Avanta User Guide and Service Level Agreement - Internet Bandwidth

Service Definition - Variable Internet Bandwidth

Avanta (Centre Name) [“Avanta”] provides our building licensees [“Licensees”] with access to the internet, either via the shared 4/8Mbps SDSL or dedicated connections. This is the Avanta shared or dedicated internet bandwidth service [“The Service”] The Service is provided by utilising an SDH or MPLS connection to a central Internet delivery service at Telehouse.

Our network service is subject to Fair and Acceptable Usage Policy – please download and read:
Fair and Acceptable Usage Policy – click here to download PDF file

Licensee Pre-requisites:

Equipment

In order to utilise internet bandwidth provided by Ipitomi IT, Licensees will have to have equipment with a Ethernet networking facilities and be running an operating system that supports TCP/IP. Avanta do not provide automatically allocated IP addresses (DHCP). Licensees will need to purchase equipment that provides DHCP, or request additional setup and configuration support from Avanta.

Security
Avanta provides the bandwidth without any security monitoring or restrictions therefore responsibility for the security of a Licensee’s network and devices attached to it lies solely with the Licensee.

Know-How
Avanta can arrange for the supply additional set up support including equipment purchase and configuration at attractive rates through our Partner iHotdesk. It should be noted that iHotdesk generally requires 72 hours notice for any services required, due to ordering of equipment and possible commitments to other Licensees.

Installation
Avanta will endeavour to have Bandwidth services presented to the Licensee within 72 hours from the receipt of a signed order form. Times set out for upgrades to existing services are subject to the increased speed being available on the existing service type. If the faster service has to be delivered over a different medium longer upgrade lead times may apply. An installation charge will apply for all up or downgrades to the service. Note that this installation charge does not cover any configuration of Licensee Equipment or network, but does include any patching of services from the comms room to the Licensee Accommodation

Support
Should a Licensee encounter problems with their service, they should contact the Business Centre for a fault resolution. Avanta support the service during Business Hours (0830-1800, Mon-Fri), and will use all reasonable endeavours to have any service problems addressed.

For all Licensee internal network or hardware support, Avanta offer a range of support packages available through our partner iHotdesk.

Service Level Agreement

Availability

Avanta offer Service Level Agreements for the Service based on uptime of 99.5%. The uptime is measured at monthly measurement periods from the 1st to the end of each month. Any periods of downtime reported by a Licensee that continue in excess of 20 minutes from the time logged with the Business Centre constitute downtime. Should a Licensee encounter either 4 or more periods of downtime or an aggregate total uptime of less than 99.5% within any measurement period they are entitled to claim for the Service Credits set out below at whatever is the lesser performance criteria.

Service Availability Credits

The Licensee may claim service availability credits of the following amounts in the following circumstances:

The credits may only be used as a credit against charges for further Services to be provided by Avanta. They may not be redeemed for money or exchanged for anything else. On termination or expiry of the agreement, any unused credit allowance may be credited against charges for Services provided in the calendar month immediately preceding termination. Any credit allowance which remains unused thereafter will be lost.

Without affecting the Credit Process described below, if the Licensee wishes to raise any problems or issues with the Services with Avanta, either party may escalate those problems or issues up through the personnel named in the Escalation Procedure section of the Cover Sheet.

Service Availability

"Service Availability" is defined as the ability of the Licensee to exchange IP packets with the Network Services Supplier's designated gateway switch via the provided switch port. Service Availability is measured by sending ICMP "echo" requests from the Network Service Provider's designated gateway switch to the switch at regular intervals and there shall be an "outage" if this measure fails. The response to the ping burst confirms that the connection is still in place and the service is still available.

Service interruptions caused by:

• failure of Licensee Equipment;
• scheduled downtime for maintenance and upgrade purposes, which Avanta will use reasonable endeavours to ensure is kept to a minimum;
• network maintenance activities by the Network Services Supplier;

do not constitute outages of Service Availability for the purposes of calculating service availability credits.

Credit Process

Service availability claims must be submitted to Avanta within one week of the end of the calendar month in which the outage in question occurs.

