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Monday, June 23, 2008

How To Determine How Much Bandwidth Your Business Needs For Your Computer Network Infrastructure

Could I suggest a path which is easier to say than to do? The first step is an inventory of what you have, the second step is a measure of the QoS you are getting in real terms... and if you can do one and two then three should be to figure out what you really need to improve or eliminate.

I have noticed that throwing bandwidth at problems is a very typical NA approach whereas in Europe bandwidth has always been more expensive so enterprises have tended to be more efficient.

One area you may care to consider is that if you have T1, E2, fractional, DS3, OC3, MPLS etc (oh let's throw in cellular, VoIP, TDM and any other part of the alphabet soup) ...... you probably don't have a network architecture and you certainly don't have a central "entity" responsible for optimising it.

So, inventory, contract review, shorten/lengthen contracts to achieve co-termination and use this time to build a real solution and an effective competitive RFI (ask the vendors for their best ideas) an RFP (marry the best ideas of all vendors) and a final contract. Bearing in mind the 80:20 rule of using a "wild card" supplier to keep the main vendor under some degree of competitive control.

The other piece of the puzzle that has to be consider also is the use of WAN acceleration equipment at each branch office. For your private WAN infrastructure (VPN, MPLS or other), most companies are either evaluating, deploying or have already deployed WAN accelerator appliances. These appliances are really changing the IT landscape so they are a necessary technology for most IT environments these days.

So without getting off topic. In our experience, "most" businesses leveraging WAN acceleration technology with branch offices that have less than 60 users can get away with only installing a T1 private WAN connection. Even with VoIP and other big apps being pushed out to the edge. Most host locations or disaster recovery locations will usually require NxT1 or partial to full T3 connections.

Please understand that there are a ton of variables here that relate to:

-types of users
-applications
-backup
-replication etc.

To break it down just follow this checklist:

1 - Baseline your network so you know what is applications are running on it and how much bandwidth each is using.

2 - Identify critical applications and determine the bandwidth need for adequate performance for each.

3 - Identify the "trash" applications such as "Weather Bug", internet radio, etc. which can be limited to little or no bandwidth.

4 - Filter your outgoing as well as your incoming traffic on all firewalls.

5 - Write ACLs for your routers or L3 MDFs and which log violations to you management console and analyze the results.

6 - Instigate QoS

7 - Build a Lab that represents the hardware and software infrastructure of you LAN/CAN/MAN/WAN/WLAN and test new applications to verify how they will effect you current bandwidth configuration.

8 - Be proactive as you monitor the bandwidth use and it is growing at a more or less constant rate recommend and add additional bandwidth before you create a bottle neck.

Armed the information above .... and with patience and focus ..... you should arrive at a solid answer for the best bandwidth solution for your network. If you would like free help with the process.....just let us know.

Michael is the owner of FreedomFire Communications....including DS3-Bandwidth.com and Business-VoIP-Solution.com. Michael also authors Broadband Nation where you're always welcome to drop in and catch up on the latest BroadBand news, tips, insights, and ramblings for the masses.

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Fix Wireless Network Connection

With the development of wireless networks this means that no matter where you are as long as you are in contact with a hotspot you can check your emails or surf the net wherever and whenever you want. However although it is a great system it can have its problems also and one of the most common ones faced is a loss of internet connection. In this article, we will go through some of the stages that will help to fix a wireless network connection when it suffers a problem.

In many cases because when you are out and about with your laptop you will not actually have access to the hardware for the network you are connected to. Therefore, the only way you will be able to rectify this connection problem is with your laptop itself. Generally, within a matter of minutes you will be able to get the connection back that you have just loss.

However it is important to remember that when ever you are trying to rectify a fault on your laptop or PC and not just the network connection you do it one step at the time. You also only make one change at the time on it or you could end up in a much more serious position than you are in currently. Also by changing, things one at a time it actually helps you to quickly discover what works and what does not. This you can then note down and use in the future if you need to.

Step 1 - You know that you have the right hardware installed on your PC or laptop in order to connect to the internet but you can not actually work out why it is not connecting. What you need to do is go into the control panel on your PC or laptop and then go into network connections.

Step 2 - Upon doing this you will be shown a window on the screen in front of you, which shows you the possible network connections that are available for your laptop or PC. On this screen, you will see an icon saying wireless network you need to move the cursor over this and right click on your mouse. A list of different options will come up and you need to highlight and then click on properties.

Step 3 - If all seems okay then you need to come out of here and then click on the icon again with the right button of the mouse and this time select repair. What this does is actually severs any connection you may currently have with the network and will then try to re-establish it once more. The connection it makes will either be to the current network you have been using or to one which has much better connectivity.

However when it comes to a person trying to fix wireless network connection if they discover that this does not rectify the situation the only other choice they may initially is to actually reboot their PC or laptop. But you don't need to shut your machine off completely all you need to do is restart it and hopefully you may find that this is all it takes in order to rectify the problem.

P Abbey owns and operates http://www.wirelessnetworkfacts.com/fixwirelessnetworkconnection.html - Fix Wireless Network Connection

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Jun 23, 2008