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Wiring your office for Internet
access?
Keep it simple and know your options
By Jennie L. Phipps •
Bankrate.com
 Putting
your company online doesn't necessarily mean you have to rush out
and spend thousands on servers and high-speed connections.
In fact, you could emulate how David J. Craver,
president of InteReach Internet
Services, handled the situation. His company sells Internet
services -- but he took the low-end solution for his high-tech needs.
Because his employees work mostly by phone,
their Internet needs were minimal -- occasional volleys of e-mail.
So until recently, the company got along just
fine on two dial-up lines -- a couple of existing, unused phone
lines that Craver designated as modem lines. Several employees shared
each one. "For checking their e-mail, it worked just fine," Craver
says.
Start slowly
Craver followed Rule No. 1 in wiring your company: Start slowly
and don't spend more than you have to.
If a simple Web page and e-mail is all it takes,
get a reliable dial-up connection that comes with enough storage
space to host your site and save your money. Top upload speed is
about 56 kbps (kilobits per second) and the download speed is the
same. The cost is between $10 and $25 a month. Craven suggests contacting
your professional organization; some offer Internet access free
of charge.
But dial-up is only for the most minimal applications.
If you have employees who spend part of their day accessing the
Internet or if you are regularly sending and receiving big files
in Excel or PowerPoint, then dial-up probably won't work for you.
In that case, move to the next most cost-effective alternative.
Depending on where you're located, this could mean cable, Digital
Subscriber Line (DSL), ISDN or T-1 lines.
Cable
Cable is likely to be the least expensive. In some areas, cable
providers explicitly rule out office applications; in practice,
some look the other way when home offices opt for this alternative.
But cable solutions geared to small business are becoming more common.
Krissy Taylor, marketing and sales contact for FutureNetworks,
a manufacturer of cable modems, says her product can easily support
up to 16 users and sells for about $250.
Cable companies offering support for her product
include Cox
and AT&T's MediaOne.
Depending on how many people you intend to connect, the price may
be as little as $40 a month -- not a whole lot more than it costs
to wire your TV for HBO. The company may even throw in the modems
at no additional charge if you sign a contract. Taylor says some
of the pluses are the speed and ease of installation -- and cable
Internet access doesn't tie up phone lines.
The downside is that cable slows down noticeably
when there are lots of people online simultaneously. Taylor also
points out that while business-oriented cable Internet access is
accustomed to serving demanding business clients, if you're dependent
on cable access that is meant for the home market, you may not be
satisfied with the customer service. If you've had your television
cable go out, you know that it can be pretty laissez-faire.
DSL
Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) uses a regular telephone line to bring
you high-speed access. It is on continuously so, as Craver says,
the Internet becomes more of a tool. Lower speed DSL (ADSL) costs
from $50 to $60 a month per line plus about $200 for installation.
The commonly available low-speed ADSL line, in the 144 kbps range,
split four ways, will give simultaneous users speed equal to a 33.6
kbps dial-up. But if only one or two people are on at the same time,
the line is proportionately faster for both upload and download.
The computers on which you install DSL will
need to have Ethernet cards. If you're using older models that didn't
come with them, this can be an additional startup expense.
The ASDL market is very competitive at the moment
and there are lots of deals available, some of which waive installation
charges in return for a contract.
Again, go slowly. DSL can be tricky to maintain
on aging copper lines and companies that are offering it sometimes
have trouble providing reliable service. There are several Web sites
reviewing the performance of DSL providers, one of which is DSL Reports.
The faster SDSL service can cost several hundred
dollars a month, on top of several hundred dollars for installation.
But companies that offer it are usually prepared to deal with the
demands of a business atmosphere. If your Internet access is going
to be mission critical, it's probably worth it to pay the extra
dollars.
DSL isn't available everywhere because for it
to work, you have to be within about four miles of a relay station.
Although phone companies are making the changes necessary to enter
this market in as many places as possible, DSL access is unlikely
to ever be universal. Jeff Mackie-Mason, a professor in the School
of Information Sciences at the University of Michigan and an expert
in broadband applications, estimates that 30 percent of the United
States will never be able to get DSL.
So if both cable and DSL are out of the question,
what's left?
ISDN
In areas where nothing else is available, ISDN can be a better-than-dial-up
answer. Its top speed is 128 kbps, about twice the speed of a 56K
modem, and its cost is $20 to $50 a month, plus the cost of a special
ISDN line, which is usually about the same as an additional voice
line. For the money you get not only the ISDN line, but also voice
as well -- effectively two lines in one. Many Internet Service Providers
will be able to offer you ISDN.
ISDN has been around for more than a dozen years,
and it remains a complex technology, according to Robert Rosenberg,
president of The Insight Research Corporation, a telecommunications
market research and competitive analysis firm based in Parsippany,
N.J. Rosenberg says getting the line and the modem up and running
to begin with can be a big challenge. But once you've accomplished
that, ISDN will work more reliably than most of its competitors.
Fixed wireless
This is a first cousin of the technology that allows you to receive
e-mail on your cell phone, but it's much faster. A fixed wireless
network consists of microcell radios strategically placed every
quarter to half mile in a checkerboard pattern. This "mesh" architecture
routes data traffic between the modems and wired access points (devices
that pass data). It also increases the likelihood that there won't
be too many dropped connections, even when you're in motion.
Ricochet
is offering fixed wireless in about 25 metropolitan areas all over
the country. The service operates at 128 kbps, about the same as
ISDN or slow DSL, and is priced competitively with DSL. Whether
your employees are at their desks or on the road, they are always
connected. So this kind of connection makes particularly good sense
if you have a sales team that is out and about carrying laptops.
But as Rosenberg points out, fixed wireless is affected by the weather.
"When it snows, your screen is going to snow, too," he says.
One temporary plus for fixed wireless is that
it doesn't rely on phone lines, which right now -- in light of nationwide
telecommunications strikes -- are in high demand and the wait for
installation can be weeks or even months.
T-1 lines
A T-1 line can be available anywhere you're willing to pay to string
the cable. It's not an inexpensive solution. Even when the building
that houses your office is already wired, just getting it up the
wall and to your desk can cost thousands.
But Craver says that if Internet access is a
mission-critical part of your business and you have more than six
employees constantly online using any kind of bandwidth-hungry applications,
you ought to seriously consider this option.
It could be cheaper in the long run when you
consider the efficiency of your employees and your operations. He
advises starting with a quarter T, which costs less money per month,
seeing how it works, and then moving up to half or a full T if you
find you need it. The wiring will already be installed, so it's
just a matter of flipping a switch.
Jennie L.
Phipps is a contributing editor based in Michigan
--Posted: Oct. 19, 2000
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