How much bandwidth is enough bandwidth?

[Tels]

I am desperately trying to get my facts straight. I work for a company and we are making a big step onto the internet. We already have an online bookings program ready to go online, and we are just waiting for the DSL installers to get busy.
I'd like to know what kind of bandwidth would be needed for, say, 10 hits per hour, mainly text information, no extreme multimedia content or anything like that.

Bear in mind I think DSL lines are faster downloading than they are uploading - this would be negative for people visiting a DSL rigged site - anyone know any more about this?

Thanks well in advance for your help guys

Tels

Win2000 Network Administrator

 

[ChrisAC]

It's hard to say what your bandwidth should be! It really depends on how much it's going to get hammered!! Ten hits per hour on a web site wouldn't require a great amount of bandwidth, but what if you get more hits? What capacity will you have?

A good rule of thumb in these cases is to get as much bandwidth as you can afford! You can never have too much! Find out what your budget is, try to push it a bit more and then ask your provider "How much can I have? This is my budget. What can you do for me?"

Good luck.

Chris.

 

[HSETEK]

You may have no choice in the matter that I am going to bring up but... I do not really suggest using DSL for a server... This technology was not designed for this. It can work but is no where near as stable (in my opinion) as I would want a connection to be to run a server off of. Does your DSL connection come with a static IP? you may wish to look into a T1 or fractional T1. They tend to be much more stable and your upload will be much higher.

 

[StarTAC]

correct... if u were to use xDSL for serving web sites, i would recommend u go with the vDSL, as it can support up to 52Mbps downlink and 26Mbps uplink.. the only draw back is that it's still under development, although some trials have already taken place.. in addition, u can only get this kind of speed on the flavour of xDSL if you are within 1,000 metres of the telco that provides u this circuit....

on the other hand, as someone mentioned earlier.... u may want to go with either a T-1, which would be about 1.536Mbps on the wire, or a an E-1 [i don't know if it's supported in your part of the world], which would be about 2.048Mbps......

if your ISP supports wireless, u can connect to their wireless system... it would be more advisable to do this if the line of sight distance between u and the ISP is under 5km.. when using a high frequency radio, u can achieve between 6Mbps and 11Mbps on the wireless system.. what's better, is that it's free, as long as it's in the unlicensed 2.4GHz ISM band.... i would advise that such a system be dedicated, between u and the ISP, as the wireless system is like cable internet... u share your bandwidth with all the ISPs customers... and is less secure this way.. u are more prone to man-in-the-middle attacks.. or ARP poisoning...

of course, if your needs grow beyond what u can afford, u can always place the web server at the ISP.. and only pay for how much of their uplink comes down the 10 Base T ethernet cable the hooks u to their switch....

good luck..

AKNIT

 

[hexn]

10 hits per hour? That is hardly anything. You wont need anything more than 128K. But watch your daily stats, and make sure your bandwidth increases with the amount of traffic you get. ~~~~~~~~~~

http://shnypr.com

tech@shnypr.com
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[ChrisAC]

I would agree with that! 128K would be more than enough for what you are suggesting, but if you can afford more then buy more!!

One thing is for sure in life .. your bandwidth requirements will grow!!

Chris.
********************************
Chris Andrew, CCNA
Technical Support Engineer
********************************

 

[Tels]

Thanks guys (and gals?), I'm really pleased with all the good advice! Just to throw another problem into the mix, I plan to link up to two VPN connections thru this line, (rarely more than one at a time), and the whole thing will be run through a Linux based IPCHAINS firewall (built myself) on a P2 class machine with 2 100Mb adapters

Will this be enough? What kind of load will this put on the firewall?

Thanks again for all your help

Cheers

Telz Win2000 Network Administrator

 

[iggystar]

In regards to you're earlier question...I'd be stunned if DSL couldn't handle the load you've described...even with the addition of the VPN connection. If you forsee an increase in traffic as a natural progression of your business then getting a fractional T1 might be a good idea but if you're gonna be a steady 10 hits per hour on into infinity then you'll be fine with DSL.

As for you're firewall, the machine you describe should be much more than adequate. The firewall will barely even feel the type of traffic you're describing.

 

[Tels]

Wonderful. :-D I think that, after all the advice here, I'll set it up with fixed-IP DSL and increase the bandwidth if it needs be. The main issues I have here are that one of the applications used over VPN will be an old(ish) database program which has in my opinion (from experience) the potential to totally saturate any available VPN bandwidth. I get a feeling that I can control this using Bandwidth throttling (win2000 Server) - am I right? anyone know any good tutorials? I hafta say that so far my questions have been answered and more. Thanks.

And lastly, does anyone have any recommendations for ways to monitor bandwidth usage (on a constant basis) for the server? this kind of thing is around a corner I haven't turned yet...

Thanks everyone!!

Tels :-D Win2000 Network Administrator

 

[hexn]

I think if you want to monitor bandwidth, you should look at MRTG. It really is the best tool out there for a graphical display of bandwidth usage.

http://www.mrtg.org

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tech@shnypr.com

http://shnypr.com/tech

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