Multi-company Internet Connection Supply

[SUnderwood]

Hello everyone

I've spotted a unique opportunity which I am sure will be a winner.

I work in a building which houses about 20 different business, most of which have their own internet access, with various bandwidth demands and usage patterns. Most of these businesses are wasting their money because they do not utilise most of the bandwidth they, potential, have use of. So a most obvious venture would be to provide internet access to all these businesses via a single pipe which will save them money, and provide them all with an increased internet access!!

Now my problem is how to do it. I have a internet connection, and i want to share it with the other businesses in the building. Their concerns will be about security, so each business should be protected from interference from other businesses.

Any suggestions or examples?

Regards

Sean

 

[SUnderwood]

Dear All,

One method I have thought of is to use a managed switch with each company plugged into one port to allow access to the ADSL router port, and disallow cross port traffic unless explicitly requested by each company.

In each Company a single RJ45 cable can be plugged into the company's hub, or they could use a USB<->Ethernet plug into the back of a computer which all other computers use as a gateway.

All computers on the hubbed network use the IP of the ADSL router as the gateway, whilst the USB version all computers use the USB<->Ethernet attached computer's IP as the gateway and the attached computer then uses the ADSL IP for its gateway. The USB<-> Ethernet machine would utilise MS-ICS to route traffic.

Anyone with more ideas?

Regards

Sean

 

[newisp]

A couple of things I would like to mention.

First, you will need to have a &quot;resellable&quot; connection. Check your service agreement and see if the provider allows for the resale of your connection. Most providers expressly state that you are not allowed to resell your/their service and the penalties range from termination to prosecution for theft of service.

We use a T1 line here which is substantially better than an ADSL connection but is also quite a bit more expensive. Our connection is resellable and it is guaranteed (which ADSL is not).

If you wish keep all of the companies in your building separate, subnet them off into their own little networks. For example, company A gets the IP range 192.168.1.1 with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 for it's use. Company B gets the IP range 192.168.2.1 with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 and you would continue on as necessary.

Another way of doing this would be to use a DSLAM like the ones Tut Systems manufacture. This would allow you to use the existing telephone wires in the building rather than running Cat5 cables throughout the building. Sometimes this is the more cost-effective way of doing the installation.

Read about it here:

http://www.tutsys.com/mtu/products/expressomdu/index.cfm

Good Luck

 

[SUnderwood]

Hi NewISP

Thanks for your help.

EasyNet, who I rent the lines from, said they don't mind how the connection is used.

Bandwidth is excellent with EasyNet and I haven't yet had any connection problem, and all at a very reasonable price.

The idea of subnetting the companies off is a good one, but doesn't stop idle play-abouts changing their IP or gaining easy access to other computers on the network, but certainly its a starting point which I will seriously consider for companies which don't want to pay an upfront connection fee.

I have contacted LinkSys about the idea and they provided a good solution. Some of their routers can be configured as gateways with NAT. The ADSL line(s) could be connected to a central gateway with each company being connected to this central gateway via their own NAT-gateway. In this fashion each company is serperated by the network hardware, whilst still given the opportunity to provide access between companies by changing the router configurations.

This would also provide an opportunity to add Wifi access, either by using wired+wireless combo gateways for each company, or some strategically placed wifi AP's about the building.

Hay, this could turn into something BIG!

Regards