Leased Lines

PureAppleJuice · 18 Apr 2013 at 09:09

Just a quick question. The company I work for are looking at getting a leased line, say, 10mbit. In terms of download speed, how does this pose any advantage over getting say a 60mbit residential connection via FTTC? Obviously there's no contention but even with a 10mbit would those using the internet still not be fighting over 10mbit bandwidth internally?

KIA · 18 Apr 2013 at 09:35

Dedicated bandwidth, symmetric speed, SLA, support, etc. You would need to manage the bandwidth to avoid someone saturating the entire connection.

PureAppleJuice · 18 Apr 2013 at 09:39

Saturating it would be easy to do would it not? 3 computers using a remote desktop connection plus say 15 - 20 others generally using the internet for work purposes?

Cycrow · 18 Apr 2013 at 09:43

PureAppleJuice said:
Saturating it would be easy to do would it not? 3 computers using a remote desktop connection plus say 15 - 20 others generally using the internet for work purposes?

Yes it would be easy, thats why you would need to manage it

using traffic shaping and such

It would depend on what they plan to use the line for. If the connection is critical to the work then a more reliable leased line would most likly be better over pure speed
But if your thinking about a residential connection, beware that many of them will not install them into businesses

PureAppleJuice · 18 Apr 2013 at 09:45

Thanks for the responses. I suppose what my real question is in fact, is whether 10mbit down on a leased line is sufficient bandwidth for the example gave and my immediate reaction is no.

FrenchTart · 18 Apr 2013 at 10:25

I think in this day and age you'll find 10mbit a bottleneck for that many users... even with very aggressive QoS and such.

KIA · 18 Apr 2013 at 12:09

Ah, 10Mb/s. I read it as 100Mb/s.

I would probably go for the FTTC solution with 3G backup.

Omega · 18 Apr 2013 at 13:17

Your company probably values the 6 hour SLA fix time and support, more than the bandwidth itself.

stoofa · 18 Apr 2013 at 14:11

At the 10mb you mentioned then some kind of shaping should be implemented.
As mentioned earlier the advantages are a symmetrical connection, so you get 10mb in each direction and you should also get all of the bandwidth.
So whereas on a residential connection you share bandwidth with many others, you'll always see the whole 10mb.

We've just upgraded our leased line.
We now have a 1gb barer, although currently we're tiered to 200mb - but we've obviously got the option to take this to the full 1gb if we desire (and can justify the cost).
We do some shaping at the router - making sure certain applications/features get priority should the unlikely situation occur and the line gets saturated.

LizardKing · 18 Apr 2013 at 14:41

10mbit is fine for just internet usage.
I've still got clients on 5mbit lines for 50+ users internal/vpn and its fine. (they have a proxy to block certain content but on the whole they dont have massive restrictions)

FrenchTart · 18 Apr 2013 at 15:37

LizardKing said:
10mbit is fine for just internet usage.
I've still got clients on 5mbit lines for 50+ users internal/vpn and its fine. (they have a proxy to block certain content but on the whole they dont have massive restrictions)

If just browsing then yeah... I guess it's doable (though it sounds frustrating). As soon as anyone is required to upload anything or download anything you're going to seriously impact either the entire network's speed or the rate of work for that person. I have a friend that routinely has to rollout software updates with his work internet's 256KB upload speed. Absolutely ridiculous if you ask me.