Can you double the speed of internet for your business?
The internet has become a basic Requirement for any business across Australia and with the growing number of cloud services being offered and more data being transferred every day it sure is great to have a fast internet connection such, but what about those who require these services and don’t have access to a fast connection?
Why would I need faster internet or more bandwidth?
There are a number of reasons why you might need more speed and bandwidth which may be:
- The only internet connection you have access to is a slow ADSL with no Cable or NBN.
- Your office is located so far from the telephone exchange that your internet speed is severely degraded by the time it reaches your office.
- Your company has grown in size and one connection just doesn’t cut it.
- You are planning on using cloud backups or moving to cloud services but your connection isn’t fast enough.
Well the good news is that there is a solution to provide you with a quality internet connection if you are facing one or more of those scenarios.
Method of Increasing Internet Speed
The first option we always undertake is a test of the actual line speed to determine if there is any loss over the network.
I understand some of you may think “Well I don’t have a large network” or “My network is only 5 computers and a router”, even so there can still the possibility of incorrectly setup software and faulty hardware than can cause internet speed issues, I have even seen ADSL filters or bad wall plates cause problems.
Once it has been determined that the connection hardware is fine and there is no other option for a faster internet we implement a setup known as Multi-Wan (Wide Area Network) for those who are not tech savvy WAN is just the acronym for an internet connection.
How does Dual Wan / Multi-Wan work?
A Dual Wan or Multi-Wan system that is setup correctly will allow you to bridge two or more internet connections together and send your data in equal parts down multiple connections at the same time by utilizing load balancing.
If you have two internet connections of 10Mbps and you are downloading a 1GB file the load balancing system will send 500GB down one connection and the other 500GB down the other.
What Hardware is required?
All that is needed is a second internet connection and load balancing hardware such as a multi-wan capable Router / Modem / Firewall or Unified Threat Management (UTM) box.
When we have implemented these solutions to our clients we favor a dedicated UTM computer, such as one running pfSense as opposed to Multi-Wan Routers, this is because we have found them to load balance better, offer very good fail-safe in case one internet connection goes down and have very good packages for anti-virus and anti-spam filtering.
Multi-Wan capable routers and firewalls such as the Fortinet Fortigate are a great option for small companies looking to bridge two connection with a managed threat protection.
To find out what options can help increase your internet speed or which Multi-Wan System is suitable for you please contact us today by Clicking Here or call us on 0423 807 424.
Resources:
The pfSense website.
The Fortinet website.
*We do understand the cost of a second internet connection is not favorable but is usually the most viable option.