The claim must contain the following information:

• Licensee name and Avanta Business Centre name at which the outages have occurred;
• date and beginning/end time of outage;
• brief description of the characteristics of the outage
• identification of the Services in respect of which the claim is being made and whether such Services are Dedicated Leased Line Services or Shared Internet Access Services.

Claims must be submitted by e-mail to support@avanta.co.uk Avanta will apply approved service availability credits to the Licensee's invoice during the billing cycle following the claim approval.

Policy Change

Avanta will notify the Licensee of any changes to this Service Availability Schedule which Avanta may make in its absolute discretion from time to time provided that Avanta shall for the term of this agreement provide a service comparable to the service outlined in the initial Service Availability Schedule.

*Allocation of RIPE/Pubic addresses is subject to official approval of the requirement which must be made by means of an IP Address Allocation Justification Form.

Frequently Asked Questions

The service is delivered on a 100MB fibre optic connection, using premium Cisco routing and switching equipment to enable Avanta to deliver many different types of Bandwidth and IP configuration to all of the different clients (and types of client) in the building. This has to be available in 72 hours and sometimes faster to meet the short term needs of clients in the offices. This type of infrastructures is unfortunately not cheap, neither is the provision of the support structure to enable us to respond quickly to client issues. We don’t keep you waiting on the phone to India!

What is the set up charge for?

This covers the one-off cost of providing the internet connection, it is subject to VAT. It is levied on a per company basis and will not be raised again (unless the client changes to another type of Internet connection or upgrades/downgrades) . Note that this installation charge does not cover any configuration of Licencee Equipment or network, but does include any patching of services from the comms room to the client accommodation. There are no set up fee for phones, so expansion/contraction by the client will not result in any further set up fees.

How is the Service Presented?

Avanta provides 1X RJ45 switch port for the DATA connection from one of our Cisco switches placed in the building comms room. There may be more than one comms room, but we will generally provide the service to a switch in the room that can connect with the floor ports in your offices.

How do I get the connection to my Office?

The data connection can be patched directly to your office, but if you are using more that 1 PC, we advise you to connect the service to a hub or switch in the Comms Room, unless you plan to use a wireless router in the office. The ports on the hub are then connected to the ports in the comms room that connect to the floor ports I your office.

What is a RIPE/Public Address?

A RIPE/Public Address is a globally unique number that identifies a device on the Internet. If you want someone on the Internet to connect to you or one of your servers, then you must tell them your public address (also known as your “real” or “external” address). If you request a public/RIPE address, you need install a piece of equipment that performs NAT. Most Routers and Firewalls today can provide NAT for you. If you require more than one public/RIPE address, you will need to fill in an IP address allocation justification form.

If you plan on using a VPN to access a remote network, we strongly recommend utilising a RIPE address, running on your own firewall. The reason being that when you access the internet over an internal range (please see internal range [link to internal range FAQ]), you will utilise something called a NAT table. NAT is similar to the receptionist in a large office. A Client calls the main number to your office, which is the only number they know. When the client asks for you, the receptionist checks a look-up table that matches your name with your extension, and then forwards the caller to your extension. However, the NAT lookup table (NAT table) is constantly being updated, so it frequently reaches a point of saturation, and, consequently, needs to be cleared.

All clients/users with internal ranges are routed via these tables to access the internet and by their technical nature fill up. You could say that the receptionist has too many names to compare against, rendering the look-up table useless. In order to prevent this, our ISP flushes these tables every 1-2 hours depending on usage and, once they are flushed, all connections requiring a constant transfer of information will be lost, including VPNs.

What equipment do I need?

If you need to connect only one computer, you will only need an Ethernet cable, however, a firewall is also recommended (or a router with a basic firewall). If you have to connect more computers, for the public (RIPE) address you will need a router and possibly a switch (depending on the number of computers), or just a switch if you don’t require a public (RIPE) address (again, a firewall is recommended as well).

Do I need a Firewall?

Yes, you are advised to buy a hardware firewall or configure a software firewall on all your connected Pc’s. None of our internet connections are protected by firewalls.

Do I need an ADSL modem?

None of our internet connections requires an ASDL modem. They are ADSL/SDSL in name only to represent their contended nature.

