High Speed Internet Access in Rockford, Illinois

High Speed Internet access in Rockford, Illinois: Business Broadband Internet, Gigabit Internet and Metro Ethernet Access

Reliable Internet access is the lifeblood of Rockford, Illinois companies and their business. All companies, from Fortune 500 to small companies, have functions that rely on easy, dependable and quick access to The net.

We’ll, in the months and years ahead, become more and more reliant on our Internet access.

From email messaging to information sharing, e-commerce to archiving data, and voice over IP to video conferencing, the internet is omnipresent. What do you need? A cable modem may be satisfactory. Metro Ethernet? Gigabit Internet may satisfy your needs. Your Rockford business probably needs a 5 Meg Internet circuit, 10 Meg access to The Internet, a 50 Meg circuit, or a 100 Meg access to The Internet point but which one is best?

Determining your Business Need for Internet Access

Prior to selecting a service, your organization must figure out its needs. Will web surfing and email be your primary use of the web? Will real-time data connection with servers in the cloud be the primary use of the internet? There may be remote sites that rely on you and you are hosting the data in Rockford.

What will happen to your organization if your high-speed Internet experiences an outage? What about the downtime that results? Can your business afford that? Is uptime essential to the success of your business? Before making a purchase, these are several of the questions you need to answer.

Evaluating Different High-Speed Internet Solutions in Rockford

High-speed access to the net is something all companies need. When picking the correct broadband internet, balancing the costs and benefits to your company is imperative. While you are likely to hear some providers toss around terms such as:

• Fastest Internet access
• Corporate Internet
• What about broadband cable modems?
• Metro Ethernet experts
• Gigabit Internet
• MPLS services
• Services related to point-to-point circuits
• 5-megabyte access circuits
• Internet access circuits-10 Meg
• 50 Meg access to The web circuits
• One hundred megabytes- fast Internet access circuits
• Sip trunking specialists
• Personal, specific and dedicated Internet access
• … plus others

… do not lose sight of the real issues: what are the capabilities and technical solutions you need to best serve your company?

Web Surfing and Company Internet Access

At most businesses including those in Rockford, some or all employees need Internet access. Third party applications, business research or development and e-commerce are just a few of the ways the web may be needed.

Your best course of action may be determined by the size of your work force. An Internet circuit of 5 -10 megabytes might be enough for your organization if you only have a few people working for you. If your business has nearly 50 people, however, and they all need to use the web at the same time, you may find that more is better.

Perhaps most workers at your company use an intranet system with limited features. High- speed Internet may not be a priority in this case. When employees are often downloading images, videos and documents, however, the need for speed increases significantly.

Are you performing backups? Simultaneous connections to the web, which you need in order to sync your backup data, require support. If you conduct remote backups from every workstation, which you definitely should, this will be important.

Are you using a service such as DropBox or Google drive to share files? When people save a file, it gets pushed to the cloud. The file is then synched with other people’s computers. In order to ensure that all of your functions work properly, in addition to file sharing, you must have sufficient bandwidth.

High-speed organization access to The net like Metro Ethernet and gigabit Internet may be viable options for you depending on your location. Usually, you can find these in “lit buildings” in Rockford, Illinois that have been previously wired by a carrier. It may be shock you to know that installing high-speed access to The web may not be particularly expensive or inconvenient.

Absent the need to introduce Metro Ethernet into a new building, it is not particularly costly to connect Metro Ethernet to a suite or office within that building. Depending on availability, it is often possible to obtain high-speed access to The Internet with Metro Ethernet or gigabit Internet in 30 days or less.

Hosted Applications Requiring High-Speed Internet Access

Ask yourself this: Does we host our own servers to run APIs, websites and data feeds to external offices or company premises? Are your corporate headquarters with a hosted application utilized by 50 branch offices? Does your office host the point of sale (POS) system for every single store in a large retail chain? Do you run a law office that hosts the data for satellite offices in different cities or states?

