Slashdot Mirror
How Much Does Your Work Depend on the Internet?
malord asks: "I work for a small company that has recently had problems finding a stable internet connection. It started when we moved our office in order to upgrade our connection speed. We decided to go with cable internet through Comcast, since they offered the best speed for the price and told us that it would be available before we moved. Unfortunately, Comcast did not provide any service for two months after we moved, so we piggy backed on an existing (slow and unreliable) wireless account with another company in the meantime. When Comcast finally came around, the service that was provided was far from adequate with a consistent 30% packet loss and multiple disconnects everyday, which was confirmed through Comcast's tech support. Throughout this process, we have realized that having a reliable internet connection is more important than having a phone line and almost as necessary as electricity. What would you do if your internet was suddenly like dial-up for weeks at a time? How much money would your workplace lose if it was out for an hour or an entire day?"
> We decided to go with cable internet
Mistake #1.
You're a business. There's no reason a business should be using anything less than SDSL. It costs more for a reason - it's reliable.
quoth http://www.speakeasy.net/business/dsl/
> Symmetrical dedicated line DSL with throughput SLAs, rigorous uptime and repair time.
That means they guarantee it'll be fast, it'll work, and if it doesn't, they'll fix it fast.
If a couple hundred per month for internet is too much for your internet-dependent business it sounds like you've got bigger issues than packet loss.
Not if he hosts DNS behind the T1. All SMTP servers I know of cause permanent failure when they can't look up the MX record. This is why you should always have redundant DNS. I can see letting a backup MX slide as it can be complicated to set up, but hosting all DNS behind one connection just shows you don't care.