advice on comms

The best solution is to go in wireless communication 802.11b or 802.11a. U will find an ISP that provides this and ask them if you can have wireless connecton at your place.
 If the answer is positive u have the following pros:
 High speed (11Mbps , actual speed 4Mbps)
 24 hour connection
 No wires

 
 

 regards
 aristotles

First of all, throw everything from aristotles out the window.  802.11 networks are for your LAN and don't relate to Internet access.  A wireless network is obviously not what you're in need of.

That said... I think you've got two choices: T-1 or Satellite.  You'll find that the satellite solution will probably be around the same speed as ADSL.  Some will require you to use a modem for uploads, but if you check out Earthlink.net's service, you'll see that they do not require that.  The only downside to using satellite is that there is a slight lag.  If you're just surfing the web, downloading, and doing e-mail, you won't have any problems.  If you try to do something in real time, you'll see the lag.  As long as you're not trying to remotely control a PC or server or trying to do a video-conference, you'll have no problems.

As for the T-1, you'll probably find more cost with a T-1, but you'll also have more flexibility.  If you go for a T-1, there are also companies out there that do Voice over IP.  You could get a T-1 along with your phone services and that would probably end up saving your company some money in addition to speeding up your Internet access.

Hi Noodles156 & Flachebag
The site I am trying to get connection with is very remotly located on the west of Ireland, there is little or no change of a T-1 line, the line would have to come about 100 miles!  :-(

There has been a suggestion that ASDL will be expanded out as far as us in the near future but to be honest that might never happen.

I have purchased a satellite connection and am experiencing some problems with connectivity, obviously being in the west of ireland we get plenty of overcast days, could this be the problem?  I am happy with the lag, the main use for the connection is ftp although Email, Web and some database applications will be run from this line!

I am interested in any problems that I may encounter with Satelite in paticular and possible fixes or workarounds.

Also, is there a way to quantify the speeds I should expect with satelite connections?

Thanks
CiaranG

Again for the speed you'll have to check with your ISP as to what you should be exspecting.  Unfortunatly overcast skys often do cause problems with satelite, my satelite tv for example goes out often when there is strong rain.  Clouds alone shouldn't cause problems though.  If the satelite dish is mounted poorly it may not be aimed directly at the satelite in space or may be swaying in the wind.  I'd recommend contacting your ISP and tell them of the problem hopefully they will correct it.  Also make sure no trees are obstructing the satelite.

http://bandwidthplace.com/speedtest/

This is a good place to test your speed.  Of coarse the servers are loacted in the US so it may be a bit off for you over there.

My ISP is due to get back to me today, I might need more advice so I will hold off dishing out the points until then so that I can keep this thread going

just because you are 100miles away doesn mean the ISP has to run 100 miles of cable for a dedicated link -> they run a cable from your location the the local connection, then give you a dedicated piece of the backbone connection they have then run the last little bit from the remote location to it's local office.  

they still charge you for it (and sometimes you think you paid for 100 miles ;-) ) but you won't have to (unless one location is so remote there is NO lines near it)

I've also been looking for someone with some experience of satellite, I'm on the South coast of England and have installed a 1-way satellite system which uses the 56kbps dial-up for upload at the moment. The plan is to replace the 56k link with a dual ISDN then to share out the connection with the neighbours via wireless IEEE 802.11b, and share the cost.

I assume you have a 2-way satellite system? Is the latency significant? I'm getting 800kbps download regularly, sometimes up to 1.6Mbps, and 3Mbps has been the maximum. The connection seems reliable, but then it is summer!