Granting access to outsiders is necessary when you host data and programs at a central location. If the internet connection is interrupted or fails, those people are unable to accomplish any work. Are you choosing an intranet solution that is sufficiently reliable and stable to support multiple simultaneous connections from varied places?

A cost friendly 10 Meg circuit or even a cable modem may satisfy the needs of a company with a single office that needs to surf the web. High-speed Internet access is advisable for the headquarters. Gigabit Ethernet, Metro Ethernet or some other high-speed dedicated circuit is recommended. While high speed is great, you also need support for your multiple diverse connections. A cable modem would not be able to accomplish this.

Which is Better for You in Rockford, Illinois? Dedicated Internet Bandwidth or Shared Cable Circuits?

There is a price that comes along with choosing a cable modem or other lower cost circuit. Even though you pay less money per month you must consider that the bandwidth you receive may be shared and used by multiple parties in the building. It is possible that you have a cable modem with a 30 Meg connection but cannot reach proper speeds during peak hours. Many cable companies only deliver a set amount of bandwidth within a community. That bandwidth branches off to different buildings and then to various tenants within those buildings. The 30-meg speed you are capped out sounds good but it is possible that you will never reach that speed during business hours. Is it a problem if you get a quarter or even half of the speed you expected?

There are providers who offer dedicated and even guaranteed bandwidth. With these options, bandwidth is yours. It is not shared with anyone outside of your company. Regardless of neighbors, or other tenants, you should have the full capacity of your circuit at all times.

You can receive guaranteed bandwidth with Metro Ethernet. You can receive it in increments of five, 10, 50 or one hundred megabyte circuits. Want to reach gigabit speeds? You can by using a gigabit Internet provider.

Here, carriers deliver enough high-speed to the building, so that it can be split among various tenants. The carrier has the right amount so that everyone gets the contracted speed that has been promised.

Rockford, Illinois High Speed Organization Internet Circuits: Redundancy

You can’t control everything. Even with the superior Internet bandwidth products that some providers offer in Rockford, Illinois, problems arise and circuits can fail. Ask this question: “what can I do to decrease the likelihood of an outage?

You may be a candidate for redundant circuits.

There are, in essence, two types of redundancy.

The first type is when one single carrier provides you with multiple circuits. In this situation, the redundancy helps protect you from port issues or physical line issues. If your carrier experiences a regional outage or you have a line broken outside of your building, you may lose the use of all of your circuits. While offering some protection, it is not without risk.

The second way to set up circuit redundancy is by using two different providers to bring in your circuits. You may want your circuits to appear and act as if they are one and come from the same source. If so you can use IP address allocations and advanced routers to do so. In fact, they are totally redundant and separate. Diversity redundancy offers far greater protection. You will still have a live, fully functioning carrier if one fails.

To maximize the benefit of redundancy, consider looking for redundant circuits from different carriers that have different pathway in Rockford. In other words, try to obtain circuits entering the building from different sides of the building. They would be on outside phone poles or underground conduits in different directions and leading to different places. If you can accomplish this, you are protected from a major catastrophe. For example, if a there is a fire or some other accident that negatively affects circuits in a region, you have redundancy in a physically different direction.

What Will Not Having Enough Protection for Your Company Class High Speed Internet Cost You?

The cost of dependable Internet access pales in comparison to the cost of unreliable access. Contemplate these situations:

Your business telephone utilizes voice-over Internet Protocol, or VoIP as it is commonly known

The carrier you use for your cable modem also provides circuits for a dozen or more tenants in the office building. During your working day, those tenants could be conducting massive downloads of information, processing a large amount of calls or streaming endless video. As available bandwidth shrinks, what will happen to your calls? What about phone call quality? Are calls dropped? Will you sound muffled or choppy to your customers?

