Following the technology development as of today that always moving forward, these days Information Technology’s role is becoming more crucial as one of many supporting roles inside an organization. In every company or any business field will be needing Information Technology’s role in order to operate well and smoothly. Some offices for example, it will be very annoying and obstructing if the technology information infrastructure often has trouble. In example if the internet connections is troublesome so that the employees and staffs can not send business emails, or even the local area networks is the culprit for the disturbance. It is really can be very annoying right ?

If the trouble / disturbance happens on internet access related, we can count on our internet service provider to help us troubleshoot the problem. But if it happens on our own local area network, the responsibility lies on ourselves because it’s not our ISP’s scope of work, so it’s safe to say that designing a good network infrastructure is paramount considering some examples above. In this article we will be talking about the process to design office’s local network infratructure.

What are the things to consider in designing office network infrastructure ? There are several things, such as :

1. The technology and purpose
There is a saying in IT world that says wire is always better than wireless. But that isn’t always the case. Because of their different characteristics, we have to be able to get the most of each characteristics to achieve our goals. For example, for PC workstations, using UTP Cable surely better considering the speed and troubleshooting process in case of problems compared to wireless technology. But on the other hand, to provide internet access facility for guests or devices like handphones / tablets surely more suitable using wireless access points right, ?

2. The devices
To determine devices brand and type for devices (such as network switches, cables, access points, etc) that we will be using, these factors should be  considered :
a. Speed / throughput needed
b. IT Staff or the people in charge to maintain the network and devices familiarity to the brand or type ? Because each brand generally quite different in commands.
c. Future scalability
d. Documentation ! A good documentation will be very important to determine how smooth and fast a troubleshooting process when there’s a problem occured. This is the most common mistakes for people usually take this for granted and just realize the importance when problems already happens.

3. The people

After all the process to design and building your office network, surely you will be needing a capable IT staffs in order to continuing maintain or to developing your network suitable for your constantly growing needs. A lot of companies still doesn’t have their own IT staff, and this should not be a problem because a lot of companies have this service including Cyberplus.
We can provide you a quality solution from design, implement, maintenance and developing your network.

There you have it, I hope this article can give you some insight regarding building your own office network infrastructure.

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Continuing the previous discussion on how to choose the right internet service provider / ISP for your needs, now let’s discuss the media that are generally used in Indonesia today to deliver internet connections to the customer side. Of course, each media has its own characteristics, strengths and weaknesses that can be tailored to meet the needs of each customer.

What are the media commonly used in Indonesia today? Here are the most common media used by internet service providers / ISPs today:

1.  FIBER OPTIC

There is no doubt that currently optical fiber has become the main choice because of the increasingly broad range of areas that can be served by optical fiber networks and the price is more affordable when compared to a few years ago.

Advantages :

1. Able to deliver high speed bandwidth to the customer side
2. Relatively more stable than other media
3. Increasingly affordable prices

Weakness:

1. When compared to other media, fiber optics are still more limited in scope
2. It takes relatively longer for troubleshootings, especially in the event of a cable cut
3. Relatively more expensive compared to wireless for example

2.  WIRELESS

The development of wireless technology is also worth considering in choosing the most appropriate media to meet your needs.

Advantages :

1. Able to deliver high speed bandwidth even though its performance in this case is still below the ability of optical fiber
2. Very flexible in deployment
3. Relatively faster in the process of troubleshootings when trouble occurs
4. Cheaper price

Weakness:

1. More susceptible to interference, generally interference due to the use of radio waves
2. It is prone to lightning strikes, although it can be overcome with a good grounding system

3.  VSAT (VERY SMALL APERTURE TERMINAL)

Using satellite technology to deliver bandwidth to the customer’s place. Generally used as a last option because the installation site that can not be served using other media.

Advantages :

1. Can be applied in remote locations while entering the satellite service area used

Weakness:

1. Generally the costs required are higher, both subscription fees and initial investment costs needed
2. Bandwidth obtained by customers is generally not symmetrical (downloads and uploads are not equal)
3. Much higher latency compared to other media

To clarify, lets try to illustrate several cases of customers in choosing the right media to meet their needs.

Case example 1

FC Intermilan Company wants to subscribe to the internet in one of its branches. After consulting with several internet service providers, it turns out that the desired branch location can be served using optical fiber with the speed and subscription fees that are in accordance with Intermilan FC’s corporate needs and budget.

Case example 2

As for the head office, Intermilan FC is located in an industrial area. After consulting with several internet service providers, it was found out that linking budgeting using fiber optic media was very expensive due to the fact that in general for the procurement of internet in industrial estates, permits and costs were quite high for the managers of these industrial estates. This resulted in the Intermilan FC company deciding to use wireless media so that the link budgeting could be reduced and the bandwidth requirements of the Intermilan FC company could still be properly met.

Case example 3

As a mining company, Intermilan FC also has internet access needs at one of its mining sites which are located quite remote. Because of its location, the choice of using media to deliver internet access needs is very limited. So the FC Intermilan company decided to use VSAT media for the needs of the site.

Thus the summary of the media commonly used in Indonesia today in delivering internet access to customers. So which one do you choose? Don’t forget to consult your internet access needs to Cyberplus!

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For those of us who don’t have a background in the IT world or even those who have a background in the IT world, maybe there are still many of us doesn’t know what a CLEAN PIPE INTERNET services is. A service which is currently starting to be provided by several internet service providers / ISPs including Cyberplus.

Generally, an internet service providers in Indonesia such as Cyberplus, deliver internet access to customers unfiltered. This means that internet access to the customer does not go through a process of modification / manipulation at all. This has its own advantages and disadvantages, because generally the characteristics of internet cunsomers in Indonesia are those who prefer services like this.

Besides the advantages of internet access services like this, there are also consequences, because if without adequate security, the network on the customer’s side becomes vulnerable to virus, SPAM, and DDOS attacks.

Well, the CLEAN PIPE INTERNET service, on the other hand, provides secure internet access services and has gone through a firewall device on the internet service provider side. So that internet access services that reach customers are better protected from viruses, SPAM and DDOS attacks from the internet in the customer’s network. If you think you need this kind of internet access and want to hear more detail about this kind of service, feel free to consult your internet needs on Cyberplus anytime!

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