Streamyx

"Tiers" in the telecom world tends to have multiple definitions, depending on who you ask. What tier a bandwidth carrier is, is loosely defined at best and everyone has their own opinion of what tier a carrier might be. Here is my opinion:

Tier-1: [may be considered an RBOC or LEC - Regional Bell Operating Company or Local Exchange Carrier]

Tier-1 is a network in which only settlement free peers and customers are serviced. The network operator pays for none of it's transit.

Tier-1 is the optimum network backbone for medium to large businesses with critical reliability, stability, and scalability requirements.

Tier-1 can be an advantage when it comes to handling DDoS attacks: if you ask/configure your Tier-1 provider to null-route an IP they will implement the null-route at their borders, so there is no point of saturation.

Examples of US Tier 1 carriers:

Qwest
AT&T (formerly SBC, Bell South, Southwestern Bell, Ameritech)
Savvis
Verizon (formerly MCI and UUNET)
Global Crossing
Level 3 (recently merged with Broadwing)
NTT Communications

Tier-2: [may be considered a CLEC (Competitive Local Exchange Carrier); has their own network, but also resells tier 1]

Tier-2 is where the network operator buys all or some of it's transit from a Tier-1 and resells it.

Tier-2 can be an advantage if you need someone to provide quality bandwidth, and especially if your need is a single install location. If you buy from Tier-1 #1 in New York, and #1 has a problem with its Tier-1 #2 peering router in New York, then all your traffic from you to #2 may be affected. Your ability to shout at #1 and get them to fix it will be limited, especially if the problem is with #2's border router. A good Tier-2 will monitor its upstreams and their peering points for trouble, and take measures to ensure that it doesn't affect their customers. Even if you need multi-location installs, buying from a good Tier-2 can be useful.

A Tier-2 that only responds to severe problems (e.g. total outage of an upstream link) is no more useful than a Tier-1 to someone who has multi-locations.

Pricing from Tier-2 ISPs is often cheaper at the low-end (e.g. T1). Tier-2's will often beat the tier-1's in pricing "access services". But if you buy in the hundreds of megabits, a Tier-2 is likely to quote much higher than a Tier-1.

Tier-2's are usually smaller companies, and are better able to "make deals", or recognize bundling of contracts, write custom SLAs (Service Level Agreements), trench fiber to your location in exchange for that signed contract, etc. Unless you buy multiple gigabits from your upstreams, if you want to bundle contracts with Tier-1s, you will probably end-up doing it through a wholesaler or other buying mechanism.

Examples of US Tier-2 carriers:

XO Communications
Covad
Paetec/US LEC
Time Warner Telecom (recently merged with Xpedius)
Eschelon Telecom Inc
Cogent Communications
Speakeasy
Embarq
McLeodUSA
AOL Transit Data Network
Covista
IDT Corp.

Tier 3: [wholesalers /resellers of tier 1 and 2 networks]

Tier-3 are downstream customers of Tier-2's. Tier-3 may give you what looks like a good price.....but longterm reliability, performance, and scalability will likely suffer. For piece of mind for your business a Tier-1 or Tier-2 are better choices is almost every case. However, PowerNet Global is a big exception to this rule due to their solid infrastructure and relationships with major players.

Examples of US Tier-3 carriers:

Trinsic
Excel
Primus Telecom
PowerNet Global
Access One Inc.
Splice Communications
Acceris

Whatever business application you need met be sure to consider what tier your available bandwidth providers are in your purchasing decision. Ignoring this factor in your deliberations may result in less than optimum implementation and satisfaction in the end. Make a smart business decision.....leave nothing to chance.

Michael is the owner of FreedomFire Communications....including DS3-Bandwidth.com and Business-VoIP-Solution.com. Michael also authors Broadband Nation where you're always welcome to drop in and catch up on the latest BroadBand news, tips, insights, and ramblings for the masses.

When designing your LAN or WAN the logical solution in relation to your expected usage may often indicate multiple T1 lines. In this case bonded T1 could be the best choice. However, before you jump you need to know just what a bonded T1 really is and what it can....and can't....do for you.

A bonded T1 just means that the you have two T1 lines (from the same provider) which have been joined together in a special way so that you can use the combined total of 3.0 Mbps of Internet data or the 46 channels for voice/phone use. You cannot bond T1's together if they are not through the same provider.

