Here's the problem...

[Ben_Stanton]

We are set in a rather rural location on the outskirts of the local exchange. I don't remember what the 'recommended' limit is - around 2km I think - but i'm fairly sure we are a stonethrow past it. As a result, we only recieve a rather unstable, unreliable 2Mb line.

 

At the moment, timeouts etc. are not that common but if all IT suites are occupied, there is a very obvious degredation in connectivity throughout the school. The old bottleneck/letency issue.

 

So ideally, I want to increase the bandwidth. My development proposals involve instigating a higher area of coverage for wireless and the implimentation of sharepoint (or similar). With these future expectations in mind, I feel a more reliable and preferably - faster connection is essential.

 

In my head I have three choices;

 

1. Stick as I am and wait for BT to upgrade the exchange (ha ha)

 

2. A leased line?!? (££££)

 

3. A secondary 2Mb ADSL line and some funky router that loadbalances. I appreciate this will not serve us a 4Mb connection, but the load balancing should 'give that impression' and resolve (not 100%) some of these issues.

 

Or, have I missed some other alternatives...all comments welcomed

 

Ben

[StewartKnight]

does your county not have an RBC that provides internet access? I thought Tony Blair had demanded that all secondary schools have something like a 10mb pipe into them

[Ben_Stanton]

We are an independant school - do we still qualify? If so, does anybody have infomation please...

[EeEk]

Tony Blair had demanded that all secondary schools have something like a 10mb pipe into them

 

They didnt hear him here then..or choose to ignore him more like.

 

If we had ADSL it would be way faster than the crap 2Mb link to the main county hub that we have. If there wasnt trees Id see the BT exchange from my window

[Ric_]

There's always satellite

 

Also, you could take a look at http://www.automatedhome.co.uk/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1729 where ADSL bonding is discussed.

[marco84]

I would think that the bonded ADSL soloution suggested by Ric_ would be the best option. with at least 2 connections from different ISPs if possible.

[GrumbleDook]

We are an independant school - do we still qualify? If so, does anybody have infomation please...

 

You would be in the E2BN area ... contact details are here but you are likely to have to pay the full costs of any installations and line costs ...

 

Speak with them anyway .. the worst they can say is *no*.

 

Failing that you can try the various Becta Accreditted Service Providers (BT, Redstone, etc ...) or try NTL.

[Ric_]

@marco84: the only prob with bonded adsl IIRC is that you have to use the same isp (and particular isps at that - although supported isps are generally good ones).

[ChrisH]

As far as load balancing goes whats the bet if theres a problem with one line there will be a problem with the other......

[john]

Leased Line is the easiest option I have found in these situations in the past, its not the cheapest by a long way, but if ADSL is not possible then that is a solution.

[Ben_Stanton]

Thanks guys - i'll look into bonded ADSL and also give E2BN a ring...

[saundersmatt]

@marco84: the only prob with bonded adsl IIRC is that you have to use the same isp (and particular isps at that - although supported isps are generally good ones).

 

That's not strictly true Ric, many ISP's will only bond multiple of their own lines together, Nildram for example. However there are providers which will bond multiple lines from different providers. http://www.managedcomms.co.uk are one such company, they will even bond a mixture of adsl/sdsl lines.

 

Matt

 

P.S I don't work for them, i just really want to be a customer of theirs as our current connection is rather pants.

[plexer]

I am currently looking at a 4 line adsl bonded solution by managedcomms to replace our crappy lea link.

 

Ben

[Geoff]

That's not strictly true Ric, many ISP's will only bond multiple of their own lines together, Nildram for example. However there are providers which will bond multiple lines from different providers. http://www.managedcomms.co.uk are one such company, they will even bond a mixture of adsl/sdsl lines.

 

This isn't quite the same thing. Bonding is where you glue multiple physical lines together to form one logical connection. You need equipment at both ends that understands the nature of the connection to do this sucessfully.

 

What you're describing is load balancing connections from different providers to form one aggregate connection. Similar, but it doesn't hide the fact that the data is coming down different physical connections (and thus differing IPs). This can sometimes cause problems with secure websites and authentication in general.

 

You can DIY it with Linux/BSD using their network load balancing functionality if you wish. I don't think you can do it with Windows though (Although perhaps ISA server has the load balancing, I'm unsure of it's capabilities in this area).