Obtaining High-Speed Internet Access in San Rafael, California

San Rafael, California High Speed Access to The Net: Metro Ethernet Access, Gigabit Internet and Organization Broadband Internet

Today’s environment demands that companies in San Rafael have reliable Internet service in order to run their organization. All companies, from Fortune 500 to small companies, have functions that rely on easy, dependable and quick Internet access.

Our reliance on access to the internet will become greater in the near and distant future.

Our uses of the net reach far and wide. From data sharing, video calls, and shopping to VOIP and email, the internet has a broad presence. What solution bet fits your needs? Can a cable modem suffice? Your needs may point to Metro Ethernet as a solution. Would Gigabit Internet suffice? Will your San Rafael, California business needs be met with a 50 Meg circuit, a 5 Meg circuit, 10 Meg Internet access or 100 Meg Internet access point?

Determining your Organization Need for Internet Access

You must, before selecting a service, assess the actual needs of your business. Will web surfing and email be your primary use of the internet? Is the web used for real-time data connection with servers in the cloud? You may be hosting the data in San Rafael and remote sites rely on this.

What if your high-speed Internet is disrupted by an outage? What will happen to your organization? Can your organization afford the downtime? Is your success reliant on uptime? Ask yourself these questions before making any purchases. The answers will help you determine what is right for you.

Evaluating Different High-Speed Internet Solutions in San Rafael, California

High-speed access to The Internet is required by all businesses. You need to analyze and balance the costs and benefits to your company before choosing the right broadband. While many providers throw around terminologies such as:

• High-speed access to the Internet
• Business Internet / Internet for business
• broadband cable modems
• Metropolitan-area Ethernet
• GbE services or Gigabit Internet
• MPLS service provider
• Providers of point-to-point circuits
• Five megabyte Internet access circuit
• 10 megabyte Internet access
• We provide Internet access circuits-50 Meg
• One hundred megabytes- fast Internet access circuits
• Leading SIP trunk authority
• Dedicated or “specific” Internet access
• … and much more

… do not stray from the real issues. Focus on what your company’s needs are and what capabilities and technical solutions will help satisfy them.

Surfing the Web: Company Internet Access

Most companies in San Rafael, California require that some or all of their workers have access to the net. The net is required for so many things, whether to order items, look up organization information speak with third parties.

The solution you choose may be based on the number of employees you have or expect to have. A smaller Internet circuit may be enough if you only have a handful of workers. Perhaps a 5 or 10 megabyte is all you need. If your organization has nearly 50 people, however, and they all need to use the net 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. On the other hand, Internet speed becomes dramatically more important when they are required to regularly download things like documents or videos.

Do you perform backups at your company? It is recommended that you do remote backups from every desk. If you are, you will need to support simultaneous connections out to the web to synchronize the backup data to collect.

Are you using a service such as DropBox or Google drive to share files? This is how a file sharing service works: You save a file. Then the file is pushed to the cloud, and is then synchronized 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.

Business high-speed Internet access may interest you. Depending on your location, you may have options such as gigabit Internet or Metro Ethernet. These are typically found in “lit buildings” in San Rafael. Providers have already wired these buildings. Installing high-speed Internet may not be as difficult and expensive as you think.

The introduction of Metro Ethernet into a new building can be quite costly. However, bringing that connection into office space within that building is usually less so. In fact, obtaining high-speed Internet access with Metro Ethernet or gigabit Internet can often take 30 days or less depending upon availability.

Maximize Internet-based Applications With High-Speed Internet Access

Does your company host its own servers running websites, APIs or data feeds for other offices or companies outside of your own four walls? Is your main business office with a hosted application accessed by 40 or even 50 branch office sites? Is your business retail? Do you have thousands of stores? Do you host the point of sale system for the entire chain? Are you a legal practice hosting the data for three places?

If your company hosts its programs and information at a central location, people outside of that location need to have access in order to conduct business. If the net connection is interrupted, those people cannot get their work done. Can your intranet solution support your needs? Can it support multiple simultaneous connections? Is it stable enough to handle this when they are from various sites?

The needs of an office with one employee web surfing may not need more than a cable modem or an inexpensive 5-10 megabyte circuit. Company headquarters should have high-speed Internet access such as gigabit Ethernet, Metro Ethernet or some other high-speed dedicated circuit. All offer quick speed but they must also be able to support diverse and multiple connections. Do you think a cable modem is sufficient? It is probably not.

Dedicated Internet Bandwidth in San Rafael, California V. Shared Cable Circuits

In many cases, installing an inexpensive cable modem comes at a price. You may save money on your monthly bill but the bandwidth you get must be shared among many people. The cable modem you subscribe to with the 30 Meg connections may not always reach those speeds, especially during the busiest or “peak” hours of the workday. Cable companies are known to limit or predetermine the amount of bandwidth available for delivery in any particular community. That amount of bandwidth must be shared with different buildings and with the tenants housed within. During crucial working hours, you may not get to the 30-meg speed you have been capped at. Is getting 7 when you expect 30 a problem?

Other carriers do offer dedicated and guaranteed bandwidth. In this case, your business receives full allocation of bandwidth. There is no sharing with any outsiders. Notwithstanding the existence of tenants, offices or buildings in the area, you should have the full capability of your circuits at all times.

Metro Ethernet provides guaranteed bandwidth in increments as follows: 5, 10, 50 and 100 Meg circuits. You can reach gigabit speeds with gigabit Internet providers.

In these situations, each tenant receives their contracted high-speed. The carrier delivers enough so they can split their circuit and provide enough to each tenant.

Redundant High Speed Company Internet Circuits in San Rafael

Despite outstanding Internet bandwidth products offered by providers in San Rafael, circuits do go down. In what way can you diminish the risk of an outage?

