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CommentAuthorSpode
- CommentTimeMay 22nd 2008 edited
There have been a few advertisements I've noticed while on the trains recently (yes, adverts occur in physical forms too!). One of them is BT Broadband claiming 99.99% up-time. Taking rounding up into account, that means there is a possibility of 0.015% failure. 525600 minutes in a year, that's 78.84 minutes down time. That's still a fairly hefty downtime considering it's an average. On BT's website they suggest 9/10 faults are fixed in under 4 hours - that's not 99.99%
Recently, our (non BT) broadband went down and it was traced back to a blown board at the exchange that needed replacing. BT Openreach engineers did the work. We reported the fault on Friday and it was repaired by Tuesday afternoon. I don't think for one minute that if I was with BT it would have happened any faster. Assuming that was the case, no manner of refunds or discounts can make up for the lost productivity - especially for internet based businesses.
In reality, 99.99% uptime for any business, still isn't good enough as chances are, it will go down at the worst time possible. Nobody can guarantee perfect uptime, there is just too much out of human control. The best thing to do, is assume that your internet connection *will* and *could* fail at any point, and be prepared for it. Signing up to a 3G mobile internet package will not only have its obvious uses, but also give you the redundancy required for when the inevitable happens. Unlike Business Premise Broadband packages (which generally rape you), mobile broadband doesn't discriminate, so you'll end up with home broadband rates.
Something to think about next time you choose your ISP...
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CommentAuthorcoyote
- CommentTimeMay 23rd 2008
Mmm, interesting, Although not having an internet connection for an hour or two is a pain in the head, for me it's not really the end of the world. Especially as it doesn't happen very often.
3G internet connection; How does, or even can that work with a desktop computer? I assumed it only worked on a mobile phone or such devices. I suppose having two ways to access the net could be essential to business users, then again can 3G be used as a backup system and be connected to a server?As a mobile internet access, I gather from people that use the system, it's not always possible to connect as with not being able to make and receive calls due to a bad signal area. How would you figure this in to your scenario.
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CommentAuthorSpode
- CommentTimeMay 23rd 2008
Coyote - this is aimed more at business users - so for you, an hours downtime isn't the end of the world - or perhaps even a few days. Going without internet for nearly 5 days came close to killing me!
You can buy Pay as You Go HSDPA USB modems for £50 now and you just top them up as you need them. I recall it was around £10 for 3GB of bandwidth. Of course, from there, you could share it across the whole network. In fact, if you're using a computer as a router, it could be very seamless indeed.
You are right though - not everywhere has 3G coverage, and that's something to take into account. But as most offices are fixed premises, it's not a difficult test to find out
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