Fibre or UNS vs ADSL speeds

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slotherby

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Topic # 29497 9-Jan-2009 14:21

Hi, I have a business that is currently connected via a DSL connection with Maxnet, the connection stats are:

Statistics	Downstream	Upstream
Line Rate	5594 Kbps	852 Kbps
Attainable Line Rate	5284 Kbps	852 Kbps
Noise Margin	11.8 dB	12.4 dB
Line Attenuation	44.0 dB	20.9 dB
Output Power	19.0 dBm	12.4 dBm

We are interested in either UNS (slightly cheaper) or Fibre. The building is lit with Telstra Fibre for one of our tenants.

I have quotes that talk about 1Mbps or 2Mbps. As you can see our DSL is approx 5Mbps down.

Can someone please help me understand the 'real world' speed differences that I could expect from changing from the above DSL to a 1Mpbs Fibre connection.

We have an SBS server with approx 15 external Outlook Anywhere clients and 5 external Terminal Server clients, we also want to share some SQL data between our internal SQL Server and our hosted web site server.

We presently spend a little over $100/mth on DSL but to go to Fibre or UNS we are looking at a minimum of $700/mth. I would expect some pretty serious improvements for that sort of money. We are looking for a consistent, relaible connection that won't be slower than we presenly have.

Cheers
Paul

PenultimateHop

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Reply # 188401 9-Jan-2009 15:50

Well, the three primary benefits are going to be along the lines of:
1. An actual Service Level Agreement for availability and downtime penalties (and probably better support)
2. Your upstream bandwidth will increase to 1Mbps, as the service will be symmetrical. From your 852kbps sync speed, you'll probably see an approx 30% increase in performance for upstream.
3. Your bandwidth should be guaranteed, where on ADSL it isn't... so your performance should be consistent. Latency should be lower as well.

However, you will find that your peak downstream bandwidth is much lower than on ADSL.

alexx

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Reply # 188434 9-Jan-2009 18:35

Since you are running a server, I'd suspect the upstream speed to be the main issue. Currently you get 852 kbps upstream, and you are considering moving to 1Mbps, but that would be seven times the price? I guess you've looked at all the other Internet Plan and Pricing Comparisons available.

I'm on ADSL, not particularly close to the exchange and my upstream is 960 kbps (router shows upstream attenuation of 23.5db), so 1Mbps isn't much of an improvement over a good ADSL connection.

Might pay to check the various threads about ADSL connection speeds, ADSL2+ and future cabinetisation. You might be able to improve what you already have, or there might be an improvement coming when cabinetisation reaches your area.

For example...
http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?ForumId=49&TopicId=27834
http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?ForumId=49&TopicId=29469

Here's another idea... if cost is the major consideration and there are no reasonably priced Fibre/Cable access options, have you considered getting 2 x ADSL connections and splitting your traffic with some sort of load sharing or using one connection for e.g. Outlook Anywhere and the other for Terminal Services, etc.

I'm not familiar with Outlook Anywhere, but it's my understanding it allows Outlook connections via HTTP over SSL, so you don't need the client to use a VPN connection? Do your clients use VPN access? Having clients connecting to 2 different external IP addresses might complicate things if they are using VPN.

raytaylor

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Reply # 188595 10-Jan-2009 16:11

Do your clients use VPN access? Having clients connecting to 2 different external IP addresses might complicate things if they are using VPN.

Just need to configure the vpn (if used) on half the remote users to connect to the other ip address and change the exchange server address.

For what it sounds like you are doing, i reckon staying with the dsl is probably the better way to go unless you have been having alot of downtime and its causing you big problems. The price difference for just a 30% increase in upload speed isnt really worth it.

DSL downloading into the office would be faster than fibre during the day as dsl usually slows down in the evenings.
Also the upload speed of the dsl should be able to handle the traffic you currently have. One of my clients used to use DSL and could handle 14 remote terminal clients with the 800k upload speed quite happily - though they mainly used the same 2 or 3 programs most of the time so the clients took advantage of the caching. I guess this is the case with most businesses.

