.

has already

depend on the

The Edimax

Doubt as you please. I'm not trying to convince you.

I have, in the past six months, moved four networks from 3Mb ADSL and one from 1.1Mb SDSL to Frac/Full T1. In EVERY instance, the users have been happier with their experience. It has absolutely nothing to do with the bandwidth available. It's the lower latency combined with the full duplex nature of a T1.

Yes, it sounds like you need another business-class type service that will give you symmetric upstream/downstream capacity.

From: "Joseph O'Brien"

| Our small company has used DSL for 5 years, and I'm starting to wonder | if we've outgrown it. We have about 30 client computers, mail server, | etc., sharing a 3.0Mbps/384Kbps DSL line. The connection is good, and | as long as no one is uploading anything, the downstream is fine. Of | course, as soon as someone sends a big email or uploads something to an | FTP site, our entire upstream bandwidth is consumed, so regular web | requests have to wait in line. This leads to the perception that our | download speeds are bad. | | Anyway, I'm wondering what DSL expectations are among business users in | this group. On average, how many users, and what kinds of services | would you expect business-class DSL to support? I'm expecting a sales | call today from our ISP about upgrading to a partial T1, but I'm hoping | to get some unbiased opinions first. | | Thanks for reading to the end :) | | Joseph

Fractional T1 won't be better. You should upgrade your DSL class [

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] or get an additional DSL line and use the Edimax PermaLink PRI-682 which has two WAN ports or a combination of both the upgrade class and two DSL lines using the Edimax.
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From: "Jeremy Phillips"

| Yes, a frac T-1 will provide an overall better experience.

I doubt it. a T1 is sym. 1.5MB/s a fractional T1 is less than than that. He has already expressed he's getting 3.0/.384Mb/s so his download speed will be decreased for those 30 users albeit he'll see a speed increase in upload. What speed increase will depend on the the number of DSO virtual 64KB circuits alotted.

In my suggestion he could get 6.0/768 Mb/s at a percentage of the recurring cost of Fractional T1. In addition he could also use his DSL in conjunction with his Cable ISP provider who will undoubtedly be as fast or faster than his present DSL line. The Edimax provides full load balancing and is an economical solution for Joseph's bottom line.

So I think the term "overall better" is an overstatement because he will loose download speed to gain upload speed at a higher recurring cost.

From: "Jeremy Phillips"

| Doubt as you please. I'm not trying to convince you. |

Maybe -- However you replied to me, not to Joseph.

DSL is full duplex. (That means it can transmit and receive data at the same time. Half duplex means transmit _or_ receive at one time.)

DSL comes with two versions of latency, depending on how the circuit is set up. Gamers complain all the time, but there is a solution. ________________________________________________________________________ TonyN.:' *firstname*nlsnews@georgea*lastname*.com '

My apologies then. I honestly don't post to Usenet much. :)

-jeremy

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