Reviews
Part of Provider comparisons: a small-business evaluation method
4 things nobody tells you about provider comparisons features
Provider comparisons stall on feature lists. This separates the items that change how a connection behaves from the ones that are only packaging.
A proposal arrives with fourteen features. Two of them change what the service can do. The rest describe the same connection in a more flattering way.
The wider selection process is provider comparisons. This page sorts them and gives the question that tests each one.
What to take away
- A feature matters if removing it would stop something you do. Test each line against that, and most of the list falls away.
- Four items change the shape of the servicewhat happens in the upload direction, whether you have a reachable address, what the repair commitment costs the provider, and who owns the equipment.
- A managed service is a transfer of responsibility, not a technical feature. Price it as a person, not as a box.
The items that change what you can do
Symmetric capacity. Upload equal to download. This is the difference between a connection that carries a room full of calls and one that carries a room full of browsing.
What changes connection behaviour
Symmetric capacity
- What it is
- Upload equals download
- What it changes
- Calls and sending
- Question to ask
- Is upload equal?
Fixed public address
- What it is
- Address is yours
- What it changes
- Inbound access
- Question to ask
- Is it shared?
Repair commitment
- What it is
- Fix with a penalty
- What it changes
- Provider urgency
- Question to ask
- What does a miss cost?
Equipment ownership
- What it is
- Who fixes it
- What it changes
- Your configuration
- Question to ask
- Who owns it?
If your work sends as much as it receives, nothing else on the list matters as much. Ask for the upload number in writing, and ask whether it is a committed rate or a typical one, because a feature list rarely separates the two.
A fixed, reachable public address. Without one, connections can leave your building but nothing can start from outside. Some services also place many customers behind one shared address, which quietly breaks inbound access, certain remote-access setups and some hosted phone configurations. Ask whether your address is yours, and whether it is shared. What depends on the answer is in business internet.
A repair commitment with a consequence. Two providers both promise a fix. One owes you nothing when they miss. Ask what the miss costs them, how it is claimed, and by when, and get both parts in the contract: a credit expressed as a percentage of the monthly bill, and a response time in hours. The FCC's getting broadband questions and answers is a useful reminder of how few of these terms are standardized, which is why you compare the wording, not the label.
Equipment ownership. Provider-owned equipment means they fix it and you give it back. Your own equipment means you fix it and you keep your configuration when you leave. Neither is better; they are different jobs.
The items that usually are not features
What it usually means
- Managed router
- They configure it, and possibly only they can
- Security included
- A filter on the connection
- 24/7 support
- Somebody answers
- Business grade
- A commercial contract
- Future ready
- Nothing
- Cloud optimized
- Traffic goes to the internet, as it always did
- Unlimited
- No volume cap, which is normal
The question that settles it
- Managed router
- Can we get the configuration, and can we change a rule at 6pm?
- Security included
- What does it block, what does it log, and can we see the logs?
- 24/7 support
- Who answers, with what authority, and how does a fault escalate at 2am?
- Business grade
- Which specific commitment differs from the consumer product?
- Future ready
- Skip it
- Cloud optimized
- Skip it
- Unlimited
- Is there a fair use clause, and what triggers it?
These five appear on nearly every proposal and change nothing about the service itself. The question that settles each one:
- Managed router.May you log in and change a rule yourself, and what does the monthly fee cover?
- Security included.Does it filter at their edge or in a box on your premises, and who updates that box?
- 24/7 support.What number do you call at 2 a.m., and can the first person who answers change the configuration or only open a ticket?
- Business grade.What does the phrase add to the contract: a response time, a credit, or nothing at all?
- Future ready.What happens to your price and your term when you need more capacity?
Where security features belong in the comparison
A provider's filtering is a layer, not a plan. The connection is one boundary among several.
What you configure at your own edge is set out in setup and troubleshooting. The useful comparison is what they will tell you rather than what they will block. Ask what they do about a denial-of-service event aimed at your address, whether they will notify you of abuse reported from your network, and who they contact.
The federal reference is NIST Special Publication 800-41, Guidelines on Firewalls and Firewall Policy, and it is a good frame for that.
It helps decide which controls stay at the edge and which belong inside. It also shows how much is your work, regardless of what the provider sells.
Turning the list into a decision
Write your own four requirements first, in one sentence each, before you open any proposal. Then read every feature list as an answer to those four sentences. Items that answer nothing get struck through rather than scored, because a scoring sheet that includes decoration rewards the provider who wrote the longest list.
Strike out the decoration and a short list of commitments is left. If calls are part of what you are buying, voip systems sets out what the connection has to do for them.
Common questions
Is a static public address worth paying for?
If anything needs to reach you from outside, yes, and it is usually a small line on the bill. If nothing does, it is a line item you do not need.
Should we take the managed option?
Take it if nobody in the building wants to be woken up. Refuse it if you need to change a rule the same afternoon. Ask which of the two the contract gives you before deciding.
Does included security replace our own?
No. It filters traffic on the way past. It knows nothing about what happens on your devices, and it backs nothing up.
What if a provider will not answer the escalation question?
That is the answer. Write it down and score it.
