How much banda Your company needs?

No matter what size your business is ... small, medium or large. Having to determine the amount of bandwidth is needed for a new computer network, or update an existing, it is sufficient to make anyone burst in a cold sweat.

Relax. Here is a simple guide to walk you through the minefield ... and go to the side.

This should be approached from two points of view - the first is to understand where you are, and the second is where you go.

(1) Where are you - You must have a sense of what you have now and how it is used. Take an inventory of your current data and voice circuits. The monthly bills will give you a sense of call volume. You can ask your provider of telecommunications for a report that tells you max contemporary lines in use. This will be useful to determine the volumes of calls. For example if you have three PRI, you may find that sometimes you have all the channels in use at the same time. This could indicate capacity problems.

If you have no monitoring network in place, a tool such as PRTG (economic) or MRTG (free) can give a sense of bandwidth and traffic type. They are people that streaming video all day? It 's important for them to do?

2) Where you're going - Once you get a handle on where you are, you must understand what business goals are for next year or two. If you expect to add people, this means more capacity. If you want to improve or extend the sharing or data systems across multiple locations, this may mean private networks. The addition of more people? This means that bandwidth and call volume can go up - especially when it comes to selling or servicing customers since they are one in the phone more often.

Regarding the selection of the circuit, which is led out of what is available from suppliers in your area and how much it costs for a period (12.24, 36 months). Generally, you can get almost anywhere T1, but you are limited to increments of 1.5Mbps. This means that you need more cards in your router. After the tie 4-6 T1 ', may be better to look at another type of circuit. Check whether Ethernet / Fast Ethernet or fiber is available. These provide maximum flexibility to increase the bandwidth over time.

Based on the cost of the circuit, I would not really go over 36 months - 24 can be better. In addition, competitive bidding should, if possible for the services. If the LECs know you're looking around, be more competitive in their prices. If you need help with this please let us know .... is what we do. In addition, our services are free of charge .......