Internet Connection Options

[dhicks]

Hello All,

 

I'm reviewing our current Internet connectivity - after the recent snow days, we find our incoming bandwidth to be rather inadequate, so we could do with some more. Our current options seem to be:

 

ADSL 2+ - £30-ish a month, 24MBit/sec-ish download, 1MBit/sec-ish(?) upload.

Leased line - £1400-ish a month(!), other details not given

 

Is there an in-between option available, preferably nearer, say, £100 a month? Note that we're a private school, our Internet connection is ours to sort out.

 

--

David Hicks

[mac_shinobi]

Give these people a shout

 

Cerberus Networks - Internet Services and Managed IT Systems

 

That or go to the sam knows website to see a list of possible providers in your area

 

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/search.php

 

edit - see below ref SDSL services as per Michaels & nephilims suggestions

Edited February 8, 2010 by mac_shinobi

[Michael]

If your local exchange supports it, look for SDSL services.

[featured_spectre]

I would have said the SDSL services also.

 

perhaps look at a BT leased line, tell them your requirements and they could help. A school in Surrey did that and they pay around £200 a month, they get Download 200MBit/Sec, and Upload of around 12MBit/Sec

[dhicks]

Give these people a shout

 

Okay, thanks. So, they offer ADSL2+ (24Mbps down, 2.5Mbps up), which they reckon is faster than SDSL. I see that BT offer SDSL for around £200 per month. Are there any other Internet-connection technologies we should look at?

 

--

David Hicks

[dhicks]

perhaps look at a BT leased line, tell them your requirements and they could help. A school in Surrey did that and they pay around £200 a month, they get Download 200MBit/Sec, and Upload of around 12MBit/Sec

 

Hmm - that sounds pretty reasonable, certainly better than the £1,400 I've just got a quote for. Why the difference in price - does the phrase "leased line" cover a bunch of different technologies or something?

 

--

David Hicks

[localzuk]

You could also look at bonded ADSL2+ - where you have more than one line joined together.

 

That upload speed on one line will struggle in a school situation I'd say.

 

Also, definitely speak directly to BT and see what they offer, that leased line price is pretty high for a school...

[mac_shinobi]

You could also look at bonded ADSL2+ - where you have more than one line joined together.

 

That upload speed on one line will struggle in a school situation I'd say.

 

Also, definitely speak directly to BT and see what they offer, that leased line price is pretty high for a school...

 

Ref the above comment from localzuk - see below. However ref the SDSL - I would look into SDSL or if not then the 48mbs down and 5 up ( max values )

 

Okay, thanks. So, they offer ADSL2+ (24Mbps down, 2.5Mbps up), which they reckon is faster than SDSL. I see that BT offer SDSL for around £200 per month. Are there any other Internet-connection technologies we should look at?

 

--

David Hicks

 

Cerberus Networks - Internet Services and Managed IT Systems

[DMcCoy]

Hmm - that sounds pretty reasonable, certainly better than the £1,400 I've just got a quote for. Why the difference in price - does the phrase "leased line" cover a bunch of different technologies or something?

 

--

David Hicks

 

Depends on location and availability.

 

10Mb/10Mb was £1135/month here (12 month contract). Cheaper than the £2500/month we pay for our 10Mb/10Mb LES from the RBC.

[dhicks]

48mbs down and 5 up (max values)

 

Okay, thanks all. Bonded ADSL 2+ seems like the best option - we can move over to a single ADSL 2+ line now and see how we go, then move to a bonded line for around £200 a month if we need more bandwidth.

 

--

David Hicks

[pwds]

It is possible to buy ADSL routers that will load manage between two ADSL lines and/or with an external ethernet connection. In the latter case you will need two routers and most likely to put the load balancing router in the DMZ of the first but you will be able to get combined bandwidth of the two lines that way.

 

Please note though that you will not get a single connection throughput of the combined bandwidth, no user will be able to use more than the available bandwidth of one line, but your users as a whole will be divided across both.

 

Some Linux distributions are available that will do this, so it may even be possible to bond 3 or 4 lines according to your requirements - in that case it would be most worthwhile if your exchange offers LLU and you divide lines across LLU and BT for fault tolerance.

[m25man]

Bonded ADSL 2+ might give much better download speeds and higher stated uploads but what about the contention ratios? A 26mb download on a 50:1 contention is hardly worth the effort nowadays with every man and his dog watching VOD.

 

10Mb on a 10Mb Bearer is about £10k PA from BT on a 5yr contract with a 1:1 contention

 

However unless you have a nice easy delivery point for a BT Fibre they can easily hit you with a huge connection surcharge.

At which point bonded SDSL would give you better contention and probably higher upload speeds.

[MatthewL]

If you can get NTL in your area, approach them, we have a 10mb connection from them and from what I hear it insnt expensive. Might be worth a try.

[dhicks]

Bonded ADSL 2+ might give much better download speeds and higher stated uploads but what about the contention ratios?

 

The ISP we're talking to can offer us uncontended ADSL 2+ with a 9Mb/s download speed. They don't seem impressed with bonded ADSL 2+, having had trouble with it in the past (I'm not sure if this means the technology is inherenatly tricky, or whether the ISP are just dim), so they are actually suggesting both an ADSL 2+ line (9Mb/s download, ???Mb/s upload) and an SDSL line (2Mb/s download, 2Mb/s upload) with a router (a PC with a couple of extra network cards in) to connect the two. That's around £300 a month, which sounds more reasonable.

 

--

David Hicks

[dhicks]

If you can get NTL in your area

 

Nope.

 

--

David Hicks

[m25man]

Then you could look at the bonded SDSL options.

I had a very tricky private school in grounds well off the main road.

BT wouldn't run a Fibre so we ended up with a Bonded SDSL system with Burst from Fluidata.

They now have 3 x 2mb Lines and it works really well I have to say.

 

PM me if you want the contact details.