Connection Speed

Historically, web sites have been the exclusive domain of large organizations. These organizations could afford the high-speed data lines required to connect to the Internet and offer acceptable performance. At a minimum 56K transmission was required for predominantly text based content. Most organizations today utilize T1(1.5Mbps), Fractional T1(64Kbps each), T3(45Mbps), ISDN(dual 64Kbps), and dedicated leased lines(56Kbps) for Internet/Intranet connectivity.

However, the price of ISDN has now finally entered the stratosphere of small to medium sized business. For under $1,000.00/month it is possible to offer a permanent 24 hour connection to the Internet. Today, at a very minimum this 128K connection is required for a web server. It is important to understand though, that this bandwidth is reduced by: the number of simultaneous users; the routing of the connection; and the relative connection speed of the client/browser. Many ISPs gang-up 40-60 dial-pool modems on individual network segments. Where this is the case, the speed of the server connection is not particularly relevant as the client will often only see a fraction of what their modem is capable of.