connectivity Archives - Foster Institute

It is time to have a faster Internet connection

Mike Foster — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 04:00:13 +0000

For both individuals and organizations, the speed and pricing for Internet connection gets better all of the time.

Almost always, the speed goes up and/or the pricing goes down. Shop around. You may find that a different provider will offer you a better solution so you switch to their service.

You may not be surprised that you can cancel those old T1 lines and get four times the speed for half of the price with a new connection.

This is also a reason to avoid those “long term” agreements for your Internet connectivity.

Two of my clients have experienced dramatically higher speeds for the same investment in the past week alone.

Please post your comments on this blog.

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For traveling users, wireless 3G is better than hotels

Mike Foster — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 04:00:30 +0000

From the standpoints of speed, cost, and security, you may find that providing a Sprint, AT&T, Verizon, or T-Mobile wireless connection will be much better than using hotel provided Internet services.

It is common for hotels to charge almost ten dollars a night for Internet access. If your traveler stays in at least six hotels a month, then it is about the same price to have a wireless card that uses the mobile phone towers.

There are easy to access tools that allow even unsophisticated criminals to monitor your traffic if you go through a hotel’s network. When you use one of the 3G services, this equipment doesn’t work anymore. Not to say that the 3G connection is totally secure, but all things being equal, it is almost always more secure than a WiFi or plug-in Ethernet port at a hotel.

Then there is speed. So many hotels have very limited bandwidth, and when the hotel is full of hotel guests using the Internet service, everything slows to a crawl. When your traveler whips out their 3G card, they may find that the access is much faster—especially if they are not in a fringe coverage area, and not in a very congested city.

Please share your experiences and post your comments on this blog.

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Do you connect to other networks besides your own? At someone else’s office, a hot spot, coffee shop, airport, or hotel?

Mike Foster — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 04:00:02 +0000

When you connect to someone else’s network, you are possibly opening yourself up to attack from other computers on that network. The other computer owner’s may have no idea that their computer is even infected or that it will attempt to attack your machine. You also open yourself up to liability issues if your computer is suspected of infecting the other network to which you are attaching. The easiest solution is:

Do not connect to any networks other than your own. That way you know your IT professional has made your own network as safe as it can be.

However, what if you travel with your laptop and you want to connect? Consider using a wireless broadband solution from AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, or one of the other services. These cards offer coverage in most populated areas. Most of them will give you a 30-day trial to see how well you like the service. I use multiple companies and it is very rare that I cannot connect with at least one of them. I have four broadband cards with me on the road today in fact. You do not need four cards, just one.

In addition, if you are going to connect at hotels and hotspots, then you are strongly advised to allow your IT professional to provide you with a VPN or some other encryption to protect your information while you are in your hotspot.

See the video http://www.keepmynetworksafe.com/hackingvideo.html that shows how people can monitor your traffic unless you allow your IT professional to protect you.

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If you have mobile teams, get them a portable broadband router

Mike Foster — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 15:26:08 +0000

One of the biggest challenges many companies face is having users that work off-site and need to connect to the Internet. The users may be at a construction site, performing an accounting audit at a customer site, working from a hotel or conference center, or be in some other location. The temptation is to allow the users to connect through a WiFi hotspot or even plug into someone else’s network. The dangers are huge if the remote network infects your user’s computer or if your user gets accused of infecting the remote network.

Many organizations are using mobile wireless broadband connections from Sprint, Verizon, or AT&T for example. The speed on the services is amazing – frequently faster than hotel guest networks. But what if you have three users that need to be away from the office working together? Instead of buying 3 of the $60 per month accounts, get a single mobile broadband router. That way, just one $60/month account can provide access to your entire remote workgroup. Check out www.cradlepoint.com – I own the MBR1000 and it is a slick device. I can plug in my Sprint or AT&T data card devices. The router can even be used at an office to provide automatic fail-over to your data card if your office Internet connection goes down – thus allowing your company to stay online during an Internet connection failure! The speed will be slower, but at least your users can still send and receive e-mail. If you have mobile workgroups, this may solve your remote connectivity issues and, if used properly, can enhance your security as well.

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