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Connectivity
Building from the introduction, your connection to the Internet depends on two distinct services: your telecom link to an Internet Access Point and the bandwidth purchased over both your telecom link and from your access point onto the Internet. These services can be purchased together or separately: the important thing is that be planned together since they must work together.
- When considering your Internet Service Provider (ISP), if you are planning for
a connection faster than the basic phone service (ranging from 14.4 kbps to 56 kbps)
you need to consider the distance from your network to your Internet Service Provider's access point.
Many higher speed telecom service fees are based on both the data rate and the distance from
your network access point to the Internet Service Provider. Be sure to ask about this.
- When considering the level of service to purchase from your Internet Service Provider
(and hence from your telecom carrier) you need to consider not only the peak speeds
desired but also the total bandwidth that you will need during any given month. Many ISP’s
charge not only based on the data rate but also on the total bandwidth consumed, typically
on a monthly basis. Again, ask.
- Ask for documented performance and response times. A claim of "99% uptime" sounds great
until you realize that 1% downtime can mean a service outage of 8 hours once per month. Can your
clients afford to miss a day here and there? If you can't get through to your ISP or local
services provider--or worse, if they don't respond in a timely manner--you could be out of business.
Ask for references and check them. Ask for a number for tech support--and then call it to see what happens.
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