I am currently hosting from a dedicated box at Rackshack.net. I have been asked on numerous occasions what kind of backbone I'm on by prospective clients.

My reason for starting this thread is to begin a discussion how to inform our customers correctly on the importance of things such as 'backbone'. For the most part I'm looking at hosting small to medium size sites that get approximately 800 hits a month on average. This being said does it really matter if I'm not on the fastest backbone?

Please elaborate on how you may have counteracted this same question. I don't want to mislead any of my customers so I bring the discussion here to see how your views and tips could help me gain knowledge of what my customers "really" need.

Just answer them honestly.

They ask all kinds of questions that most don't understand the answers to anyway. Just want to make sure YOU know. That you are legitimate and will be able to help them.

According to rackshack -

DS3 lines on multi-homed to redundant upstream backbone providers

I personally would contact rackshack and ask who the providers are (MCI UUnet whatever) so you can say.

If they say "will that be fast enough for my site?". Most of the time the honest answer is yes.

Don't sweat it, just tell them the truth and let them take it from there.

Yeah, I know. For the most part I am not confused about how to answer but how to best inform them of WHY they don't need the extra speed.

Does anyone have a good site that they can point me to that explains the workings of this tecnology? Maybe something that has a comparison chart of some sort. I'd like to show a chart like this on my site when it is done so that I can just point my customers to it for information on how it works.

I believe one of Rackshack's main provider is Time Warner Telecom. Check out their web site at www.twtelecom.net -- they have a cool flash movie, so make sure to turn up the volume on your speakers. ;)

Thanks. I found a nice PDF describing there services which explains the technology appropriately for my use.

Does anyone know of any other sites with some informative info like this?

Thanks again...

Once you get all the jargon just be honest. No one has a backbone to themselves anyway. We all share the same backbone at some point. It's the network that you sit on that counts. No your configurations, router, switches, bandwidth pipe up and downstream, whether it's full duplex or half duplex etc. In either case most clients wouldn't even understand them. They ask because they have a friend who thinks they know everything and was putting some ideas into their heads. Just be patience, find examples that will help them understand and be honest. You should know the amount of speed you have from your network through your ISP and out to the internet.

You've hit the nail on the head! It's definitely someone that's putting ideas in there head.

I am currently developing my site and I would like to put up a section about this subject explaining all of the ins and outs of how it works and why it is important to them, if at all. That way it builds credibility and explains to them the absolute 'truth' to the underlying technology as it applies to their online presence.

For instance, I had one client tell me that they thought that T-3 lines were fine if you were hosted locally but horrible if you were in another part of the world. I'd like to explain to them how it works so they can negate any misinformed information that they have received and come up with decision on their own.

Granted, so far, I've only come up against situations like this a few times, but I'd like to be able to handle it the best way so that the client leaves (regardless if they host with me or not) with the proper knowledge.

Another question to think about...
What makes a good network?

That's a good idea. Putting information on your site will definately help you out. Now your other question. What makes a good network.

Wow, that's huge but I'll sum it up as little as possible. A network comprises of several things like communication lines (T1), network routers, switches, servers and other things such as a firewall.

A good network will be one with no latency, carefully configured to produce the fastest routes to the rest of the world and has a reduncy built into it.

A good network will have good dynamic routes or static routes so that a connection to another server or equipment is fast and reliable. No droped packets. Your nic card on each server will be performing its best. You will have 100 full duplex link to the switches for faster transport of packets. In short the network will be well planed. There will less broadcasting traffic on the network. It will run TCP/IP and cut out broadcast storms. All equipment will be at its best and performing its best. Any bottleneck on your network will cause network problems and slow it down. If your router is bad and slow then transactions will be slow. Same hold true if your server is slow. So you can see how this answer is not an easy one to answer in this forum. It's very complicated. You have to carefully plan your network so that it can grow and easy expanded. You also have to have a backbone provider so that your presence on the internet is fast and reliable.

Hope that helps a little but I can't answer this in couple of sentenses.

Yeah... I didn't expect a complete answer. Just a glimpse.

Thanks for the response.

So as far as reselling space on a server at my hosting provider I should contact them and get all of this info from them I'm assuming.

What are the differences between T3, D3, OC12, etc... I saw a breakdown somewhere once but I can't remember where. Does anyone know of any sites that compare them?

Hi,
Not sure if this is against the rules or not, but we have a few pages dedicated to this very topic. It may help you find the difference between the various connections.

www.rotodata.com

Regards,

Originally posted by aura9

What are the differences between T3, D3, OC12, etc... I saw a breakdown somewhere once but I can't remember where. Does anyone know of any sites that compare them?

If you look at the bottom of http://www.bandwidth.com/ there's a nice comparison.

Great. Thanks... That works nicely.

Not to beat a dead horse, but everyone is speaking very loosely about the importance of what type of network your hosting your sites. Anyone who's business relies on the internet would be very concerned about this type of information. For instance, If your provider is over subcribing their bandwidth, people visiting your site will almost always be subjected to slow tranfers and most likely will not stay on that site for very long.
At the same time these types of providers will expericence more outages that cost your clients money, which in turn would cost you money.

I agree that most people don't have a clue as to the importance of what provider your using and what network your on. But the ones who do, if they choose your service, their the ones who are respected by their peers and bring the most referred business!!!

T1 : 1.5 Megs (24 64k channels)
T3 : 45 Megs (28 T1's)
OC3 : 155 Megs
OC12 : More bandwidth than you'll EVER need.