T1 (Business) question

[Onita]

At my work, we have ~20 computers hooked up to a T1 line. I kind-of understand that T1 lines are basically a capped speed. Going to something such as speedtest.net... my computer and my bosses computer have a ping of 800-900 and download speeds of ~.38 mb/s. What would cause this? Would it be the T1 line or something in the network here?

EDIT: Obviously, I know next to nothing about T1 lines.

 

[spidey07]

It means your T1 is totally saturated from people listening to the radio, downloading large files, watching video, etc. Best to call your provider and they can look at usage reports and see if it's bandwidth that's the problem and not something else.

 

[Onita]

Thanks for the quick response. Does it even make sense to have a T1 line over a business cable or something? Can the network be checked to see which computers are using the bandwidth?

 

[imagoon]

T1's are for connections that *must work* and *need guarantees*. Assuming that the T1 is not showing error frames or alarms, what spidey said is the most likely the case. Most providers can monitor a line and give you a "pretty graph" to show your boss etc. The network can be checked but you to have the hardware and software to do it.

Here we use websense, much to every employee's annoyance, to block youtube / radio etc because we had this very issue above. People on the VPN were getting sub Dial-up modem speeds because 45 employees were streaming some radio stations.

 

[Onita]

There are MAYBE 5 people in here that would use youtube, radio, etc. Half the people in this office can't even figure out email. Its a law office. Would a cable or something else be a better option (not that they will change, just for my curiosity).

 

[spidey07]

Cable would be much more speed, but less reliability. Pick which one you need.

 

[jlazzaro]

There are MAYBE 5 people in here that would use youtube, radio, etc. Half the people in this office can't even figure out email. Its a law office. Would a cable or something else be a better option (not that they will change, just for my curiosity).

In this scenario, I typically do a dual-wan router...T1 connection for business-critical traffic and up-time, High speed Cable/DSL for bulk data/web/etc.

 

[airdata]

A single T1 for 20 people is just not enough in today's world. Even 1 or 2 people wasting their time on youtube and what not or any downloads can make your connection crawl.

my home connection is 25Mbps / 25Mbps, a T1 is 1.5Mbps / 1.5Mbps

 

[imagoon]

There are MAYBE 5 people in here that would use youtube, radio, etc. Half the people in this office can't even figure out email. Its a law office. Would a cable or something else be a better option (not that they will change, just for my curiosity).

Also... don't underestimate people. Do a scan, you might be amazed at what you find.

 

[RebateMonger]

You could also have an infected PC that's sending tons of SPAM. At the beginning or end of the work day, shut down all the PCs but one and remeasure ping and transfer speed.

 

[Arsynic]

Is your T1 shared for voice traffic?

 

[Fardringle]

Instead of just guessing, do what spidey said and call the provider. They will tell you exactly what is happening on the connection. Once you have the facts it will be easier to determine what you need to do to correct the problem.

 

[Onita]

Is your T1 shared for voice traffic?

Do you mean the phone lines? That's possible.

 

[xSauronx]

At my work, we have ~20 computers hooked up to a T1 line. I kind-of understand that T1 lines are basically a capped speed. Going to something such as speedtest.net... my computer and my bosses computer have a ping of 800-900 and download speeds of ~.38 mb/s. What would cause this? Would it be the T1 line or something in the network here?

EDIT: Obviously, I know next to nothing about T1 lines.

do you guys not have an IT guy or a consultant or someone that handles most of your IT needs?

 

[Onita]

do you guys not have an IT guy or a consultant or someone that handles most of your IT needs?

All independent attorneys, therefore everyone has their own IT guy for the most part

 

[gsaldivar]

All independent attorneys, therefore everyone has their own IT guy for the most part

Just a thought, but I would suggest getting a local consultant to do some hourly troubleshooting and splitting the cost between all the attorneys. Consider it an office overhead expense, the same as the cost of the internet bill itself.

Good luck!

 

[RadiclDreamer]

T1 lines come with an SLA with uptime gurantee. They gurantee your speeds to be 1.5mb (or less for a frac) so they are for the most part rock solid. If cable/dsl is decent in your area, the speed is usually better but usually not as good of a SLA or uptime

 

[spidey07]

Just so you know, most decent size enterprises still us T1s and T3s because of the uptime and response. When a T3 is down, it WILL be up in a matter of hours, you WILL have somebody onsite in an hour. That's why you always plan and have a backup circuit.

Uptime/service vs. bandwidth vs. cost. What do you want? What's most important?

 

[Emulex]

what you want is comcast METRO-E or equivalent. BGP4 - DS3 SLA, 5/5 (down/up) with ip's $595 10/10 $895'ish - scalable to 1 gigabit with a phone call.

then back that up with a different carrier backbone for those really rough days (route flapping/loops/holes) - things can happen beyond one providers peer that can cause downtime that isn't really on them.

comcast business coax is best effort if its down for 4 days you'll get 4 days credit.

dual t-1's from cbeyond (or 3 or 4 t-1's) well i've had that and one day AT&T showed up - i noticed some speed issues (150K/sec~'ish normally 300k) and he said we had a bad line card and replaced it - the bonded t-1's of course did their job.

Two t-1's cbeyond and 1 comcast coax business isn't bad.

IF you need more look at metro-e with a DS1/DS3/OC3 level of SLA.

 

[Genx87]

You can look into bonded T-1s if you need more bandwidth + reliability. We are running 6 bonded T-1s at this location.

 

[zeroburn82]

Just so you know, most decent size enterprises still us T1s and T3s because of the uptime and response. When a T3 is down, it WILL be up in a matter of hours, you WILL have somebody onsite in an hour. That's why you always plan and have a backup circuit.

Uptime/service vs. bandwidth vs. cost. What do you want? What's most important?

well here in upstate ny sometimes (verizon local carrier) next day is days after the call is placed you might get a tech to show up. So if ur local carrier is verizon have fun! No mater who you get the t1 thru make sure you have a decent local telco as these t1's run thru there CO's.

At my location we just had time warner run us a 5/5 fiber link which is the same price as our 2 t1's and has an sla.

 

[Zargon]

A single T1 for 20 people is just not enough in today's world. Even 1 or 2 people wasting their time on youtube and what not or any downloads can make your connection crawl.

my home connection is 25Mbps / 25Mbps, a T1 is 1.5Mbps / 1.5Mbps

my old office was using a T1 to run a webserver and handle browsing for 100 users.

of course pandora and yt and most all ports were blocked

 

[Glob]

Yeah, I think the T1 is going the way of the dinosaur. Look into other communications companies in your area and find a metro Ethernet solution, as Emulex mentioned. It would probably be cheaper, though you might sacrifice a little on the SLA side.

 

[Zargon]

Yeah, I think the T1 is going the way of the dinosaur. Look into other communications companies in your area and find a metro Ethernet solution, as Emulex mentioned. It would probably be cheaper, though you might sacrifice a little on the SLA side.

I don't think so.

morelike going more towards only Point to Point is more likely than going away

 

[Glob]

I don't think so.

morelike going more towards only Point to Point is more likely than going away

Nah, metro E is overtaking that with VLAN routing and MPLS in the core.