Static IPs vs Cost vs Ease of use

[AntiThesis]

I have something of a conundrum. And it's got to do with cost and static IPs.

I currently have two campuses that I have to manage. They're joined with a wireless link as we're in the process of buying the intervening land (+- 5 years to go)

One has a 512k Uncapped connection shared between about 40 people and two labs and the other has a 384k capped (3GB transfer allowed per month) line shared between about 30 people and one lab.

With the 512k uncapped account I get 5 static IP addresses of which I use two - one for my mail server breakout and one for my proxy server breakout.

As things stand, the internet is (as you'd imagine) helluva slow when quite a few people are using it. This is pretty much all the time.

With the new uncapped products, I can upgrade both sites to a 4Mb uncapped connection for the same price as what I'm paying now - we don't care about downloads, never will so I think they should work. I've been testing the Mweb 4mb Uncapped and it's lightning fast for browsing. BUT I lose the static IPs.

Now, I have a dedicated server that I could host our mail server on and it'd be easy enough to set up an internal mail server to send mail out via the dedicated (or for that matter, allow the internal mail server to send mail as usual and configure part of the dedi to just serve and forward mail to internal).

What would your advice be? Do I:

a) Host my own mail server and stick with 512k
b) Host an internal mail server, forward it to my Dedicated server and move to 4Mb
c) Try to find some ISP that provides a static IP and mix both solutions (so far nothing on this front except for Openweb who can give me no timeframes)

tl/dr: Choose A, B or C.

I would of course, wait a month or two to see how the uncapped offerings hold up etc. I don't want to drop myself in the poo here if ISPs suddenly can the uncapped

 

[swim]

static IP (fixed ip) if using adsl only adsl users can connect to your server no 3g or iburst---- but the only ISP that gives you fixed ip so that you can run mail or web open to all connections is sadly iburst. if you think i am wrong try using other isp's without going through 3rd party ip's

 

[AntiThesis]

static IP (fixed ip) if using adsl only adsl users can connect to your server no 3g or iburst---- but the only ISP that gives you fixed ip so that you can run mail or web open to all connections is sadly iburst. if you think i am wrong try using other isp's without going through 3rd party ip's

Well I currently use OpenWeb (IS) for my uncapped and as far as I'm aware everyone is able to get to any of those IPs. My mail server is certainly accessible.

 

[syntax]

static IP (fixed ip) if using adsl only adsl users can connect to your server no 3g or iburst---- but the only ISP that gives you fixed ip so that you can run mail or web open to all connections is sadly iburst. if you think i am wrong try using other isp's without going through 3rd party ip's

If i am reading that correctly, then thats rubbish....can you try explain further what you mean?

As for the OP, I am a sucker for wanting my own ip's, and as such would try find a mix of the two solutions...but ur best bet is probably option B

 

[AntiThesis]

So far only Openweb offers a static IP at all - but that's with a 384 line.

I suppose I could mix and match and have a 4mb in the main campus and a 384 sitting serving mail.

I don't understand why it's so hard to get an IP addon. I know they do it in the states and most of Europe. It's not that hard surely?