Leased Lines for Faster Connections



A leased line offers increased
speed when accessing the internet

A standard broadband connection is usually sufficient for most businesses and organisations. But for heavy users or those where continual, reliable internet access is vital, something more robust is needed, such as a leased line.

A leased line is a dedicated broadband connection for your premises. Costs for this have been prohibitive for most users until now but as more superfast cable gets rolled out and more customers sign up to it, costs have started to decrease noticeably. It is now starting to become a viable proposition for more organisations.

A broadband connection can be thought of like a pipe in that only a certain amount of material can go down it at any one time. The more things people try to put down it, the greater the likelihood of it becoming blocked or running slowly.

Most broadband providers share the pipes across multiple customers, perhaps on a 20:1 or 5:1 ratio. What this means is that 20 (or 5) different customers share the same connection. If everyone uses it at the same time then it will be slow. In effect, you have to wait your turn to use the pipe.

Business contracts tend to be at the lower end of the number of users on one connection (perhaps 5:1) whereas domestic contracts are at the higher end, such as 20:1. This is why business contracts cost more than residential contracts.

A leased line is not shared with anyone else. If you have multiple simultaneous users all trying to access an application over the internet at the same time, a leased line can ensure they get a more reliable service at faster speeds. But because it isn’t shared with anyone else, it means you pay a lot more for your connection. Where a typical business broadband connection might cost £30-£50 per month, a leased line might be more like £800 per month.

But over the last 12 months or so we have seen contracts originally costing nearly £800 dropping to under £500, and are likely to continue to fall further. Although still substantially more than a traditional broadband contract, it does start to open up possibilities for organisations that might benefit from it.

Some of the advantages and opportunities that a leased line can offer to organisations include:

• Guaranteed access providing greater security of service and assurance of uptime
• Fewer carriers involved in the process, leading to enhanced Service Level Agreements and a higher level of service
• The ability to roll-out web-based applications to a greater number of users and still provide guaranteed uptime and service levels
• Connecting multiple sites together for seamless networking across multi-site operations (using something known as a LES – LAN Extension Service).

So if you are looking at expanding your online operations or need greater levels of assurance and support in your operations, a leased line may be a possibility for you.

What’s the Difference Between ADSL and SDSL?

Broadband Connections affect the speed
in which you send and receive data

Every industry has its jargon and IT is no exception. In this post we want to tell you about two terms used in connection with broadband connections – ADSL and SDSL.

ADSL stands for Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line and SDSL means Symmetric Digital Subscriber Line, with the difference related to the speeds for uploading and downloading. Asymmetric has different upload and download speeds, but they are the same with Symmetric. In ADSL, the download speed is several times faster than the upload speed, which makes it more practical for most uses, e.g. viewing internet pages.

An analogy is to think of a major road going into a town or city with a total of 10 lanes; 4 active traffic lanes and a hard shoulder each way. Most people will be going in during the morning and out in the evening, so having the same number of lanes means there will be traffic jams during the morning and again in the evening when commuters leave. If you could have an uneven number of lanes in the morning and evening then you could reduce the jams, i.e. by having more lanes going in during the morning and more coming out in the evening.

ADSL is like having this uneven number of lanes - but only in one direction. So great when everyone is going the same way but not if you need both directions. ADSL is fine for ordinary usage such as the internet at home (mainly downloading) but not so good if you have to upload data to a server frequently, such as you might do with remote workers or a cloud computing arrangement.

So organisations using cloud computing services for vital operations would need an SDSL line but ADSL is fine when there is less need for speed and capacity. SDSL is more expensive which is why ADSL is usually the default option unless requirements indicate otherwise.

There is also a third route – bonded ADSL. This involves merging two ADSL lines together which provides some additional capacity but doesn’t offer the same apparent speed as an SDSL line.

Switch Skype off When Not in Use

Skype can be a really useful way to communicate but it can also slow down your broadband and computing power. Even if you sign out, it will still be running in the background. You might not be able to make calls, but it can still act as a drain.

How do you know if this is happening to you? Follow these simple steps, using the images as a guide:

• Press Alt-Ctrl-Delete together to display the Task Manager.

  

  Open the Task Manager.
• When the Task Manager opens, select the Processes tab. 

  

  Select the Processes Tab on the Task Manager.

• This will display a list of all the active programs currently using your computer. Look for the one called Skype.exe as shown in the image. If there is a figure in the ‘Mem Usage’ column then it is using computing and broadband capacity.

  

  Is Skype.exe displayed?

• The way to prevent this is to close Skype down from the System Tray after you sign out.

  

  Right Click the Mouse & select Quit to close the application.

The System Tray is normally in the bottom right hand corner of your screen and if it has the Skype logo as shown then it is still active in the background, even if you have signed out. If you click on the logo with your right mouse button it will provide a menu from which you can select Quit (as shown).

If you select Quit then Skype will close down completely and stop using processing power in the background. You can check this by displaying the Task Manager again and checking under the Processes Tab that Skype.exe is no longer shown.

Is Your Broadband too Slow?

Follow the tips to
speed up your broadband.

It can feel very frustrating when your broadband isn't performing as fast as you would like. We all want it to be super-quick, so here’s some tips to help you make the most of it.

First of all, you can find out how fast your broadband actually is using this link http://www.broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk/. This is particularly useful if you are trying to speed it up using any of the techniques given in this article as you can do a ‘before and after ‘test.

Check your router

Your router will dictate how fast you can connect to the internet. Even with superfast broadband, if your router isn’t up to the job you won’t be getting the fastest you can. Ensure it has sufficient capacity for what you need it for and buy the highest quality you can afford for the capacity you need.

Your router will also deteriorate over time and require ‘firmware updates’ as broadband technology improves, so if it seems to be running slow, you may need a new one. You can check the speed it is operating at via the link above. If the speed you are getting is less than your broadband provider tells you that you should be getting, it might be time to replace the router.

Give the router a rest

Routers use a piece of computing technology called Error Checking Codes (ECC). These are great for speeding up processing tasks and preventing data corruption, but they can slow equipment down if not given a chance to reset and recharge. Routers use ECC so should be switched off periodically for 15 minutes. When it restarts it will have reset the ECC and be back to operating normally again.

If your router is used constantly all day every day, a useful good practise is to connect it to a timer that automatically switches it off in the middle of the night for 15 minutes then back on again. A standard timer that you might use for the lights in your house is sufficient for this. When everyone returns to work the next day, all internet connections should be faster.

Check what’s running in the background

You can think of broadband like a pipe in that only a certain amount can go down it at any one time. If it isn't full, it’s fast. But the fuller and more blocked it gets, the slower it will be.

Check what programs are
running in the background.

One computing equivalent of a pipe-blocker is programs that use the internet to check for updates in the background whilst you are using your computer. Many programs have auto-update facilities checking to see if there are any updates needed, such as Adobe or Java. In additions, programs such as Skype run in the background unless they are actively switched off. Check the system tray to see if the Skype icon is there. If it is but you’re not using it, it will be using your broadband in the background. 

Check for malware and viruses

Anything of this nature will compromise the performance of your equipment, so make sure you scan regularly to remove anything that shouldn’t be there.

As ever, if you need help with anything, talk to us or another reputable IT support company.