This is a guest post by Ben Love.

Ben Love is the Founder and Managing Director of Grassroots IT, a Brisbane based IT services organisation. Grassroots IT works with clients to fine tune the role of Information Technology within their business through consulting, support and education.

Who else wants a faster internet connection?

Cloud services such as Xero and Microsoft Office 365 are bringing a profound change to the way we do business. The big Achilles heel with all cloud services though is that without a stable, suitably fast internet connection they can be a real struggle.  

As we help clients on their cloud adoption journey a common question is “Why can’t I get a faster internet connection?” Well the fact of the matter is that unless you truly do live in the middle of nowhere, you probably can get a faster internet connection, it may just cost you more than you’re willing to pay. A more accurate question might be “Why won’t my internet connection go any faster when my home internet connection goes a lot faster and it’s the same thing”.

The last mile

Now assuming that you’re using a reputable ISP and not one of the cheap providers who overload their networks, the most likely cause of slow internet will be due to what we call the ‘last mile’.  This is the term used to describe the connection from your office back to wherever your ISP’s equipment is based, usually the local telephone exchange. There are a range of different technologies that can be used for this last mile connection, which you can read about over here. For the sake of this discussion let’s assume you’re using an ADSL connection, probably the most common for accounting firms in Australia.

The way ADSL (or ADSL2+ its newer, faster incarnation) works is by sending signals down the same pair of copper wires that you might use for your phone or fax machine. The signals come from equipment that your ISP has in the local telephone exchange, down these wires, into your building to your ADSL router.

Due to how this process works, the strength and quality of this signal when it reaches your router will impact on the speed of your internet connection. Given the nature of ADSL, ISPs won’t guarantee any particular speeds from ADSL connections (unlike other more expensive options where speed is guaranteed). Some of the things that can impact the strength of this signal include

• The length of the wire from the telephone exchange to your router – How far your office is from the telephone exchange.

• The quality of the copper wires between the telephone exchange and your office.  – Sometimes older suburbs with older wiring will struggle more with internet speeds.

• The quality of wiring connections within your building – If a cabler has done some sub-standard work in the past, this may be impacting your speeds.

• Rain. What? Really? Yep, true story. It’s a well observed fact that during periods of heavy rain ADSL connections may slow down (although no ISP would probably admit to this). My best guess is that moisture is getting into the wires somewhere and reducing the strength of that all important signal.

So what can I do about it?

Well the first thing to do is to talk to your ISP. Make sure they have you on the fastest plan that they offer, and ask them to run some line tests to identify any obvious issues.

The next step is to talk to your IT support team. They will be able to run some more checks on your equipment to make sure that there are no issues there. They will also be able to comment on whether the speeds you are seeing are normal for your location, distance from the telephone exchange, and so on.

Finally if none of that gets you the speed you need, talk to your IT support team about alternative last mile options such as Ethernet-over-copper, wireless, or fibre. Prices for these options are dropping rapidly, but will still cost more than a standard ADSL connection. Having a fast, stable internet connection in place can make the difference between life on Struggle Street, and doing beautiful business.