Internet Connectivity for Laypeople Part 1

I’ve compiled three of the most common questions laypeople have about internet connectivity, mainly because internet connectivity is so important to our businesses and daily lives. Below I will, in partnership with the experts on the Conectrix team, explain in simplest forms the more fundamental aspects surrounding the internet and internet connectivity so that you are not left to your own strength, treading water in an ocean of deepening confusion. Part 1 will focus on the different types of internet connectivity.

the how you connect: best effort

First to note is that another word for connectivity is access. Think of it as the how you connect to the internet. The two types of internet access or connectivity are best effort and dedicated internet access. In a best effort internet connection, your home or your business is not guaranteed any predetermined speed/bandwidth rather the ISP (Internet Service Provider) is offering you a speed/bandwidth at their “best effort”. This type of internet access is also called a shared facility because you are literally sharing the same internet connection as all your neighbors.

When you think of best effort think of the freeway with a 70mph speed limit.  During early morning or late in the evening you can maintain a speed of close to 70mph, but during rush hour your average speed may be 20-25mph.  The more internet traffic on a “best effort” internet connection, the slower the speed your users will experience. 

best effort and upload and download

Internet connectivity bandwidth is measured by upload and download speeds. These two speeds are measured by how long it takes for you, with your present internet connection, to upload something or download something from the internet. How applications perform on the internet are determined not only by speed but also latency, packet loss, and jitter. Ping (which you’ve probably heard of before) is synonymous with latency; both terms mean how long it takes for your device to connect to the internet.

In best effort connectivity, you are not guaranteed an upload or download speed. Similar to the highway example, you are given a best effort speed. With a best effort connection, your download will always be much faster than upload, meaning that they are a-synchronistic. Herein lies the big difference between best effort access and dedicated internet access.  

the how you connect: dedicated internet

Dedicated internet access is a synchronistic connection wherein upload and download speeds are the same and guaranteed at all times. Plus, the speed it runs at you get to determine beforehand, when you purchase such internet access. The drawback of this superior speed and consistency is that you have to pay much more than best effort access. But the more money down is utterly necessary, especially for businesses.

Businesses choose dedicated more often than not because their core business efforts are predicated on a reliable internet connection. Your internet web browsing at home is not a mission-critical application and is not making your organization money so no need to choose dedicated internet access.

bandwidth

Lastly, before our example, upload and download speed (really internet speed as a whole) are measured by bandwidth. Bandwidth basically means speed with “mg” being the abbreviation. So when a business owner purchases dedicated internet access they will be asked the ISP how many megabytes or gigabytes they require; 10 mg? 20 mg? 30 mg? The higher your speed, the more it will cost, but the faster your internet connectivity will be. 

two types of internet access in use

Here is a real-world example of how a business owner might set up their internet connectivity with both types in use. Say in your office you have two WAN ports at your cable modem. In part one, you will connect your dedicated internet access circuit and in the second port you will connect your coax cable or best effort circuit; both of these are physical cables that generally are handed off by the carrier to the customer. The hope is that the $1000 you pay for your dedicated internet access will be carrying all the internet traffic for all applications, but in case of a failover, you have your $100 best effort access connection ready as a backup.