Very few businesses these days can operate without the Internet. Whether you use it for interacting with your customers, sending and receiving emails, processing credit card transactions or researching topics related to your company, it is a much-needed resource. Unfortunately, most businesses just sign up with the first Internet provider they find (or use the same one they use for their home) and never put much thought into whether it is the right fit for their company and its operations.
In the Quad Cities area, the choices are not as plentiful as you may find in more populated areas of the country (or the world for that matter).
Fun Fact: On the list of countries with fastest Internet speeds, the U.S. comes in 10th place. Currently, South Korea tops the list with an average rate of 28.6mb/s (megabits per second), compared to the U.S. average of 18.7mb/s.
In our area, the two most often considered Internet providers are CenturyLink and CableOne. Each company comes with its fair share of pluses and minuses, but in my opinion, most businesses should consider CableOne, as they currently offer the fastest speeds. However, neither company services all areas and so you may have to choose based on availability.
Reliability for either company is highly dependent on your location and the quality of wiring leading up to and installed inside of the building where your business resides. Whenever I have one of my customers reporting to me that they are having trouble with the reliability of their Internet, my suggestion is that they make sure their voice is heard and heard often. As with most anything, the squeaky wheel gets the grease, and so I suggest they be as squeaky as possible.
Once you have settled on who will provide your Internet service, the next question to ask is how much speed do you need? Quite often, the ISP (Internet Service Provider) will quote you 10/1, 50/5 or some other such confusing options. The two numbers refer to the download/upload speed they are offering. Download speeds will almost always be an order of magnitude higher than upload speeds as most typical users need info to come TO them (download) faster than they need to SEND (upload) data. So, if they offer 50/5, then you will receive 50mb/s peak download speed, and 5mb/s peak upload speed. That word peak is sometimes not very well highlighted, but every ISP will always offer a “best case” speed. You will NEVER see those speeds, as even if you have everything set up with the best of the best in hardware (more on that in a second), there is still “overhead” in your communications going and coming into your devices. The little bits of information required to address all the various bits and bytes of data will take up some of the overall speed along with the essential negotiations of how the different computers will talk to each other. That is a little tough to understand so consider when you send a package; typically you pay for the delivery by weight. If you JUST ship the item (without packaging), it will weigh and cost less but has a very low likelihood of arriving in one piece. So, you box it up and pad it for safety, which adds some weight but helps to minimize lost and damaged items in shipping; your Internet data works similarly.
The speeds you will need will vary a bit based on the type of business you operate, but here is a breakdown of some suggested speeds.
- Small Office (one or two users) – 10mb/s down and 1mb/s up
- Medium Office (six to 20 users) – 50mb/s down and 5mb/s up
- Large Office (20+ users) – 100mb/s down and 20mb/s up
If you are also going to use VOIP (Voice Over IP) phones, then you should add .5mb/s PER ACTIVE LINE. So, if you expect to have four phone calls all happening simultaneously, you should add another 2mb/s to your speed (download and upload).
Now that you have found a suitable ISP and chosen the speed, you are going to need for your business to operate smoothly, you need to consider the hardware that will convert that Internet service into something your employees can use. Typically, the equipment provided by the ISP is rated for a home user, or at best, a small to medium business (maybe up to a maximum of eight users). If your users will be relying on wireless, then the hardware provided becomes even less useful as the radios built into the devices are often designed for only two or three active users, with five users starting to push the capabilities of the hardware. In an upcoming article, we will discuss the hardware in more detail.
If your business is suffering from poor Internet performance, causing your employees to wait continually for a download to happen, or emails to be sent or received, reach out to a local I.T. company and ask them to review your current configuration. If you are just getting your business started, then ask for advice on what service you should be considering signing up for along with suggestions on hardware to fit your requirements.
We are always here to answer your tech-related questions, whether they are about computers and technology or your ink and toner usage. Please send your questions to questions@tekcw.com, and we will answer them for you. Maybe you can help us out as well and provide us with ideas for future articles. QCBN
By Greg Hicks
Leave a Reply