There
are a number of things you should consider when you are setting up your small
home office, and one of those things is your broadband Internet connection. You
need one that is reliable, fast and reasonably priced. Here are the things you
should consider when picking a broadband provider.
Reliability
When
it comes to a home office broadband service, the most important concern is
reliability -- does it work? A small home office is unlikely to have the budget
to compensate for the lost sales that occur during online absences. Few small
businesses can afford to lose money thanks to an unreliable broadband service,
especially if technical assistance is un-comprehensive or absent. Ideally the
broadband provider should have technicians available 24 hours a day. If your
connection should fail, and if technical assistance is not available, you would
start to experience considerable problems. If you need urgent restoration of
your broadband connection, a poor provider may make you wait 3-4 days.
Price
There
are offers and promotions that the small home office should take into account.
These offers are the ones aimed at businesses, which means they cost more, but
in general, they offer more assistance on dedicated channels. They attend to
your needs more thoroughly and endeavour to solve your problems more quickly.
They
will often offer more technical features too. Whether you have selected a
provider or if you simply have a list of candidates, you should know if you
will need to download more often than you upload -- or the other way around. If
you are planning to send out bulk emails, or multiple emails with large files
attached, then you are going to upload more than you download. If you have
several computers in your home office, and they are being used every day by
your staff -- then you are probably going to download more than you will
upload. Once you are aware of whether you are going to be a big uploader or a
big downloader, you will be able to pick an appropriate broadband provider. It
will also enable you to pick a price plan that is going to suit your needs and
your business.
Speed
The
great thing about broadband speed for a small home office is that the Internet
usage is only going to be split between a few computers (usually only one).
This means that you will not have to purchase a router to ensure that all the
PCs feel the same benefit. It also means that you will not need to invest in a
very high bandwidth. The Internet usage of one (or a small few) PC is going to
be too intermittent to genuinely feel the benefit of a bulkier bandwidth.
Conclusion
You
should check out the offers and promotions that broadband providers offer
businesses, because you are more likely to find a service package that suits
you. Forget about bandwidth (speed) in your home office and simply go with an
average speed. You can always upgrade to a faster speed of broadband at a later
date if you find you have trouble. Finally, you should ensure that your
broadband provider is reliable and has 24-hour technical support.
Author Bio:
Edd
Dawson has extensive experience as a broadband technician. He likes to demystify
broadband topics on various blogs. Visit www.broadband.co.uk
to find the best deal for your area.