Choosing the best business ISP

Unhappy with your current ISP and looking for something new, or have your business needs changed and your current provider no longer cuts the mustard? If so, what should you look out for in a business-focused ISP?

Depending on the size and the growth potential of your business, choosing the right ISP can be a minefield. There are a number of both large and small ISPs as so then as the major telcos out there who promise the world, nevertheless on the other side of the coin, many are the subject of complaints about poor quality, poor speeds or good old-fashioned poor service.

When looking for a new ISP, the first thing you should do is innovation, innovation, and more innovation. All ISPs provide details of their plans in terms of pricing, download speed and capacity, however before choosing the cheapest option, take the time to work out specifically what your business needs now and hereafter. If you sign up to a cheap plan yet don't read the fine print, you could find yourself locked into a contract that does not take into account your data requirements over time.

For any small business, the first step should be to conduct an audit what the business needs now and in two years' time. The current provider may provide a cheap and cheerful service now, however if expansion in terms of staff or new offices is on the cards, or new services are being added which may require more upload capacity, at the time "cheap" may as a matter of fact prove more expensive down the line.

If your business needs are small, at the time price and reliability are the obvious yardsticks. If, after all, you are gravitating towards additional services like VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) or you are expecting to increase the size of your staff, next speed, upload capacity and data connectivity are the keys. For Jim Kellett, product manager at Internode, reliability is the key first of all else. "There is as well price, even though ADSL sorts out most of the price sensitive, however where ADSL starts to run out of steam is when a business needs to increase its upload capacity to the Internet," he says.

"ADSL is asymmetrical and is very much designed for clients downloading lots so businesses, especially if they are starting to use VoIP and video over IP ,they need more upload capacity. That's where ADSL2+ and ethernet come in, and they are very dependent on where you are. They are very affordable in metropolitan areas nevertheless they get a bit scary in regional areas, so roll on the NBN."

For enterprise level clients, it is best to approach each ISP and get a quote for your exact needs. Telstra may be worth having another look at at this stage now offering enterprise-level customers with Internet Protocol version 6 connectivity. IPv6 offers the new, longer IP addresses to overcome the impending shortage of current IPv4 addresses globally.

Telstra says it is now "dual-stacked" and can provide customers with connections to either IPv4 or IPv6. "If clients choose to opt-in to IPv6, they will have access to the global IPv6 internet, including connectivity to multiple providers internationally," a Telstra spokesperson says. For small to medium-sized businesses, you might want to look at some of the smaller, ISP-specific companies in other words than the telcos. Connexus, for instance, specialises in creating virtual private networks that can link up to 2000 individual connections.

According to Connexus, "all the sites within the network communicate seamlessly and transparently with one another to put it more exactly than being routed through a central location and can access the internet via a high speed gateway. Network speed is determined by the interconnection speed of each location and this may vary depending on requirements."

Fixed cost basis

Connexus provides VPNs on a fixed cost basis, allowing unlimited and unmetered traffic between sites. It has as well introduced a hybrid broadband product allowing users to customise router configurations at their core network and the customer premises.

For SMBs wanting to find out the real lowdown on what ISPs promise to offer and the reality - minus the sales spiel - the best advice is to talk to other, similarly sized businesses about their experiences, or dip into the very knowledgeable world of the whirlpool.net.au online forum. It has everything you need to know about ISPs, good and bad.

Publisher's notes: SoftPerfect Network Protocol Analyzer is an advanced, professional tool for analyzing, debugging, maintaining and monitoring local networks and Internet connections. It captures the ...