It’s crucial to know a few things about your Internet needs before you commit to an ISP. One thing that can help you determine your Internet needs is to consider the service you currently have by observing its performance and limits. Here are some questions to jump-start the process:
Know your current situation—know your users, how many you’ve got, and also, be aware of how they rely on the Internet to accomplish their daily tasks. Monitor the current network traffic by making note of file transfers and how long they take, looking at how often these transfers take and recording any interruptions in service.
Another thing to consider is where your company is going: what will your future needs be? If you plan on hosting more webinars or if you’d like to seek cloud solutions for data storage, you’ll need something with enough bandwidth to handle these tasks, so keep that in mind while you’re shopping around.
Do you often find you lose your connection several times in a month? In a week? In a day?
Reliability is crucial—you need something you know you can count on to work when you need it to. Take note of each time you find your connection has gone down or slowed dramatically and consider that trend when looking into a new provider or service. Also, it’s highly recommended that you determine a backup Internet connection in the instance that your Internet goes down so you always have a way to access critical resources and information on your network.
Once you’ve pinned down the Internet connection best suited for your needs, make sure you factor in any potential installation and equipment costs, along with the length of your terms of service agreement, if there is one.