Why use a T1 for internet?

LoStMaTt

2[H]4U
Joined
Feb 26, 2003
Messages
3,180
Long story short:

I am an IT guy for a non-profit organization yada yada yada. I currently manage about 200 PC's onsite that run in an Active Directory environment.

We use a T1 through Ntelos for internet connectivity....and get this

1.5Mbps up and down....$500 a month <----- woa woa woa

Currently there are many many other ISP's that are now available in the area that offer much better deals, price/speed wise.

So the question is......what are the benefits of keeping this T1? The contract run out in a year and I want to have something else out on the table so we can get some faster speeds up in here.
 
I thought the benefit was that if all 200 PCs are using the internet, you'll still maintain that 1.5 speed as opposed to those 200 PCs on residential cable or dsl...
 
Also, you get a service level agreement.

You have to decide if the cost is worth it to you to have a dedicated link to the net and a SLA.
 
Best reason to use a T1, is an SLA.

Service Level Agreement: What is your SLA? Mine is no more 2 hours of downtime if something happens. Also I am get a DEDICATED 1.5Mb up and down, not up to 1.5Mb, but a full 1.5Mb. I don't share this line with anyone else, it is solely my companies connection to the Internet. I can run my own servers on this line, I can resell internet connectivity on the line.

These are just some of the reasons.
 
I thought the benefit was that if all 200 PCs are using the internet, you'll still maintain that 1.5 speed as opposed to those 200 PCs on residential cable or dsl...

Not true. The 1.5 megs is for the IP address that T feeds...usually the WAN port of the router. If it's being shared to more than 1 device on the inside..it's still split up.

OP...most of the price of a T is for that SLA....theoretically a T is supposed to have more guaranteed uptime. "Theoretically". They can still go down, I've seen it happen. But when they go down...the response time by the ISP and phone company is "supposed to be" much quicker. "Supposed to be"....I've seen that take a bit of time too. The phone company is still the phone company. Typically with broadband..if you have a line issue or something...they might tell you a tech can come out..in a day or two. With a T...it's usually at least the same day..if not within 8 or 4 hours.

It's also symmetrical traffic. Upload same as download. So if you're hosting servers...it's better than hosting them on say...a 1.5 or 3.0 cable or DSL account...since with cable..upload is typically smaller..such as 128, 256, or 384 K. Eh..maybe 512 of 768 if a higher rate business plan.

Many years ago in the early days of broadband...I'd see cable or DSL go down often. But I have to admit..over the past few years...it's gotten quite reliable.
 
When your contract comes up ask them what kind of deals they have and maybe do some shopping. It depends on your area, but there may be other providers that would be willing to offer a competitive deal on a T1. If so check their reliability and service ratings. It's a very competitive market and you can definitely do some bargaining.
 
Granted, the SLA is the reason for a T1 but as StoneCat just said, Cable and DSL is much more reliable, look at FIOS they are soon going to be offering 20 down and 20 up plans for roughly 65 bucks a month. Just you live with the idea that if it goes down, which I have yet to see my internet at home crash at all, then you are screwed.
 
Determine the need for the internet. Is it a critical need? If so, then the t1 is required due to the SLA. If it's not a critical need, then it's definitely time to investigate other options. DSL is definitely the cheaper option, while cable usually gets you more bandwidth ( depends on the area of course ).

You are paying for the SLA on the line, and nothing more really.
 
Also, you get a service level agreement.

You have to decide if the cost is worth it to you to have a dedicated link to the net and a SLA.

As others have said the service level agreement is what keeps the cost up. Also things like the static ips which generally are extra on cable or dsl connections.

As others have said when the contract renewal comes up argue with them to get a break on the service. Should be able to get some taken off or maybe get upgraded to a faster data line with the SLA still on it.
 
i got optonline where i live. the optonline buisness setup (5 static ips, opened ports, 30/10 speed) beats the shit out of any T1 setups in the area
 
i got optonline where i live. the optonline buisness setup (5 static ips, opened ports, 30/10 speed) beats the shit out of any T1 setups in the area

No one is disputing the speed differences between broadband and T service. However if you broadband goes down, your at the mercy of whenever your ISP decides to fix your problem. T services have SLAs that outline the service providers response time and possibly time to repair.
 
