On Friday 01 December 2006 00:08, Andrew wrote: > > - define "business grade" > > 1. fixed IP
Bah. That's the standard for even the cheapest home plan with my ISP - everybody gets a static IP number when they book an ADSL plan. Only rip-off companies charge extra for it. > 2. no contention ratio in dslam (try and find another ISP in Aust who does > this www.broadbandchoice.com.au) You cannot have a contention ration in DSLAM, only contention ratio for the available bandwidth. DLSAM contention ratio would mean that you have to figt for a connection ina queue with other customers like in the darg ages of dial-in modems, not compatible withdfeinitionof "always on" What matters is actual uptime and actual throughput. The theoretical maximum througput for a 1500/256 ADSL connection is about 160 kbs, and I get this every time I try. > 3. smallish download caps to deter bandwidth hogs and ensure quality of > service Haahahahahahahahaha. I supopoose if I told you there is no father CHristmas it would reduce you to tears? Come on. THINK! If you have "no contention ratio" (contention ratio = 1), it means that your share of bandwidth is *reserved* for you - so NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU USE IT or others use it it should not have any impactct on your bandwidth. Capisce? Otherwise, they do have a contention ratio > 1 What it really means is that Telstra oversells their available bandwidth so vastly that they have to artificially throttle usage else the whole thing collapses in a heap. > 4. Priority business support desk > 5. After hours pager -support desk As I said - my ISP provides a reliable service. Don't even know how well their support desk works, and probably won't have to know either as long as they continue their flawless service The only tech support I need (eg routing request) I rang after surgery hours, and I didn't have to wait. No stupid musac, no "we value our customers, please hold the line and get f*cked" - a knowledgeable person answering the phone, passing me straight through to a techie who actually understood what I requested, and did it straight away. When I requested a block of 8 static IP numbers, it took about an hour until I had them and the routing was working. Now THAT's service. > 6. No bullshit support staff, something Telstra should try but never will. I agree that Telstra should try one day employing no bullshit support staff, but I thought you were with them? > 7. Real people you can contract to come onsite if needed to solve problems see above > 8. A real office where you can have a conference with the system admins > about designing a solution. I design the solution, I tell the ISP what I want, they implement it and charge a reasonable fee if necessary. > 9. Optional failsafe(automatic) modem or ISDN services ??? - as I said, modems come cheap as chips nowadays. Buy a bindle and keep it in the cupboard if you want fail proof redundancy, but no need to go onto a super expensive and restrictive plan for this > 10. They own the Dslams in the exchanges so they control them themselves. Means bugger all. If a DSLAM breaks, it has to get fixed. Whether it is a customer of the owner of the DSLAM or a reseller contractig the owner for that service makes bugger all difference. In teh case of Telstra it meant one devastating difference though: artificial throtteling affecting all customers, whether directly their own, or those of resellers. Unfortunately, in rural situations like mine, tere wopn't be more than one provider having DSLAMs in the exchange, so there is no choice there Horst _______________________________________________ Gpcg_talk mailing list [email protected] http://ozdocit.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/gpcg_talk
