Alex...what are your thoughts on a MESH network? does this help with latency? We are considering increasing our speed (currently at 25 dl / 4 up) and thought maybe we should try a mesh network ( Ubiquiti or Google or EERO) -
Thank you On Saturday, March 9, 2019 at 1:50:15 PM UTC-6, Alex Hillman wrote: > > Your milage may vary a bit depending on what your members *do* (e.g. > videographers use much more bandwidth than, say, almost anybody else!). > > My rule of thumb is to buy the best internet connection you can afford + a > failover if it's possible. The two things to never skimp on are bandwidth > and coffee. > > That said... > > Two things that aren't obvious about coworking Internet usage (and how > bandwidth is just a tiny part of the equation) until you've had hundreds > of people piping through a shared connection every day: > > *1) bandwidth is important, but latency is more important. *Without > getting super duper technical, latency is the speed that the network > responds, which is different from how fast files download. > > MOST people spend a lot of their day clicking around the Internet, or > using internet connected apps. With some rare exceptions like game > developers and video editors, the files we move around in our daily work > are relatively small. Video and VOiP might seem like it uses a lot of > bandwidth, but overall it's quite small! > > The problems happen when the *latency* is bad - everyone feels it because > clicking to load a page, or refresh email, or live typing on Google docs > etc feels like it has a lag. Our network (internal wireless + gigabit > ethernet) used to have a Comcast Business connection of 50mb down/10mb and > always had more than enough bandwidth for 120+ people working hard every > day. And that includes streaming videos, music, etc. *Normal* usage, even > with 100+ people on the network, rarely peaks above 30-40 megs down and > normally idles well below 10mbps. > > *Where things go haywire is when latency goes up.* This can happen in our > network because wifi coverage is interrupted, or because our internet > provider is having issues, or most often because someone on the network is > uploading a huge file (offsite backup like a Dropbox sync or uploading a > video to YouTube) and our ISP starts to throttle latency because it thinks > something is wrong. *This took is FOREVER to figure out!* > > We since switched to a much better local provider that gives us 250 > down/150 up for a fraction of the cost, and our normal network latency > compared to comcast dropped by 70% (again, lower latency is better). It's a > rough experience to explain to people, and they don't care if it's latency > or speed they just want to work. So understanding that more speed without > an improvement in latency is important. > > *2) the network itself is just as important as the Internet connection.*You > can check out my past post on speccing out a solid, reliable Unifi network > <https://groups.google.com/d/msg/coworking/rJ7PBY_-Tko/deEmQ6wNBgAJ> for > a fraction of the price of anything else on the market. > > As far as Comcast vs Verizon, I have had nothing but horrible horrible > horrible experiences with Comcast and will not ever give them a dime of my > money again. Verizon isn't a saintly corporation either, but I can't say > anything but good things about the FiOS service I have at my home and it > would perform perfectly at Indy Hall if I could get it there (which we > can't, sadly). > > -Alex > > On Fri, Mar 8, 2019 at 7:36 PM Row House Cinema <rowhouse...@gmail.com > <javascript:>> wrote: > >> Hello, >> >> Starting up a new co-working. Expecting a capacity of 150 users (I'm >> sure not all would be there at once, but its possible). I'm curious on >> what the standard internet speed and connection type for that would be... >> in your opinion, so I'm providing solid internet. >> >> Also, I only have a choice between Comcast or Verizon! so much >> selection. Thoughts on either, as I'm indifferent. >> >> Finally, how many people use both as a a redundant backup... or do the >> LTE backup boxes work well enough during outages. >> >> Thanks in advance. >> Brian >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "Coworking" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to coworking+...@googlegroups.com <javascript:>. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >> > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
