T1 Useage

well it takes about 1.5 hours of constant download or upload to download 400 meg of data at max speed/constant use. Your probably working 8 hour days, so the connection doesnt really seem saturated.


What I would do is test the connection at night or when the connection isnt really being used. Does it seem faster than before? What about at lunch time when there arent as many users pounding on the connection. This will help you decide. Also, you might want to use some quality of service software for your connection, to track the bandwidth and assign critical bandwidth to your VOIP stuff.

Hope this helps

Trav

Is this a frame relay data connection? If so the typical CIR(Committed Information Rate) is usually half the speed. Thus you are only guaranteed 384k and it can burst up to 768. Its a shared technology. If you had a full T1 frame relay line, then you are looking at guaranteed bw of 768k. Is this office to office? Another option would be a point to point T1 if that was the case. Usually less expensive for a full T1 and you get full bandwidth.

I am pretty sure this is a Frame Relay T1.  We use this connection for Internet Access. There is no point to point.  Knowing that this is a Frame Relay T1 (actually 1/2) then is our Internet Connection being heavily used?

Are you using Cisco routers? What I use to monitor all inbound and outbound bw is a program called MRTG. It runs on windows and linux. I have it running on linux. It shows me the inbound and outbound stats for each interface on the router. http://www.mrtg.org. The instructions are easy to follow. This will show you hourly stats, daily, weekly and yearly. The graphs usually update every 5 mins.

I am pretty sure this is a Frame Relay T1.  We use this connection for Internet Access. There is no point to point.  Knowing that this is a Frame Relay T1 (actually 1/2) then is our Internet Connection being heavily used?

Yes we are using a Cisco 1700 Series router. We also have a separate CSU/DSU.
Thanks for the help.

Well in doing the math, if your connection is only at guaranteed for 384, thats 3 hours to download that 400 meg of data. and thats only happend a couple times. I dont think you are saturating the connection. I would test it at night before dropping more money down. Have you thought about a cheap commercial cable access (high speed internet) for your internet and use the t1 just for voice?

Yes we are using a Cisco 1700 Series router. We also have a separate CSU/DSU.
Thanks for the help.

I would test the connection tonight. After hours. Run a bandwidth test during the day while people are nailing it (www.dslreports.com) and then test it at night. see how much of a difference you get.

Part of the problem is that our sales dept and other users perform VNC demos of our software. They connect to our sales person's computer (view only) and watch the demo. The problem is that the connection seems really slow.  When we download software our connection is 20-30kbps compared to my home (using cable modem 300+kbps).
If we were to go with a Standard Cable Modem connection the upload is only 284 upload correct?

Definitely run the tests. Some carriers will also watch the line and give you a usage report if you request it. ATT gives us one once a week as part of the service.

Depends. You can get an SDSL 1.5/1.5 from ATT for 399/mo. Cable is Async for the most part. So yes, the upload will be slower than the download.

20-30 is pretty low but if what is said about ATM, then your within the minimum parameters. Is it slow when nobody is on the connection? (with the vnc demos)

Not ATM, i mean frame relay :)

Just to throw my $0.02 in for what it's worth:
Total download throughput is not as much of an indicator as percentage of bandwidth used and dropped packet counts. If a serial interface hits 70% utilization consistently, it is considered saturated. Using a tool like MRTG or SolarWinds to monitor the utilization will give you a much better picture of the health of your line. You could have some other circuit issues that are limiting the speed.
Look at the results of "sho interface serial 0" on your router and look for error counts. Clear counters and see if they increase, especially CRC or frame errors, or dropped packets. If they do, contact your telco provider and have them clean up the line.

If you go with DSL, SDSL is far superior for a business line. Cable is shared medium and not as reliable.

Never heard of it but sounds excellent. Will look in to it.
THANKS!!!

I know they are available in Atlanta, Denver, and Dallas.