If you were to have two T1's, unbonded, then you could not use the full 3.0 Mbps of bandwidth all at once. For example, if you did a speed test, you wouldn't be able to get a result of "3.0 Mbps", the max you could download/upload at any one time would be 1.5 Mbps, even though you had two T1's. I know it doesn't make sense because you think that 1.5+1.5=3.0. It doesn't work like that. Unless your T's are bonded, you can only use the 1.5 Mbps of bandwidth that each line provides....seperately. You can do two download tests, at separate download test sites, and get a full 1.5 Mbps reading at each download site. But with out bonding, there isn't a way of getting a test result of 3.0 Mbps. Think of it in terms of cars: You can either have two slow Datsun pickups or one Ram 4x4 with a 5.7L Hemi. Sometimes, two slow pickups are better for reliability than one big Ram 4x4, but not as big and fast.

There are exceptions to this of course, and there's probally better ways of explaining it, but this will give you a general idea.

You can bond quite a few T1 together by the way, you're not limited to just two. The maximum is usually around 4 T1's although some have gone as far as 8. However, if you go beyond 4 bonded T1's it makes much more sense to start looking at a fractional/burstable DS3. That decision than rests on the combination of capability requirements and cost efficiency in relation to the intended application(s).

It's best that you use the services of a telecommunications consultant to walk you through all of your choices for network design utilizing a bonded T1. If you need more than what a bonded T1 can provide....such as a fractional or full DS3....you should also make use of consultant srevices. Many such services are usually no cost to you....and will enable you to more effectively and efficiently find the best solution for your specific application(s).

Michael is the owner of FreedomFire Communications....including DS3-Bandwidth.com and Business-VoIP-Solution.com. Michael also authors Broadband Nation where you're always welcome to drop in and catch up on the latest BroadBand news, tips, insights, and ramblings for the masses.

As broadband Internet becomes more mainstream, one of the most common questions we get is: which is better, cable or dsl?

The answer to that question is not so definite. Many factors come into play when deciding which high-speed connection to choose. Regardless of which you choose (DSL, Cable, or even Satellite) its going to be a ton better (and faster) than that ancient dialup modem youve been using. Not to mention, your Internet experience will be much more enjoyable.

DSL (Digital Subscriber Line)

Just like your existing dialup modem, DSL uses your existing copper wire phone line to deliver data at high speed. To qualify for DSL, you need the following:

- a phone line

- a DSL modem (which normally comes with the service)

- an Ethernet card or an available USB port ( most DSL modems allow both connections, but Ethernet is recommended).

- a phone company (ISP) that is offering DSL service (e.g., Verizon)

One important factor that will influence your DSL connection is the distance between your home or office and the phone companys central office. The farther away you are from the central office, the signal becomes weaker, thus a slower connection. With that said, DSL is not as available widespread compared to cable. Youll need to contact your local phone provider to check availability.

Speed wise, depending on the package you choose, DSL can range from 128 kbps to 3 Mbps. Generally, the faster your connection the more expensive your service will be. You can expect to pay around $25-$30 a month for a 768 kbps connection, which is roughly 13 times faster than a 56k dialup modem.

::Pros::
- Relatively cheaper than cable
- Dedicated line, so speeds are almost guaranteed
- You can talk on the phone at the same time while surfing the net

::Cons::
- Slower speeds compared to cable
- Speeds drop the farther away your home/office is from the central office
- Not available in all areas

Cable Internet

Cable Internet gets our recommendation. Cable, which you can probably already tell, uses the coaxial cable that your television uses. To qualify for cable internet, you need the following:

- a cable modem ( which normally comes with the service)

- an Ethernet card or an available USB port (most cable modems allow both connections, but Ethernet is recommended)

- a cable company offering cable Internet (e.g., Adelphia)

Unlike DSL, cable Internet does not depend on the distance between your home or office and the central office. However, unlike DSL, cable connections are typically shared among your neighbors. Although, most cable companies provide pipelines with huge bandwidth that this rarely becomes an issue.

Speed wise, cable Internet typically ranges from 3 Mbps to 10 Mbps, up to 3-4 times faster than DSL. However, expect to pay more for the service - $40-$50 per month.

::Pros::
- Faster speeds than DSL
- More widespread than DSL
- Distance does not affect speed

::Cons::
- More expensive than DSL
- Line is shared with other users

With all that said, you need to think about what type of user you are. If you are a heavy Internet user and downloader, you would highly benefit from a broadband connection. For the light users who use the Internet just to check emails, are probably better off with a dialup. However, if you are willing to splurge some cash on a broadband connection, then by all means, upgrade!

Mark Pascua is the webmaster of PersonalConfuser.net, a computer how-to and tips website.