Do you provide servers to relay email (SMTP servers)?

Yes, we offer two SMTP servers: smtp.pitcore.com and post.viatel.net.
You can utilize any of the two.

What is DHCP?

DHCP is a protocol used by networked computers (clients) to obtain IP addresses and other parameters such as the default gateway, subnet mask, and IP addresses of DNS servers from a DHCP server. The DHCP server ensures that all IP addresses are unique, e.g., no IP address is assigned to a second client while the first client's assignment is valid (its lease has not expired). Thus IP address pool management is done by the server and not by a human network administrator.

Will an internal IP address be automatically assigned?

None of our data ports can provide DHCP at present, though this is planned for the near future. This will mean either configuring all of your PCs to use a static address that we provide, or (better), please purchase a Router or Switch that can provide DHCP to all connected devices. We can recommend the following devices, which can be bought from our preferred supplier:

Up to 4 Users:
Wired – LINKSYS Firewall/router + 4 port switch
Wireless - Linksys Wireless-G Router/Firewall

Up to 10 Users:
Wired – LINKSYS Firewall/router + 4 port switch AND 3COM OFFICECONNECT 16 port SWITCH
Wireless - Linksys Wireless-G Router/Firewall

10 user and more: Please email support@avanta.co.uk to discuss IT requirements

Jargon Buster

ADSL (Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line) **
A way of moving data over a standard phone line. It is much quicker than a regular modem, but still much slower than SDSL. The Asynchronous means it has different speeds for both upload and download. At Avanta our standard connections are all SDSL.

ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) *
An Internet Protocol (IP) specification used to map an IP address to a Media Access Control (MAC) address. See IP and MAC.

Bandwidth *
The amount of data that can be carried from one point to another in a given time period (usually a second). This kind of bandwidth is usually expressed in bits (of data) per second bps. The higher the bandwidth the faster your connection will be.

BlackBerry **
A two-way wireless device developed by Research in Motion. It allows users to check e-mail and voice mail (translated into text) and to page other users via a wireless network service

Cloud computing **
Cloud computing is a style of computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualised resources are provided as a service over the Internet

Call centre **
A group or department where employees receive and/or make high volumes of telephone calls. These centers use a variety of technologies to improve the management and servicing of calls.

Caller ID **
A telephone service that records the telephone numbers of incoming calls; it is a form of automatic number identification (ANI).

Carrier *
A communications term, used to refer to a wave that carries a signal, or to a provider of voice or data communications services.

Codec *
Short for "compressor/decompressor," an algorithm, program or device used to convert a digital bit stream from its original format to a compressed one — for example, from QuickTime to Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) format — and also to perform the reverse, decompression procedure. See MPEG.

DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) **
An (TCP/IP) specification for allocating Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and other configuration information based on network adapter addresses. It enables address pooling and allocation and simplifies TCP/IP installation and administration.

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) *
Permits the transfer of files over the Internet from one machine to another.

Fiber optics *
A high-bandwidth transmission technology that uses light to carry digital information. One fiber-optic cable carries hundreds of thousands of voice or data circuits.

Firewall **
Secures access to the LAN and all network resources from both internal and external intrusions

Handset **
Desktop apparatus used to make and receive telephone calls.

HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) *
The most common Internet protocol used for displaying Internet pages.

Internet *
Derived from the words “Interconnected Networks”. Made up of multiple networks all interconnected at the peering points situated around the world to create one worldwide entity called the Internet.

Internet kiosk **
A stand-alone terminal designed for accessing information via the Internet.

IP Address *
A unique numerical identifier in 5 blocks separated by full stops to allow access to the Internet (Example IP Address: 123.200.199.1)

IPSEC **
Encrypts data over a private or public network to make sure any transmissions remain secure.

ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) **
A digital phones standard that allows video, data and voice connections simultaneously over standard copper wire pair. It is generally a minimum of twice as fast as a standard modem connection.

ISP (Internet Service Provider) *
A company that provides access to the Internet.

LAN (Local Area Network) **
A network of computers that are local to an area (same office, same floor, etc)

Latency *
The time interval during which a network station seeks access to a transmission channel and access is granted or received.