So if the SLA says they'll come out in 4 hours and fix it, and they don't, do they give a month free service or something? The only way I see it, you could use a SLA in court if you lost income from your business.
 
So if the SLA says they'll come out in 4 hours and fix it, and they don't, do they give a month free service or something? The only way I see it, you could use a SLA in court if you lost income from your business.




Essentially yes, they violated a contract...
 
How effective are SLAs?

An unnamed telecom company goofed up on one of our voice T1s. They had us down for about 6 hours. We negotiated a $1,000 credit due to the outage.
 
When you have an office full of people whose salaries are costing the company owners 300k per month, and whose working day depends on remote access to a colo site with 60+ servers in it, do you really want to have tell your CEO "sorry verizon won't here to fix the DSL line till Thursday" because you wanted to play budget hero and save $300 a month over a T1 line?
 
When you have an office full of people whose salaries are costing the company owners 300k per month, and whose working day depends on remote access to a colo site with 60+ servers in it, do you really want to have tell your CEO "sorry verizon won't here to fix the DSL line till Thursday" because you wanted to play budget hero and save $300 a month over a T1 line?

Nothing stopping you having two connections with different companies. If 1 goes down you've got the other.
 
How effective are SLAs?

An unnamed telecom company goofed up on one of our voice T1s. They had us down for about 6 hours. We negotiated a $1,000 credit due to the outage.

Hey 6 hours down is a lot better then the 2 or 3 days it could take if it was a normal system went down. Thats same day service. Generaly you will get next day if your lucky with normal lines.

With the t1's our clients have we have had people on-site within a few hours generaly. Haven't had an issue they haven't gotten fixed in less then 8 hours or so. It was prob less time then that too.

Right now we have a firewall appliance that the t1 provider(uslec) supports at one site. I got a call from the owner at 6:40am saying his internet was down. Rebooted the firewall as it wasn't picking up the connection. Went down again a few hours later. Called in to have them check it out and found out they already had a trouble ticket open. They noticed the drop in connection and were already looking into it.

Also hell a 1000 dollar credit for 6 hours down. Not a bad credit for service considering they prob had a 4 hour sla.
 
from my ccna testing a few years back was that couriers guaranteed 99.9% uptime on t1 and fractional t3 lines.
 
SLAs often times have wording that would say the line will not go over x% of packet loss or have higher than x millisecond of latency to their network. Providers of T1s can also provide you with whatever IP blocks you want (obviously within reason), do BGP routing, and other sorts of routing. Also the SLA can say that the provider guarantees that you will be able to have ~1.544mbit of traffic all the time, unlike most cable and dsl companies.
 
Alright well I contacted Ntelos and asked them what the cost would be to step up the speed.

They offer 3/3 up and down....but for an additional $500 a month. So the total bill would be $1000...that seems a little much since I don't think it would acquire additional SLA support then what is already available.
 
Alright well I contacted Ntelos and asked them what the cost would be to step up the speed.

They offer 3/3 up and down....but for an additional $500 a month. So the total bill would be $1000...that seems a little much since I don't think it would acquire additional SLA support then what is already available.

Sounds like they are just going to run another t1 in and bond them together.
 
Like everyone else has said, SLA. I cannot stress it enough, SLA is the MOST important part of a internet connection. I know multiple business that have attempted to run on cable or DSL. For the most part they are reliable, however, nothing like a T with a good SLA.

You can call your cable/dsl or Fios provider and see what the SLA is with their business package, if they provide one.

We have a local ISP that does Fiber and each customer signs a specific SLA. This is business only connection and costs ~$250/mo for 5Mb/5Mb.
 
Back
Top