There are many different factors that can affect your speed. The main ones are: the number of users on the network, the type of applications that are used, and how bandwidth intensive they may be. Other factors affect your speed that are not related to your broadband connection. The type of equipment on LAN as well as type of servers you may have can affect the performance of your LAN, and thus affect your speed to the internet.

How many users do you have on your broadband connection?
A general rule of thumb to follow is: The more users you have, the more bandwidth you need. This is concurrent users, not just computers on the network. If you have 15 users on the network, but only 3 access the internet at the same time, you will need less bandwidth than if all 15 users were accessing the internet at the same time.

What are the users on your network using the internet for?
Some applications use less bandwidth than others. For example, 10 users just using email and browsing the web use much less bandwidth than 3 users that are transferring files over the internet. Files that are transferred over the LAN do not use your internet bandwidth, while someone transferring files to your FTP server would use quite a bit of your bandwidth.

What type of equipment is the best to use on the LAN?
Quality equipment always works best in the long run, but there are also different types of equipment that can help to boost network performance. With many users on the LAN, switches instead of hubs are usually the best way to go. Good quality NICs (Network Interface Cards) in your computers generally perform better and lead to less problems.

There are many factors that are involved in network performance and every scenario is different. Bandwidth needs can also change over time, if your company has expanded and added more users to the network then often more bandwidth will be needed to accommodate those users. These are just some simple guidelines, the only way to truly determine what your needs are, is by talking to one of our Sales Consultants. They will be able to assess your needs and provide the correct solution for your scenario.