Load balancing **
The ability of processors to schedule themselves to ensure that all are kept busy while instruction streams are available.

Leased Line **
It is a fixed digital connection to the digital data network (Internet). It is permanently “On” which means no dialup is required and there are no call charges.

MAC *
In computer networking, a Media Access Control address (MAC address), hardware address, adapter address or physical address is a quasi-unique identifier assigned to most network adapters or network interface cards (NICs) by the manufacturer for identification.

Mail relay **
Often referred to as an e-mail server, a device and/or program that routes an e-mail to the correct destination.

Modem *
A piece of kit connected to your computer that allows a dialup connection using a analogue line.
Usualy used to connect businesses to banks

MPLS VPN *
Is a family of methods for harnessing the power of Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) to create Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). MPLS is well suited to the task as it provides traffic isolation and differentiation without substantial overhead.

NAT (Network Address Translation) **
Is the translation of an IP address between differing networks. E.g. Your private IP address on your LAN will translate to something completely different when you are on the Internet and in this way it is a security feature.

POP (Point of Presence) *
A location where the ISP provides local access to the Internet

POP-3 (Post Office Protocol) **
POP3 is a client/server protocol in which e-mail is received and held for you by your Internet server. Periodically, you (or your client e-mail receiver) check your mail-box on the server and download any mail, probably using POP3

PPTP (Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol) **
A Microsoft extension to Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP), used to create multiprotocol virtual private networks (VPNs) via the Internet. See VPN

Private IP Address **
An internal IP address that cannot be seen outside the Internal Network

Public IP Address **
An IP address that can be seen outside the Internal Network (e.g. Internet)

QOS (quality of service) **
QoS stands for Quality of Service. QoS is a generic name for a set of algorithms which attempt to provide different levels of quality to different types of network traffic.

Reverse DNS **
Reverse DNS (rDNS) is a method of resolving an IP address into a domain name, just as the domain name system (DNS) resolves domain names into associated IP addresses. One of the applications of reverse DNS is as a spam filter.

Router **
Interrogates data packets and finds the best route between the sender and receiver.

SDSL (Synchronous Digital Subscriber Line) **
A way of moving data over a regular phone line. It is much quicker than a regular modem. The Synchronous means it has the same speeds for both upload and download.

SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) **
See Mail Relay

SLA (Service Level Agreement) **
Linked with the T& C’s. Defines the level of service a customer should expect. Failure to do so will meet with a penalty incurred by AVANTA.

Static IP Address **
A term to describe a publicly seen IP address that does not change as opposed to a dynamic IP address which changes each time you are on the Internet.

Thin client **
A type of client/server computing where applications are run, and data is stored, on the server rather than on the client. Because the applications are executed on the server, they do not require client-resident installation, although the graphical user interface and some application logic may be rendered to the client.

Telnet *
Telnet is a user command and a tool for accessing remote computers..

“U” Rack Space **
A standard to describe the use of cabinet rack space. Each “U” is equivalent to 5.5cm (1.75”)

URL (Uniform Resource Locator) *
A unique Internet address identifier to locate the page you are looking for E.g. http://www.avanta.co.uk

UPS (uninterruptible power supply) **
A device that provides temporary power upon failure of the main power source.

VLAN (virtual local-area network) **
Short for virtual LAN, a network of computers that behave as if they are connected to the same wire even though they may actually be physically located on different segments of a LAN.

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) **
Is a general term for a family of transmission technologies for delivery of voice communications over IP networks such as the Internet or other packet-switched networks.

VPN (Virtual Private Network) **
Refers to a network in which some parts are connected remotely using the public Internet. The data however is encrypted so the network is “virtually” private.

WAN (Wide Area Network) **
A WAN connects multiple LAN’s together using a service provider to create a single network.

Wi-Fi **
Wi-fi is wireless n etworking - the ability to connect to a network or PC using radio signals (as opposed to network cabling). It's faster and has a greater range than Bluetooth, and is ideal for home or office connectivity.

Wireless access point **
Is a device that allows wireless communication devices to connect to a wireless network using Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or related standards.