* Why maintain dual access?
Over the past several years, we’ve often advocated using (at least) two forms of broadband access to the remote office/branch office(ROBO) and small office/home office (SOHO) environments. The reasons have been at least twofold. First, DSL, cable modem, and some services have been offered so inexpensively that the price point is negligible – compared with traditional access methods – so there’s no reason not to have both. But more importantly, these services have not tended to offer fantastic up-time, so having both services available would make it possible – and even easy – to switch to a backup service if one of the two services failed. Throughput was never a major issue because routers that could use both services with dual access have been few and far between.
Now, especially with DSL and cable services offering speeds up to 3Mbps and even 6Mbps, it seems to be time to re-evaluate this recommendation. Steve realized this a few days ago when it occurred to him that his DSL service had not suffered a noticeable outage in more than six months. (Of course, it probably will have failed by the time this article comes out simply because of making this statement.) So the question is why should one continue to pay for both services? Is the backup worth the price?
There are two reasons we see for maintaining dual access. The first is for simple physical access redundancy: if physical access is interrupted – a condition historically known as “backhoe fade” – having two access links with diverse physical routing is great.
The second reason is perhaps more important, though: troubleshooting and protection from possibly infected computers. Whenever a new or otherwise unknown computer is added to the SOHO, it’s pretty risky to add that unproven computer to the network. So it may well be worth having the second link simply as a secondary method for connecting to the Internet and for diagnostic purposes until the new system is proven.
However, we will add one modification to our prior recommendation. Rather than having both services at their traditional speeds of about 1.5Mbps, consider going as fast as possible with a primary service and then cut back the speed on the backup service to a “lite” service for about $20 per month.
Let us know what you’re thinking about dual access these days, and we’ll share the results!