Redundant circuits.

There are two types of redundancy to consider.

A single carrier, providing multiple circuits, to one customer, characterizes one form of redundancy. This provides some protection when there are certain failures. Multiple circuits can help for example, when there is a physical line issue or a problem with a router port. Even multiple circuits can fail, such as in the event of a large-scale carrier outage or when there damage to an external line. While offering some protection, it is not without risk.

In the second type of redundancy, you bring in circuits from two different providers. For users and the public, you can make it look like you have one cohesive circuit. You can also make the connections act as a single circuit. You can do this with various advanced routers and IP address allocations. You know the truth: that they are individual circuits and are there to back each other up in case one goes down. Diversity redundancy, as this is called, offers you more protection that you might realize. If one carrier has a problem, the other likely will not.

You should look for redundant circuits from providers in San Rafael, California that do not have the same physical geographic pathways, in order to get the most redundancy. In other words, try to obtain circuits entering the building from different sides of the building. The circuits would attached to the proper outside source whether a subterranean conduit or a telephone pole. They would be set up in different directions and would lead to different data centers or main office spaces. 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.

Not Having Adequate Protection for your High-Speed Internet access: What is the Cost to Your Business?

The cost to your company if you do not have reliable access to The net will be far greater than you may realize. Consider the following:

Your company is reliant on VoIP for phone service

The carrier you use for your cable modem also provides circuits for a dozen or more tenants in the office building. Between 9 and 5, any of those other offices could be downloading huge files, streaming video or taking large volume of phone calls and more. As the amount of available bandwidth diminishes, what will happen to your phone calls? What happens to the strength and quality of that call? Are calls lost or dropped? Will you sound muffled?

Your organization is the central data point for multiple locations

Your office is the hub of your enterprise: You might be a law practice that shares files, a retail operation that utilizes POS systems or a large accounting firm that needs to share databases. Every single one of your offices, stores and sites rely on you and your primary Internet connection to retrieve data. What happens in the event of a circuit failure? Is it just irritating? Is it going to cause tremendous problems? Can your satellite or remote office do any work at all? Can they process transactions or new orders? Share essential data? Do you know what your business needs? Be sure to fully understand your requirements. It will help you choose the correct solution. You have a software company, and are running a hosted solution for dozens, maybe hundreds, of customers. Maybe you offer a service that allows other systems use an application program interface (API) to talk to you to collect information and data. What happens when there is a problem connecting to your servers? How will repeated outages affect your customers? Will they remain customers?

The phones in your office, which functions as a call center, relies entirely on voice-over Internet protocol (VoIP)

Your organization is completely dependent on the web. Should your circuits stop working, imagine your people being unable to make any outbound phone calls. Calls coming in would be unanswerable. You might not even know people are trying to reach your office. You are now officially out of organization. Is redundancy enough? Are your current carriers as dependable as you would like? Is the quality of service sufficient for your calls to be clear and reliable?

In San Rafael, California: Selecting the Proper High-Speed Business Access Circuits for Your Company

Clearly, there are many choices. Your business needs and your budget will have to come into consideration when deciding on your solutions. In review:

Internet Access for Smaller Businesses

A single fifty, ten or five megabyte Internet access circuit may be adequate to meet the needs of your small organization, particularly if you have only one location and are not worried about redundancy. Find out if you are in a lit building. If so, the price of Metro Ethernet or gigabit service may be affordable. Speak with our engineers about what is right for you. Prices vary with location and circuit availability.

Internet Access-One Location- Medium Sized Business

You have a midsized company in San Rafael, California; you will surely need higher-speed Internet. Gigabit Internet, Metro Ethernet and other higher speed Internet circuits are options to consider. Ideally, you want to have the greatest redundancy. You can achieve this by using multiple circuits from different providers. Achieving this may cost extra but it won’t double your costs. For example, you may use 2 fifty meg circuits instead of 1 one hundred meg circuit. Do not forget that you will find variations in price and availability. You need to speak with one of our experts to determine your options in your specific location.

Internet Access for the Medium Sized Company with Multiple Offices

Any company with more than one location suffers the greatest risk of problems. Redundant circuits must be an essential part of their systems. Having several providers would afford extra protection. Redundant routers, switches and other equipment can also be helpful to lessen downtime during a problem. Here also, examine the Ethernet access services, gigabit Internet and Metro Ethernet providers. Take a careful look at other high-speed Internet access circuit providers before choosing the right one. Finding the best combination of services, providers and equipment can go a long way toward helping your organization run as efficiently as possible.

If you are a larger company, an enterprise company or a are in the organization of providing services using the Internet

For businesses that fit this description, it is essential to have gigabit Internet circuits, point-to-point high-speed Internet circuits and Metro Ethernet Internet circuits. Having redundant hardware as well as redundant circuits from different providers will ensure your needed uptime. You must have the bandwidth to withstand sharp increases in usage. Doing so will help protect you from slowdowns or interruptions. Your goal is to have hardware and circuits that are more than capable of providing support to a significant number of fast and simultaneous connections.

Receive a Free Internet Need and Demand Analysis

Insufficient bandwidth and failing circuits are present tremendous risk to your organization. The right circuits must meet your demand while keeping you within your budget. It is crucial to choose the correct mix of hardware and circuits. Figuring out exactly what to put in the mix, can be a daunting task.

Our engineers will analyze your needs and requirements and develop a free action plan for you. After reviewing your current usage and demand levels, we’ll generate a cost effective plan that provides your business with the resources it needs.

If you would like to arrange for an assessment, please click here to complete the contact information form to the right. You can call our office as well. We do assessments quickly. It can take as little as 48 hours to complete your analysis.