Multiple places use your company as the central data point

Regardless of whether you are part of a legal practice and your firm does file sharing, or an accounting practice sharing databases, your office is the central point or hub of your company. All of your sites, whether 2 or 2000, depend on your primary Internet connection to access and retrieve data. What happens in the event of a circuit failure? Would you merely be annoyed? Would there be catastrophic consequences? Can your satellite or remote office do any work at all? Process or take new orders? Circulate essential files and data? Picking the right a solution can be difficult. Before doing so, be sure you fully understand your requirements. Perhaps you have hundreds of clients or customers that use a hosted solution that your software company is running. You may operate a service like this: other systems talk to yours via an API to figure out freight prices, stock prices, to compile weather data or receive any other information that you provide. What happens when they are unable to connect to your servers? Multiple outages may annoy your customers.

The telephone system at your call center relies on VoIP

What if your company could not function at all without the web? Maybe your business relies on it completely. Your employees or representatives will not be able to make outgoing phone calls if your circuits go down. They are also unable to answer calls. Looks like you are now out of business. While most reputable call centers are already aware and using redundancy, is it enough? Are the providers you currently use as reliable as they should be? Are they as reliable as you need them to be? Clear and reliable calls are essential. Does your carrier service consistently provide this?

Picking the Right High-Speed Organization Access Circuits for Your Company in Rockford, Illinois

You clearly have several choices. The needs and budget of your company will both affect your choices. As a high-level summary:

Internet Access for Smaller Businesses

Sometimes redundancy is not vital to you. For example, If you are a small organization, with just one office location, a single Internet access circuit may be sufficient. You may get by with one 50, 10 or even 5 megabyte circuit. Gigabit service and Metro Ethernet options seem expensive. If you are in a lit building, however, they can be less than you think. Look into it. Prices vary based on your location and availability of circuits; speak with our engineers to find your best option.

Medium Sized Company in One Location: Access to the Internet

You have a mid-sized Rockford, Illinois company; higher speed Internet access required. Metro Ethernet, gigabit Internet and other higher-speed Internet circuits are your options. In a perfect world, you will achieve maximum redundancy by utilizing multiple providers to provide and service different circuits. You may be able to achieve this in a manner that will not break the bank. For instance, it may be cheaper to utilize two 50 meg circuits in place of one 100 meg circuit. As a reminder; availability and costs may vary. You need to speak with one of our experts to determine your options in your specific location.

Access to the net for the Mid-Sized Business with Several Offices

The greatest risk of failure belongs to companies that have multiple places of organization or offices. Redundant circuits must be an essential part of their systems. Having several providers would afford extra protection. You can increase redundancy with switches or routers. Having redundant equipment can also minimize risk. Have you looked at Metro Ethernet providers, gigabit Internet providers and other high-speed Internet access circuit providers? You should do so before making a decision. The right mix can help. If you can figure out the best combination of providers and services for your organization, you will benefit.

What about enterprise clients and large corporate clients? What about clients who provide services that depend on the web for delivery of said services?

To run efficiently and effectively, corporations and businesses that fall into this category must use point-to-point high-speed Internet circuits, gigabit Internet circuits and Metro Ethernet circuits. You will want to have the greatest protection of your uptime. To accomplish this you must have redundancy: redundant circuits from multiple carriers and redundant hardware for your system. Spikes or sudden increase in usage can result in Internet slowdowns or disruptions in service. You can decrease the risk of these events by having sufficient bandwidth. Your circuits and hardware must be able to support a large number of fast and simultaneous connections.

Internet Need Demand Analysis Provided Free of Charge

Insufficient bandwidth and failing circuits are present tremendous risk to your business. You need to have the right circuit or circuits to meet your demands while staying within your budget. The pressure involved in selecting the proper mix of hardware and circuits can be overwhelming.

Our engineers can help. We will analyze your requirements and needs and create a free action plan for you. You want your business to run smoothly. We’ll look at your current usage levels and demand levels and design a plan that meets your needs at a cost that makes sense for you.

You can complete the contact form on the right side of this page by clicking here. If you would prefer, please call our office to set up an appointment for an assessment. Assessments are completed in as little as 48 hours.