Practically everyone experiences internet issues at some stage, either at home, in the workplace work or worse, at both. The vast majority of us have probably even experienced said issues today alone already!
How often do you find yourself berating your internet speed for being too slow? And how much longer are you willing to tolerate it?
With Christmas approaching, many of us will soon be having to fire up a Skype connection to speak to loved ones around the world. We are truly blessed to have this ability to stay in touch, especially at this time of year. However, we all know how tedious this can be when one or both parties has a horrendous internet connection. The constant freezing, blank screens, loss of audio, we’ve all been there.
Now imagine how poor internet connectivity can become an almighty headache for your business. Nanny Pat may be more forgiving when your video chat cuts out for the fifth time, but how will your clients react when your online sales pitch freezes halfway through? How about the CEO in San Francisco when your EOFY video conference cuts out before they hear of their profits?
We all want the fastest possible Internet speed, but how do we achieve this? With so much terminology floating around, it helps to have a better understanding of what all the jargon means.
Mbps/ Gbps
These acronyms stand for megabits per second and gigabits for second. There is often a lot of confusion between a megabit and a megabyte and it is important to note that these two words are not interchangeable. Although 1 Megabyte is 8 Megabits, the two terms are looked at in different lights when it comes to internet connections. Megabits are generally used as a measurement of speed, whereas Megabytes are often used to reference data/ file size. One minute of music, or a half a minute of video equates to roughly one megabyte of data. So with a 1 Mbps line, it would take 8 seconds to transfer these files. This may be a liveable internet speed on a personal home broadband line, but your business will grind to halt trying to contend with this.
Downloads & Uploads
Typically, an ISP will display their speeds in the format download/upload (for example 100Mbps/10Mbps). The majority of offerings will have a vastly faster download speed over upload speed. Some ISPs may even purposely only highlight the download speed to draw you in. This is where we need to understand that your business may have different requirements to your home connection. At home, your primary use of the internet may be just to stream movies and/ or download music. If this is the case then upload speeds have never been a concern. In the workplace however, our demands can be drastically different. Imagine actually trying to upload a video for your colleagues, you could be sat watching your screen all day for it to complete. A weak upload speed is one of the greatest internet issues that arises.
Bandwidth
This term is constantly confused with speed to the point where we often forget what it actually represents. Speed measures how fast data can be uploaded/ downloaded. Bandwidth on the other hand looks at how much data can be download or uploaded from your computer at the same time. A great visualisation of this is to think of roads. Imagine a car travelling full speed at 100 Km/h on a single lane road. If this road become a 3 lane motorway, the car of course won’t be able to go any faster. However, we can now have an additional 2 cars also travelling at this speed at precisely the same time. Now swap out this metaphor for an office with 3 users all trying to watch a video at the same time. Each of the staff should be able to perform this task without being hindered by others.
Deciding upon a plan
Understanding what all the lingo means is one thing, but applying it to the business needs is another. To get the ideal internet connection, we need to cover all bases.
So let’s brainstorm…
How many employees does the business have?
Is the business likely to grow/ reduce in size in the near future?
Are unlimited data downloads required?
What activity will users be performing on the internet?
What types of connection are available in the area?
There may of course be various other factors to be mindful of, some you might be aware of and some you wouldn’t even begin to think of. Unfortunately it isn’t as simple as “I want fast internet” anymore. With so much to contemplate it’s not easy to choose the right plan. This is where Bang IT can step in to assist.
Here to help…
It’s approaching the time of year where for a lot of us we start to think about what changes we would like to make to start the new year off with a bang, and there’s no reason why this can’t be applied to the workplace. If you’re looking to take your business to the next level by finally installing that internet connection you’ve been crying out for, then contacting Bang IT should be your #1 new year’s resolution!
Bang IT Solutions are partners with all the mainstream telecommunication companies in Australia. This puts us in an optimal position to provide you with the expertise necessary to get the best internet connection for your business.
Find out below if the NBN rollout has reached your area: https://www.nbnco.com.au/connect-home-or-business/check-your-address
Click here to check out some of the plans we offer, or contact us by email at sales@bangitsolutions.com or by calling 1300 770035 to get the perfect tailored plan for your business.
Merry Christmas!
Everyone here at Bang IT would like to wish all our readers a very merry festive period and a wonderful new year!