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Knowledgebase: ProZone
Internet Requirements
Posted by Dan Shelton, Last modified by Dan Shelton on Jan 17 2023 12:27 PM
Working in the cloud requires quality, reliable internet service in order to ensure a good user experience. For this reason, ProCirrus carefully scrutinizes the internet connections of all new clients and makes recommendations where necessary.
Internet service for cloud services is subject to four important factors.

The provider you choose will determine how many network hops your traffic will have to make to get to ProCirrus and back. Similar to air travel, the most direct connection will get you to your destination more quickly and with less hassle. Time Warner, Comcast and others with good "peer agreements" with them are preferred.

Service Levels are broadly categorized into two types of internet service guarantees:

  • Best Effort is most often seen with Cable internet services. These very affordable lines are conceptually similar to "party lines" where your speed is affected by the activity of other subscribers in your area. Your line will handle up to the published speeds but you are not guaranteed those speeds and may rarely see them. For this reason, if you are on a Best Effort service, we recommend subscribing for more speed than your office may need (see Bandwidth) in order to account for fluctuations in service.
  • Service Level Agreement (SLA) – Most often seen in Fiber internet, T-1 lines and the newer, Ethernet over Copper (EOC), these services are more expensive but come with a guarantee of speed and service.  They are still quite affordable and strongly recommended if they fit your budget.

Bandwidth is the amount of traffic your internet line will handle per second, basically the "size" of your pipe. It is important to note the bandwidth size is arguably less important the quality of their service. Despite the advertising appeal, a very large pipe is useless if it suffers from inefficient routing and excessive latency. We recommend a minimum of 4 MB/user upload and download of bandwidth.   Keep in mind whether the service is Best Effort or SLA as described above.  If it is Best Effort, the service will fluctuate.  So it would be advisable to get at least double the minimum recommended speeds.

Latency is the measurement of the time it takes for a signal to travel from your computer to our data center and back, basically the "quality" of your connection. High latency can cause lag, where a user has to wait for their computer to respond.  For the best experience, we require latency under 80MS (milliseconds).  As mentioned in the Provider section, the fewer hops the better. On net providers will deliver the lowest latency.

While the above advice applies anywhere, users can access the system from anywhere on any internet connected device. The user experience will depend on the quality of the connection, but working from home, coffee shops, hotels, airports and other locations for a single user is usually quite good.
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