Best Business/Heavy Duty Connections?

[xbeanx3000]

Hi there,

I require advice on business connections 'around' 60MB to be connected to my home, and have no idea who delivers the best quality and fastest services in the UK, or what prices to expect. Any help would be great. The connection will be used for a mix of things, including normal web browsing, large file downloads and later a single server running off it. Downspeed is very important, but that's not to take away from upspeeds. I wont say what I'm prepared to pay so I don't exclude anything.

I'm also wondering about what kind of connections universities use, and the technologies behind business broadband.

Cheers.

[Richard Conyard]

Ummm, just a quick question - what for? Are you planning on starting a hosting centre from your house?

60MB would be made up of a T3 + various T1 (or E1 over here), connections and depending on where you are in the country you shouldn't expect much change from 6 figures annually.

[DuaneJackson]

You'd be much better off having a machine in a data centre and using Terminal Services to use it as your main workhorse.

[xbeanx3000]

Arg, six figures is way out there for me. Ok then, I need a rather fast connection for under £100 a month. Main use will be for downloading large files, but I may require it for server use in the future. It needs to be used on a normal PC, and later I might create a setup specifically for server use.

[Richard Conyard]

Why not look at broadband from bulldog. 8MB - 20:1 contention ratio perfectly okay for business needs. I wouldn't want to put any professional hosting through it, for that I'd suggest you do as Duane said.

[xbeanx3000]

Ok cheers.

It's just the BT exchange where I live is abominable. I can only get 700k bandwidth from a domestic 8MB connection, and so it isn't fit for business use. I don't live in the country side either, just 3 kilometers from the said exchange. I'll do what that other person suggested for and look into Terminal Services.

[KM-Tiger]

It's just the BT exchange where I live is abominable. I can only get 700k bandwidth from a domestic 8MB connection
Sounds like you are on maxDSL, which is full of problems ATM as it has only just been introduced, and many people (myself on 2 connections) are having problems with low speeds despite "syncing" at a much higher speed. Do you know your sync rate?

The other important thing about maxDSL is that there are 2 classes of service, the major difference being a doubling of the upload speed from 448 to 832. This might be of interest if you anticipate a lot of traffic uploaded, or if you want to use VOIP for more than 2 simultaneous calls. One provider who is offering this premium service is Zen, link here:-

http://www.zenbroadband.com/ML_Business.aspx?page=527

[4dhosting]

You're not going to get anything except ADSL and Cable for under £100/month and they'll be way off 60Mbps :)

A speed of 700KB/s on an 8Mb/s line is not that bad since you're getting 7Mb/s. The MAX products are only *upto* 8Mbp/s so its not guaranteed and some people only receive 2-4Mb/s at the moment.

David.

[confused]

if your area is cabled you might get 10 meg, I have 10 meg from ntl its about £35/month, if you want ultra high speed dedicated line, as mentioned you will pay for it

[xbeanx3000]

Do you know your sync rate?
Sorry for late reply. It synced at 4MB, provided a down bandwidth of 128-400k, and down speeds of 30-40Kb/s.

I complained to my Zen ISP, Zen sent a message to BT. BT then 'fiddled' with the exchange, my down 'bandwidth' went up to 900k, the 'sync rate' went down to 2.2MB, and so I was left with a substandard 2002-style 1MB bandwidth connection, thingy.

I've sinse gone over to NTL's 10MB service, but it isn't fast enough. The bandwidth can drop to 6-7MB at peak times (testing with Dan Elwell's tester), and sometimes ADSLGuide reports the speed as 2MB (which I've been told is an incorrect result report).

It seems I'm going to have to stick with domestic flavour Cable, unless NTL offer faster speeds for business customers.

Oh and one more thing I want to say. DSL Max 8MB is 'slower' than the old 2MB services of yesteryear! Bring back 2MB?!

[KM-Tiger]

I've sinse gone over to NTL's 10MB service, but it isn't fast enough. The bandwidth can drop to 6-7MB at peak times
Yes it will, as whether it's cable or ADSL, the service is contended, and what many people are now seeing with maxDSL, myself included, is peak time speed reductions due to contention.

If big bandwidth is a must for you, then Leased Line or SDSL is what to look at.

[falconinternetlimited]

Hi,

Just as a follow on, it is also possible to get ADSL with contentions of 20:1 as opposed to the standard consumer 50:1 ratios. You clearly pay more for it but you would find the impact less obvious at peak times.

As an option you could also "bond" ADSL to increase your bandwidth.

With regards to the 2MB - "up to 8MB" discussion, the "up to 8MB" is dependent on the length you are from the exchange, and in some cases BT were unable to support the 2MB line. I had this issue when I migrated away from BT as if the order had been handled in an automated way the connection would have been downgraded to a 1MB link because they reduced the threshold acceptance for 2MB. There were ways round this if the migration was handled manually but it wasn't widely known.

If you want to PM me your telephone number I can check on our service for what speeds you could expect from an ADSL connection and also your viability for SDSL where you are.

Best wishes,

Rupert