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Neville
join:2015-02-01

Neville

Member

[Internet] The boss got three modems: is that stupid or am I?

Hello,

I’m looking for some advice on my Bell internet account and was hoping to ask the community here first before chasing this around the universe with tech support and billing… My background is in PR not in phone/internet service, so bear with me if this sounds silly:

The small business I work for recently asked me to take a look at their internet and phone bills. We’re a seasonal event business (open one day a week during the summer) that makes a lot of use of internet and phones during the summer, but basically not at all during the winter. This being the first time I’ve looked at the company bills and I’ve discovered that they’re running in the thousands of dollars - - (I wish someone had handed these to me earlier…)

Our internet bill looks like this:

8 Hour Support SLA $15.00
Business Internet 3 Years $55.00
Standard Modem $6.60
Static IP Address $27.50

They currently have it set up as three accounts with 3 modems - - that’s over $100 per modem, the monthly bill comes to $312.30 + tax.

My questions:
1. What is 8 Hour Support SLA?
2. We don’t have a web server on site or anything - - is it necessary for us to be on a static IP?
3. Does having 3 modems actually do anything at all? We’re in a rural setting and I think the previous owner did it because he thought it would give us a better internet connection during the summer when it’s put under heavy load. Is that even accurate?

Any tips? Thanks to all for your time.

JC_
Premium Member
join:2010-10-19
Nepean, ON

1 recommendation

JC_

Premium Member

1. The 8 hour SLA guarantees that if your internet goes down it will be back back up within 8 hours otherwise it's a 24 hour turnaround for a repair. An 8 hour SLA will usually get you a tech dispatched on the same day.

2. Unless you have people trying to access a device within your network or are running an email server a static IP isn't needed.

3A. The plus side to having multiple lines is that if one goes down you will have a backup, especially if the business requires internet to operate.

3B. In regards to the heavy load, if you have a load balancing device that can aggregate the connections it will help otherwise you will need to connect each device to a specific modem to manually balance them.
Crzyrio
join:2007-02-01
Mississauga, ON

1 recommendation

Crzyrio to Neville

Member

to Neville
3 Different lines seems excessive for a small business. I think 2 lines with a solid router on them should suffice.

The 2nd line would be your backup if anything happen to the first. Does the business heavily rely on internet?
Neville
join:2015-02-01

1 recommendation

Neville

Member

To give a bit of background, think of it as the small business that deals with a lot of people. It's a sporting venue with two office staff members during the week but then swells to 50 staff and 1,400 guests on an event night.

The original plan, (I think) was to offer complimentary wifi to our guests. The technical infrastructure never really came to fruition to make this happen. The facility is covered by a strong wifi signal that is used by our staff and local media.

Our ticket sale system at our front gate relied heavily on internet to function, same with our debit terminals. (though we will likely be moving away from this in favour of an offline system, at least for the tickets). . Because we're in a rural environment, I'm trying to move us to a point where if the internet did go down during the event that it would have no real effect on us, aside from losing debit. In fact, I consider it a minor miracle that it hasn't happened yet.

Thanks JCohen for the advice on this too.
Hot Summer
join:2014-11-17
Canada

1 recommendation

Hot Summer

Member

If I understand your situation, then we need to know if your running
any kind of server(s) at your address? Reason I ask, is because there are
server farm operators out there on multiple Gigabit nodes that
can provide you with secure "remote rack space" at a fairly
reasonable price.

If your address is out "in the sticks", and your venue is similarly
situated, then you need to look at your data usage on those
days when your "in business". That will tell you what kind of
speed you actually need. Do you have that number?

Also, you didn't mention what speed your current "3 modem"
service gets you per line, or what Bell says your eligible
for at your address. That info would also be useful.
btech805
join:2013-08-01
Canada

1 recommendation

btech805 to Neville

Member

to Neville
Based on what you've poated so far, you need a lot of bandwidth for maybe 1 day a week, 6 months of the year. Being that youre in a rural area i assune your are on the 5/1 package.

As it stands now, you're using the modems as 3 individual connections, providing no additional speed, other than relief on the debit machines during peak times (assuming they are hooked up to separate modems).

JCOHEN has already explained the charges, so heres how i would lay out the land.

The simple way:

1. Drop line #3. I can't fathom the need for this based on your business needs.
2. Modem #1 just office staff use, browsing, working, playing games on facebook, the stuff we all do at the office.
3. Modem #2 hooked up to the POS, debit machines/overflow office use 6 days a week.
4. You will need one or more wireless access points for modem #1, and possibly modem#2 (depending if you use wireless POS systems)

Thats it, you probably just saved your boss $100/month by dropping a line.

