Is it wise...

[beard]

to give up a 512kbps diginet (1:3 contention) and replace with 4 x 1Mbps business uncapped ADSL on fiber links? Given that contention on these ADSL links are 20:1 (?), the "guaranteed bandwidth" is roughly the same, and the cost of the 4 ADSL links against the diginet is about the same as well. The possible throughput is just so much more. The latency on the ADSL links will be worse than on the diginet?

Given that you can sort out the load balancing between the 4 links......

 

[Franna]

What about a 256kbps diginet line (1:3 contention) with one 4Mbps business uncapped ADSL fiber load balanced - then you get the best of two worlds.

Find the load-balancing router here:
http://www.xincom.com/products/502/overview.php

 

[pope24]

Technology Concepts also offer bonded ADSL solutions. I have seen a demo and it looks impressive.

http://www.techconcepts.co.za/

 

[beard]

What about a 256kbps diginet line (1:3 contention) with one 4Mbps business uncapped ADSL fiber load balanced - then you get the best of two worlds.

Find the load-balancing router here:
http://www.xincom.com/products/502/overview.php

Thanks for the reply
That will be a nice solution! In what way will the diginet still be 'better' than the ADSL? latency? reliability?
I'll get a price on such a 4Mbps ADSL fibre link...
I had a look at the xincom load balancer specs. Can do 2 WAN links. A bit worrying is a spec that states "up to 253 users", I'm looking at about 350 users. It's probably only the built-in DHCP server limitation.
Any experience with this load balancer? Can it take the wrath of +- 350 users? is it avaliable is SA? price? Sorry for all the questions....

 

[beard]

Technology Concepts also offer bonded ADSL solutions. I have seen a demo and it looks impressive.

http://www.techconcepts.co.za/

Got a quote from them. Their links are so fast they only sell capped bundles, no uncapped.... A bit difficult to use a capped solution on a network with +- 350 users if you don't want too much admin hassles. I'll rather get an uncapped solution, and let it run against the roof (blocking P2P during peak times if needed)...

 

[beard]

What about a 256kbps diginet line (1:3 contention) with one 4Mbps business uncapped ADSL fiber load balanced - then you get the best of two worlds.

Find the load-balancing router here:
http://www.xincom.com/products/502/overview.php

also the Dlink DLM-3500 load balancer looks nice http://www.d-link.co.za/pdf/Datasheet_DLM-3500_09JUL07.pdf
nice specs, still looking for a price / availability in SA and maybe a user manual of this beast.... Strangely only available on SA and Portugal sites, unknown to the rest of the world (according to google). Would be nice to talk to someone with experience on this device...