Traveling around Asia for more than 10 years and living in Indonesia for almost 7 years now. I often have been in situations where I was looking for a cheap airfare. From my first experiences I had the feeling it was quite different to deal with domestic or international flight. For sample, in most countries when you purchase domestic flight ticket you won't get any differences price between two "one way" tickets OR one "return" ticket. Except of course a slightly discount for the return ticket.

Now, when is coming to international air travel it is harder to find Cheap Asia Travel tickets. Sometimes, you can even get cheaper return ticket. So if you plan to travel in many different cities (round trip with many transit stop) it can be hard to find good deals. However the following advice should helps you find the Asia Cheapest Flight available online.

I separate this article in two parts, international and domestic flight.

First, lets talk about international flight. There is a lot of good web site around there, but you will need to do a lot of searches before you find what you really want. I suggest you to start by looking for the available airplane companies which deserve the concerned country you are flying to or from.

For sample, if you are in Indonesia and want to flight to Australia, you will most likely have to choose between Garuda and Quantas. There are possibilities to use other flights companies such as Malaysia Airlines or Singapore Airlines. But you will loose a lot of time during your trip as you will have to transit to this cities.

As you will see in the following article about domestic flight, Air Asia is one of my favorite when is about to flight in Indonesia. And this is also true when is to find the Asia Cheapest Flight as they deserve more than fifty cities in the region.

About domestic flight, I experienced two totally different experiences in Indonesia and Australia.

In Indonesia, if you want to buy a domestic flight ticket you will have plenty of choices. Indonesia is a vast Archipelago of tropical and Virgin Islands constitute of more than twelve's thousand islands. More than three thousands of these Islands are inhabited and I believe that more than hundreds of them get an airport. So, you can imagine the number of possibilities and market available in Indonesia. The main company airlines in Indonesia are Garuda (also provide international flight), Merpati, Mandala, Lion Air, Adam Air, Star Air, Batavia, etc..

Find the cheapest airline ticket is one thing, but don't forget about safety. I don't have any statistics about safety right now so I prefer not mention specifically any of them. But if you had read the newspaper these last few months, you probably know what I'm talking about. Some of the above names are probably famous around the world right now, but probably not for the cheapest airfare.... But dont worries too much as airplane remind one of the safest transportation systems in the world.

After you had eliminated the worst flight company from your newspaper research, you can start compare price between few of the companies. Just go to Google, type the company name and you should find their web site in manner of seconds. If you looking for ticket long in advance (let's say more than three weeks), you will find that most of ticket have similar quotes with the international and most reputed national company.....Garuda Indonesia. And that's the problem in Indonesia if you want to order domestic flight more than three weeks in advance...No cheap airfare ticket available. You will have to wait the "perfect" time to order your ticket (between three weeks and two weeks in advance.... be careful after that it could be too late) and you should be able to get 20% to 70% discount.

Obviously there is another way to find cheap domestic ticket plane if you want to order you ticket long time in advance. You can use Air Asia. They have very cheap airfare and good website. This is a service from Malaysia, and they provide many other cities and countries around Asia. A really good solution for Cheap Asia Travel.

In Indonesia, AirAsia only deserve the main cities such as Jakarta, Denpasar (Bali), Medan, Surabaya, etc... Globally, they fly over fifty cities around Asia. The service is limited (no seat pre-reserved in check-in), but it is safe and their fees really defy all concurrences for this range and types of services. They really get the Cheapest Flight in Asia I have seen so far. So, have a look....

In Australia, it seems to works mostly like in the others western countries. More you booked in advance more chances you have to get a cheap airfare. I heard Quantas have some interesting packages available, like you buy a kind of atonement and can get great discount for a certain number of flight. If you need a lot of flights it could be advantageous. But the cheapest way to buy airline ticket is probably to book online with Blue Virgin or Jet Star. Both of them deserve many different cities in Australia, but not necessary the same one. So, it really depends where you want to go. Sometimes, its worse make some deep research to get better fee. For sample, once I was looking for a cheap airfare between Sydney and Darwin. Blue Virgin offered 450 AUD (via Brisbanne) and Jet Star doesn't have this possibility. But when I check more deeply some others cities, I found out that I can get Sydney-Adelaide for 99AUD and Adelaide-Darwin for 167 AUD with Jet Star. Total 266 AUD. I just saved 184 AUD. Sometimes you will find better price with Blue Virgin. It all depends of the availability. So good search and good luck.

By the way, JetStar also provide some of the Asia Cheapest Flight as they deserve many others country such as Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam, etc...

For more information, you can visit the author Blog : Cheap Asia Travel

The writer is an expatriate living in Indonesia for many years. You can find more article and tips about travel in asia and advice about purchasing cheap flight tickets at: http://www.cheap-minute-airline-tickets.com