Ray Taylor
Taylor Broadband (rural hawkes bay)
www.ruralkiwi.com

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antoniosk

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Reply # 188623 10-Jan-2009 18:42

slotherby:
Hi, I have a business that is currently connected via a DSL connection with Maxnet, the connection stats are:

Statistics Downstream Upstream
Line Rate 5594 Kbps 852 Kbps
Attainable Line Rate 5284 Kbps 852 Kbps
Noise Margin 11.8 dB 12.4 dB
Line Attenuation 44.0 dB 20.9 dB
Output Power 19.0 dBm 12.4 dBm

We are interested in either UNS (slightly cheaper) or Fibre. The building is lit with Telstra Fibre for one of our tenants.

I have quotes that talk about 1Mbps or 2Mbps. As you can see our DSL is approx 5Mbps down.

Can someone please help me understand the 'real world' speed differences that I could expect from changing from the above DSL to a 1Mpbs Fibre connection.

We have an SBS server with approx 15 external Outlook Anywhere clients and 5 external Terminal Server clients, we also want to share some SQL data between our internal SQL Server and our hosted web site server.

We presently spend a little over $100/mth on DSL but to go to Fibre or UNS we are looking at a minimum of $700/mth. I would expect some pretty serious improvements for that sort of money. We are looking for a consistent, relaible connection that won't be slower than we presenly have.

Cheers
Paul

Paul

If TelstraClear has fibre in the building, then you can get one of the BizBroadband or BizNet plans, which offer Internet services that are fibre fed....

________

Antonios K

insane

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Reply # 189409 14-Jan-2009 02:13

a lot depends on the bandwidth plan you chose to buy from Maxnet. They will be albe to taylor it in terms of CIRs and national /internation throughput speeds so look carefully at what you were quoted when you go out to compare to other ISPs. They can suply fibre through teleco,. telstra, vector, citylink so a matter of workingout which will be the cheapest for you and obviously could provide a faster connection than 2mbps if required.

Maxnet will also be charging a premium I'd guess for their network reliability etc and if you're got stuff hosted there then they can zero rate your local data traffic under certain circumstances/setups which could save you a little $$.

cbrpilot

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Reply # 190447 18-Jan-2009 23:16

Two things to add to what has been already said:

1. If you're going for a fibre based service you'll probably also see a reduction in latency which will be useful if any of your applications

2. For the price you're paying for fiber you could probably get several ADSL connections from different providers in order to guarantee resiliancy of your ADSL connection.

But if a premium grade service is what you're after, then I'm sure you're more than happy to fork over the dosh for it.

My views are my own, and may not necessarily represent those of my employer.

insane

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Reply # 190718 20-Jan-2009 09:41

cbrpilot:
2. For the price you're paying for fiber you could probably get several ADSL connections from different providers in order to guarantee resiliancy of your ADSL connection.

Except if they are all being delivered from the same exchange then there isnt much point. The last time Maxnet had any minor dsl outage was like Dec 2007 or early 2008 from memory.

cbrpilot

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Reply # 190878 20-Jan-2009 19:05

insane:
cbrpilot:
2. For the price you're paying for fiber you could probably get several ADSL connections from different providers in order to guarantee resiliancy of your ADSL connection.

Except if they are all being delivered from the same exchange then there isnt much point. The last time Maxnet had any minor dsl outage was like Dec 2007 or early 2008 from memory.

You are correct that it does not provide exchange level redundancy, but it does protect you from faults further within an ISP's network. It is also feasible that multiple providers have equipment in the exchange, and so you may be on separate pieces of equipment at the exchange. Either way it does provide more redundancy than not.

My views are my own, and may not necessarily represent those of my employer.

Regs

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Reply # 190895 20-Jan-2009 20:26

slotherby:
We presently spend a little over $100/mth on DSL but to go to Fibre or UNS we are looking at a minimum of $700/mth. I would expect some pretty serious improvements for that sort of money. We are looking for a consistent, relaible connection that won't be slower than we presenly have.

Cheers
Paul

also check if you can get araneo wireless from iconz (for example) as an option - supposedly provides fiber speeds and reliability over a wireless last mile and is also cheaper: e.g. $500 per month for 10mbps full duplex, a small charge for unlimited national traffic and then whatever international traffic on top. http://www.iconz.co.nz/araneo/

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