Now if it were me, the best way would be:

1. Drop modem #3
2. Drop Bell, go with teksavvy or acanac business services
3. Use MLPPP service to bond your 2 slow lines into 1 fast line.
4. Set up wireless access points as needed
5. You have 1 fast internet connection for 6 days/week for biz use
6. More than enough bandwidth for "game day"

The downside is, a few ISPs offer MLPPP service, however the technical aspect of bonding the lines is left up to yyou (with their equipment). If you have issues, they can open up a service order with us (Bell) however we treat the lines as individual lines, so as long as both modems are up and running you won't have much in the form of technical aupport.

sm5w2
Premium Member
join:2004-10-13
St Thomas, ON

sm5w2 to Neville

Premium Member

to Neville
We had bell business dsl 3-year contract (2006 - 2008) 6-meg service with static IP. Static IP was $5/month for first year but went to $20/month by third year (naturally we were pissed but couldn't do anything about it). When contract was over we switched immediately to Teksavvy, and I think static IP has been $5/month and has never changed.

For the OP, forget the complications of mlppp and bonding multiple lines. That's for the birds in your case. Way too complicated.

Our DSL is on our fax line. If you have dedicated phone lines that are just used for DSL, then drop that immediately. You most likely have a fax line, and at least 1 voice line - right?

Cancel bell the minute your contract is up (your window to do so is very narrow before it auto-renews - so be careful). Get 2 DSL connections with TekSavvy. From the sounds of it - you won't need static IP on either one. Dedicate one dsl connection for your financial transaction devices (credit card terminals, ATM, etc). Allow no computers, phones, tablets to connect to that network unless they are used for POS (point of sale/point of service). Ideally all financial transaction devices are hard-wired to their own router or switch for this connection (no wifi at all).

Dedicate the second DSL service for you general office computer use and facility wifi.

The two networks you create remain independant of each other, each served by their own DSL service.

If one of your DSL links goes down, that's when you unplug the affected router or switch that no longer has internet service and connect it to the working router or switch until the problem is fixed. If you arrange both networks to use the same /24 (say, 192.168.2.x) and same gateway IP but assign non-overlapping static IP's then you should be able to merge both networks together without any devices interfering with each other during times with one of your DSL connections goes down.

The "dsl connection going down" can happen 2 ways: (1) physical line/wire problem, and (2) BAS problem or pppoe server problem. Problem (2) happens way more often than problem (1), and if problem (2) happens at all it will affect both your DSL connections anyways so they will both go down. That said, problem (2) will probably rarely happen at all (maybe once a year) and it will always happen on a friday afternoon or evening (for some reason).
LLigetfa
join:2006-05-15
Fort Frances, ON

LLigetfa to JC_

Member

to JC_
said by JC_:

1. The 8 hour SLA guarantees that if your internet goes down it will be back back up within 8 hours...

Does it really or does it just a guarantee a response within 8 hours?

A fortune 500 company I worked for had a 4 hour SLA that got us someone with a pulse within 4 hours. No tools, no parts, no clue, just a pulse.

JC_
Premium Member
join:2010-10-19
Nepean, ON

JC_

Premium Member

said by LLigetfa:

said by JC_:

1. The 8 hour SLA guarantees that if your internet goes down it will be back back up within 8 hours...

Does it really or does it just a guarantee a response within 8 hours?

A fortune 500 company I worked for had a 4 hour SLA that got us someone with a pulse within 4 hours. No tools, no parts, no clue, just a pulse.

I don't know how it works on the backend in regards to getting a tech dispatched but for me personally when I get ticket an SLA8 ticket, I'll get a hold of the contact on the ticket so that I can verify all the information on the ticket as well as giving them an ETA as to when I'll be on site.
Marcer
Premium Member
join:2007-07-08
Hamilton, ON

Marcer to Neville

Premium Member

to Neville
You need Static IP on one connection that is feeding the POS/Debit Card system, your payment processor will have an ACL on their side which will require you to have a static IP

JC_
Premium Member
join:2010-10-19
Nepean, ON

JC_

Premium Member

said by Marcer:

You need Static IP on one connection that is feeding the POS/Debit Card system, your payment processor will have an ACL on their side which will require you to have a static IP

Not necessarily, I've done plenty of installs for businesses who are just using a standard PPPoE connection with a dynamic IP that were using it for there Interac system and they had no issue with it.
Anzio
join:2008-11-22

Anzio

Member

said by JC_:

said by Marcer:

You need Static IP on one connection that is feeding the POS/Debit Card system, your payment processor will have an ACL on their side which will require you to have a static IP

Not necessarily, I've done plenty of installs for businesses who are just using a standard PPPoE connection with a dynamic IP that were using it for there Interac system and they had no issue with it.

+1. Our debit/credit machine runs on a dynamic IP and they've never said a word or rejected any requests.

HiVolt
Premium Member
join:2000-12-28
Toronto, ON

HiVolt

Premium Member

said by Anzio:

said by JC_:

said by Marcer:

You need Static IP on one connection that is feeding the POS/Debit Card system, your payment processor will have an ACL on their side which will require you to have a static IP

Not necessarily, I've done plenty of installs for businesses who are just using a standard PPPoE connection with a dynamic IP that were using it for there Interac system and they had no issue with it.

+1. Our debit/credit machine runs on a dynamic IP and they've never said a word or rejected any requests.

We have two different payment processors in my offices, both are run on just run of the mill dynamic IP (Bell & Rogers) connections without any setup on the network, they just take a DHCP IP from the router.