Leased Line

[marin]

I have a remote office connecting to our terminal server at our main office using ADSL lines, we are getting 3-4Mbps connection, the connection for the users at the remote office is getting painfully slow, so I have looked into getting an internet leased line installed (ILL).

I have been give quotes for 2Mb x 2Mb, 10Mb x 4Mb and 10Mb x 10Mb, the price for the last two is about the same and the 2Mb x 2Mb is about 50% cheaper.

I have been asked will the 2Mb x 2Mb make much of a difference from our current ADSL connection, I reckon it will be better, but I'm not sure if the cost will justify the improvment above a standard ADSL line.

I'm sure the 10Mb x 4Mb and the 10Mb x 10Mb will both be a large improvments, but I need to justify it, over the 2Mb x 2Mb connection.

Has anyone any experience of the above and let me have some guidence ?

Thanks.

 

[Mr.Stu]

You need to identify the traffic flow at the remote site. If its mainly download, and they are struggling on a 3-4mbps adsl line, then a 2mbps sdsl line will make it worse.

However if the adsl upload is getting saturated then perhaps a S-DSL connection will help.

Are you using a Cisco router as the edge device at the remote office? If so have a look at net flow for capturing data stats.

I imagine it will be download saturation though, so 10down4up will probably sort you out.

 

[Yamahahahahaha]

1) How many users?
2) How are they accessing it? Terminal Services?
3) Any chance of Turning their TS profiles down to 56k, etc.?
4) Can any of the services be hosted locally instead? A server is much cheaper than ongoing connection costs generally.

 

[Rroff]

Bonded ADSL might be more cost effective - I think AAISP still do a good line in this.

 

[marin]

1) How many users?
2) How are they accessing it? Terminal Services?
3) Any chance of Turning their TS profiles down to 56k, etc.?
4) Can any of the services be hosted locally instead? A server is much cheaper than ongoing connection costs generally.

1) Six Users.

2) Terminal Services (RDC).

3) Have already done so.

4) No it can not be hosted locally, needs to tie in with the central system for booking jobs etc

Bonded ADSL might be more cost effective - I think AAISP still do a good line in this.

I looked into this before the ILL, I still think this may be a good way to go, but was asked to look into ILL.

 

[PeteK]

I have a remote office connecting to our terminal server at our main office using ADSL lines, we are getting 3-4Mbps connection, the connection for the users at the remote office is getting painfully slow, so I have looked into getting an internet leased line installed (ILL).

I have been give quotes for 2Mb x 2Mb, 10Mb x 4Mb and 10Mb x 10Mb, the price for the last two is about the same and the 2Mb x 2Mb is about 50% cheaper.

I have been asked will the 2Mb x 2Mb make much of a difference from our current ADSL connection, I reckon it will be better, but I'm not sure if the cost will justify the improvment above a standard ADSL line.

I'm sure the 10Mb x 4Mb and the 10Mb x 10Mb will both be a large improvments, but I need to justify it, over the 2Mb x 2Mb connection.

Has anyone any experience of the above and let me have some guidence ?

Thanks.

One thing I've not noticed you mention is what the "head office" connectivity is. Is that the 3-4Mb/s ADSL line mentioned above?
On the right package you should be seeing close to a 1 megabit upstream at that site, in which case 6 TS users at 56k are easily accomodated, so long as they don't make much use of printing and such.

I would suggest it more likely your ADSL line at HO (assuming that is what it is) is saturated with mail/web/other unwanted stuff which is leaving you with no bandwidth for the more time sensitive 6 TS users.

Pesonally I'm not sure either bonding or a small leased line is the answer as normally un-controlled outbound traffic will swamp whatever you give it.

For my 2p there are two options, either add bandwidth to the point you have far more than your traffic at HO (10M LL kind of territory I would suspect) as this has both business benefit for the HO and also deals with the remote sites, or put in a dedicated ADSL line for the TS traffic and keep all the other web traffic off of it with a dual-wan firewall/router and some traffic policies.

All that said, and I'm being vaguely cheeky, we are an ISP, with adsl/bonding/leased line offerings and if you feel you need some commercial help, or even just a quote or two, feel free to get in touch, but I suspect the above will probably get you going in any case.

Cheers, Pete

 

[vsmora]

The 3-4Mb down on the HO ADSL will likely equate to 0.5Mb upload or less. If you were getting nearer 7-8Mb down then you might approach the max 832kb up of ADSL1; faster than that needs ADSL2+. TS is normally biased towards heavy upload from the HO, unless the TS Clients are making lots of use of local drive redirection. Most likely the upload is getting clogged by other general traffic. A basic test to locate the bottleneck would be to transfer some files at the remote office, at the same time as 1 TS user is connected, to see how the TS experience gets affected i.e. to/from the general internet, to/from the HO.

If the TS use is not very graphics heavy, then I think you'll be fine with LL (or SDSL) 2Mb up. Of course 10Mb is better but I think it's only worth spending more if the content is very graphical or they use print redirection a lot. Keep in mind that enterprise sites run TS and they do not allow anywhere near 1.5Mb (10Mb / 6 users) per user. The key is to manage the traffic. As mentioned above, preferably dedicate the new line to TS or at least prioritise the traffic so other functions do not impact it. If you don't then you will dilute the effect of the upgrade.

First thing though is to confirm how much up/down bandwidth there actually is and how it is currently being taken. You may find your existing router can be reconfigured for traffic management/QoS and sort things without a new line.

 

[Yamahahahahaha]

If you are being restricted by the upload on the single ADSL line, getting a separate line installed just for the TS users will be the cheapest option.

Obviously if the costs are quite close between getting that or a single (and much larger) leased line, then go with that.

 

[Cycrow]

the main advantage of the LL is that they dont usually have any contention, so u will get the line to yourself and will get the maximum quoted speeds.

whereas with normal ADSL, your slow down could be caused by things outside your control.

i think in practice, the 2mb line would prolly be slightly better, but not sure if the extra cost would be worth it, depending on how much difference the cost is.

the 10mb would give u a decent improvement, and give u room to expand as well if thats needed.

is the internet connection at the remote office important ?
ie, the speed will directly effect the productivity ?
if so, then a good connection would be worth the expense

 

[PeteK]

If the TS use is not very graphics heavy, then I think you'll be fine with LL (or SDSL) 2Mb up. .

Unfortunately the OP won't be able to get 2Mb/s SDSL if they can only see 3-4Meg of sync on an adsl line - the copper will be too long, so it is bonding of adsl/sdsl/combination or a leased line I suspect.