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Hi,
current setup we have here at work is a bit rubbish so looking for advice on how to improve it.
We have 2 broadband connections, equally slow at about 4Mbps each dl and 1Mbps up at best. These are connected to a load balancing router, network switch and our 25 or so users.
We've moved from internal servers to sharepoint/office365 which tbh is causing more problems, probably down to timeouts due to the connection.
The idea of the load balance router was to use bandwidth (I think) rather than up the overall speed, like you get from bonding. Also a relatively cheap option.
Any ways to speed it up a bit? As far as I know we're getting the max our providers can give us (BT and Enta)and Fibre isn't available yet, and not likely for another year or so at least.
I suspect it'll come down to budget at the end of the day, but it'd be nice to have a few options to throw at the boss.
ta
Riverbed and others offer WAN optimisation kit but it's quite pricey and needs reasonably expert setup to get the best out of it.
My first step would be to investigate what the problem actually is, then whether your existing kit can prioritise the problematic traffic.
We're cheaparses here and use wireshark & pfsense to do it.
Blocking non-work related traffic would probably be my first port of call. If you've got bandwidth issues you don't want people on [s]Singletrack[/s] Facebook and Youtube all day.
😉
yes quite.
Riverbed and others offer WAN optimisation kit but it's quite pricey and needs reasonably expert setup to get the best out of it.
You'd need to Riverbed both ends of the link so it won't be of use. But knowing what is causing your issue is the best advice, might be fixable with no (minimal) spend.
Worth asking other providers too and your existing ones as things do change in the background. Maybe EFM is a possibility if not fibre?
Look into a leased line to bypass/reduce any contention on the ADSL circuit.
Oh, and get some good baseline figures on how it performs now rather than a feeling - have something you can measure and repeat so if you do change anything you can point to it and say 'I did that' or go bollock a service provider if it doesn't perform.
see if your provider offers an EFM circuit. Cheaper than leased line, better than bonded adsl IMHO
brassneck - MemberYou'd need to Riverbed both ends of the link so it won't be of use. But knowing what is causing your issue is the best advice, might be fixable with no (minimal) spend.
Errr...
http://www.riverbed.com/products/wan-optimization/saas-applications.html
Run as much of the office 365 stuff as you can in 'offline' mode where it uses a local cached copy and uploads changes in background.
especially if they don't have a 'P' 🙂you don't want people on [s]Singletrack[/s] Facebook and Youtube all day
Errr...
http://www.riverbed.com/products/wan-optimization/saas-applications.html
That's sold as SaaS so you don't actually need any kit either, so well worth a look. I didn't read the 365 bit 😳
I have SH point to point optimisation, and it's been really good for wringing the most out of the line, but it is indeed not cheap in that format.
Thanks all.
I think the SaaS solution may help, but I'm guessing as I know shit all about this really, so will seek someone with more knowledge than me to decipher your advice.
🙂
Upload is probably the biggest problem.
What are you willing to pay to fix it? Leased lines may be pricey next to ADSL but you're guaranteed bandwidth and uptime, plus they tend to be symmetric (same upload and download). Even a 2MB line dedicated to your Office 365 stuff should be fine, then chuck facebook and the rest over your ADSLs.
Could you be eligible for this? http://www.spitfire.co.uk/BroadbandConnectionVouchers.shtml