Dedicated leased line from BT setting up network

jastreet1

jastreet1

jastreet1

Associate
Joined
26 Dec 2011
Posts
112
Location
Leicester
Hi all,

I am nearing the end of the installation at work for a dedicated fibre optic line from BT. Do not confuse this with the BT Infinity, this is the package which you do not share a connection as it has a 1:1 connection and due to the 100% uptime it carries a much higher cost, designed for online businesses like mine.

I called out a couple of local computer companies to set us up from our old wireless system to a wired ethernet set up system including a quotation of the equipment.

To date (6 days later) I have not received any quotes despite them giving me a time frame which has now expired.

Would this forum be able to assist with the equipment needed. The system needs to:

- ensure we are protected from virus/attacks keeping data safe etc.
- have a 24 port switch for computers/printers/network hard drive.
- have a wireless access point for mobile devices and some laptops which have no fixed postion.
- provide internet access for our IP office BT phone system.

I have been told I also need a router??

Further information about the service can be found below:

http://business.bt.com/broadband-and-internet/leased-lines/

Can anyone assist at all?

Thanks in advance.
 
Yamahahahahaha said:
Online businesses like yours need to hire an IT manager or get a company in to look after your infrastructure.
Click to expand...

Agreed.

You need ideally a Cisco 800 series and a 2960 switch though, if you wanna have a go yourself.

Edit: I know a company semi-local to you who may be able to help if you want.
 
What they said. There's enough guys on here that could spec you up with kit, but when it all goes belly up you need someone there to manage it.

Oh and you'll find everyone has their favourite vendor. Me personally, I like Cisco Routers and WLAN controllers/APs, Juiper for Security, and HP Switches.
 
Hi all.

Thanks for your responses. In my previous post I did mention I contacted 2 IT companies who both came out giving me lead time on quotes. Both have expired. As the deadline is getting closer for the completion of the new line, I am concerned this will lead me to complete the job myself.

I have been provided with a Cisco route, so I assume the only thing to do really is wire up the system to a router and contact the cables? Surely it can't be that difficult?

In an ideal world the companies I called out would have got back to me, but they didn't so I am looking for links to parts I need to buy if at all possible.

Cheer
 
What companies did you actually ask? If its just local PC shops then theres 99.9% chance that they actually have no idea what you need hence not getting back to you.

You either need to bring in a third party company to manage it, or take somebody on.

Unfortunately its not as simple as plugging it all in.
 
I expect BTnet (is that what they are called these days?) will provide a managed Cisco, probably a 1941 or similar.

What speed is the connection?

Depending on that, I'd have a suitably sized SonicWall (eg NSA 220 / 250 / 2400) to provide NAT / UTM services for edge network security.

It could be done very simply but doing it properly does require some specific knowledge and expertise IMHO.
 
OK. The BT CCT will more than likely include a router which will present one or more public IP addresses.

You cannot connect this directly to your lan.

You will need:

A network edge device, to perform NAT (Network Address Translation), and based on your specification, will also need to filter content and viruses. Various manufacturers offer these, but be aware, this is not a £50 device from PC World as these don't normally provide any kind of content filtering. You will be looking at £200+ (perhaps £500 dependent on line size, or more) with a monthly/annual subscription for firmware and AV updates. Normally this would come badged as a firewall, but many routers can also perform this function.

Then you need a switch (external to the router, no routers I can think of have this many ports in them). Depending on your brand snobbery, anything from Netgear to HP will tick the boxes. Budget - £100 - 200 roughly.

Wireless - as you have already performed the NAT on your firewall device, you need a Wireless Access Point (NOT Wireless Router). An access point performs no routing functions and is essentially a cable to wireless converter with some authentication method built in. Again, budget variable, but £50-100 ish should cover this.

The phone system merely requires a firewall with SIP/IAX support and some configuration, either by utilising an edge proxy service, or a range of port forwards.

Please bear in mind that putting an AV scanner (in your firewall device) at the edge of your network does not "make your data secure" or "prevent viruses" as data can be uploaded as attachments to Hotmail / other online file service, and viruses can arrive on USB sticks / other media.

I am amazed that BT didn't offer to provide a managed service for at least the network edge / NAT device, although perhaps the reason you are asking is that you didn't like their price.

To be fair, it is a shame you went to BT rather than a smaller leased line provider who would have at least considered the potential requirements and specified accordingly, but its too late to cry over spilt milk now.

All the best.
 
We have a leased line connection here and we manage everything - the service iw in essence "wires only" but of course there is some kit supplied by the ISP that creates an end-point.
However that is setup to allow all traffic through and we manage the security aspects of things ourselves.

We don't use routers "per say". We use fast Dell servers conifgured with numerous network cards and running IP-Tables.
We have one person who is dedicated to looking after the security of our site.

To be honest, if I were in a situation similar to the OP I'd take the "fully managed" option from the ISP.
Cost higher, of course. Waiting time for changes to be made, yup, they have to be logged.
However that's all you need to do. Call your ISP's site, explain what you want doing and one of their guys logs in and does it - all nice and simple.

On a side-note, anyone recently seen how much cheaper these leased lines are becomming?
We currently have a 100mb connection over a 100mb barer. I've just singed up to have a new 1000mb barer installed and have 200mb of bandwidth over it. No upfront costs and less than £2k per month. Amazing pricing.
 
Thanks for your responses and excuse the brief response.

I contacted BT who are seeing what they can do (simple option) and another IT company who claim to have serviced the NHS.

We currently have a 1MB standard broadband at the moment and it constantly crashes and needs rebooting. The demand is such:

10 PC's connecting via wireless.
3 wireless printer/scanners.
1 wired HDD (network drive).
6 wireless devices (iPads, phones etc).

The new connection will be;

100MB bearer with 30MB connection. My theory is that the price is coming down so I hope to upgrade in 12 months to 100MB without charge.

We do not have any servers located on site. However, we are constantly online (we are an online business) use a cloud order management system, share big files via hard drive/email so on so forth.

I trust this helps?

Thanks all!
 
Where I work we just had a 100mbit bearer fibre line installed (2mbit CDR) at a cost of £875pcm this is a fully managed solution.

Im guessing the management fee must be quite high as the difference in bandwith to the op is massive and it costs slightly more :)

Better than what we had before however, struggled to maintain a 256k sync on ADSL. Very costly though!
 
Just a quick update (does anyone know a company who can carry out the work near Leicester?) had a quote for £1,750+VAT from a company who seem a little erm.... fishy. Our new line goes live in 8 days so I am hoping for a speedy solution.
 
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