How do big companies get their internet?

ProFamous

Hey everyone, just curious, when it comes to very large companies with large servers and such, where do they get their internet? I would imagine the speeds need to be quite substantial. TWC I see in my area maxes out at 50 Mbps.

For video streaming services, say Netflix or Hulu, 50 megs seems like nothing. So where do they get such high speeds? (And where can I get it )

Jasiono

They generally don't go through a residential company as you and I know and the prices are outrageous for a consumer like you and I. Lol

closest you can get I think is Verizon quantum, up to 300 up 300 down but they want almost 200 a month for just that connection that's the last I heard and I called as soon as it was announced.

gmxkey

Agreeing with Jasiono, my last employer dealt directly with L3, Internet2, and other large backbone providers by passing AT&T and that level.

gregg

Mike-Mike

Large companies still use TWC or whoever, but you are looking at exponentially higher costs. Talking several thousand per month, but we have multiple gig links

santaowns

We have two oc48s from Verizon and two oc192s from century link on seperate routes at our main datacenter. Also have a few 50 mb circuits ds3s as well. Like everyone else said we pay for the SLA not so much the speed. Ill also throw out there that we are capped out and will be ordering another two oc192s.

Kai123

Even some business aDSL connections are insanely high due to the support and SLA's involved.

One customer I know has a 100mb dedicated internet circuit, and a 200mb L2 circuit that is used internally that we support which is maxed out 24/7 with bidirectional traffic (all internal to their LAN though).

The customer transfers data out on a RPR node which is shared by other customers in the ring, which all gets handed off to a switch, which in turn connects to a aggregation router that's apart of a bigger ring. We have smaller rings connecting to the backhaul that are 1GB links for bigger customers.

DevilWAH

ProFamous wrote: »

Hey everyone, just curious, when it comes to very large companies with large servers and such, where do they get their internet? I would imagine the speeds need to be quite substantial. TWC I see in my area maxes out at 50 Mbps.

For video streaming services, say Netflix or Hulu, 50 megs seems like nothing. So where do they get such high speeds? (And where can I get it )

Hi to answer most simply they get a fibre installed from there company directly to the IPS owns server room.

So for example when we wanted a new connection we had a fibre physical installed to the local phone exchange. the phone companies normally have spare fiber between there exchanges and fiber links in to the largest ISP.

So now you have a dedicated physical link that runs between your company and the ISP. then its a case if deciding what equipment to put on either end of the connection and this will determine what speed you can get.

When you are big enough and have the case, getting an internet connection is no different to a network connection between two buildings on the same site.

Home broadband is "slow" because you are sharing bandwidth and cost between many people. but if you have £40,000 to spare, phone up BT ask them to install a fibre and pay the rental and you can have 1Gig+ uncontested guaranteed bandwidth. you don't have to be a business just have to have the money.

kurosaki00

Usually have an internal provider such as sprint or level3, which provide mpls or something for the internal stuff.
Then use normal companies for internet. Main hq could have fios and a couple of branches comcast.

Shdwmage

Come on, who else remembers when a 56kbps modem was a beast? I had some good times with those.

stryder144

Unfortunately, I do remember lusting over 56k! Now, all I can remember is how painfully slow it was, to me, back then.

As to the OP's question, many have said it here: SMBs use Comcast Business or something similar and larger ones, those that can afford it, will go with a fibre company such as Level 3.

ProFamous

Thanks! So what equipment is used? As in cabling? Is it all fiber usually?
My knowledge of networking is rudimentary at best so keep it simple. Lol.

Mishra

I would browse through the OC wiki article and click around to get a basic better understanding:

Optical Carrier transmission rates - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

santaowns

We still have 56k at our building actually att has a ds3 at our site for the 56k lines. Fortunately they are only for small call home orders. We still have a few ATM network as well which cost a lot of money now.

To the OP we buy a lot of business during my time in networking now. I've seen everything from fractional t1 to normal att dsl for really small sites. The business buys what they can afford. For t1 and below they bring copper to the building. I think t3 is copper as well. For the higher dedicated lines it's all fiber. At my work we Colo our own equipment at the provider's building sometimes in order to have a variety of routing that would normally not be available. Ie hosting our att network at a Sprint Pop . Pop is what the building is called unfortunately I don't know what the acronym stands for for you.

DevilWAH

ProFamous wrote: »

Thanks! So what equipment is used? As in cabling? Is it all fiber usually?
My knowledge of networking is rudimentary at best so keep it simple. Lol.

When i started out there where many different type of terminations using serial ports. However more and more it is just standard Ethernet. so copper Rj45 or fibre socket. then you just need to have a router that has the appropriate port type.

so the "ISP" will normaly use fibre as the back medium to get back to there equipment. they will install a small bit of equipment mounted in your rack that will be connected to the incoming fibre. and on the front of this will be a RJ45 port that you plug you router in to. So they very much hide every thing from you and just say "here a network port to connect your router to and use IP address X" much like your home broadband.

once you get up the the likes of Youtube/google you no longer are really a guest of the ISP's but are sitting as an equal on the internet and will have mutiply connections in to multiply ISP's. Really though it works very much like home broadband you each present a port (you and the provide) and you agree on the IP address you will use on either end.

Of course the reason that fibre is used is that it can carry 100Gig+ over many 100's of Miles over a single run, some thing that copper cable can get no where near. (10G over 100 meters is considered pretty good over copper" + copper is much more expensive

pevangel

Any high bandwidth service is done with fiber. The ISP will bookend the fiber with an equipment that have ethernet ports that you can plug into. There's also the option of colocating with the ISP at one of their PoPs.

santaowns wrote: »

Pop is what the building is called unfortunately I don't know what the acronym stands for for you.

It's point of presence.

DevilWAH wrote: »

Of course the reason that fibre is used is that it can carry 100Gig+ over many 100's of Miles over a single run, some thing that copper cable can get no where near.

Most long haul runs are only good for 50-60 miles. To get many 100's of miles would require amplifiers and repeaters. I've heard of 100G at 3000 miles being done for submarine applications but that's with several repeaters.