Frequently Asked Questions

Q. What should I look for in an Telephone system for my Business?
A. There are a wide variety of Telephone Systems available in today's market. Some of them have been around for several years and have established themselves as reliable. Others have not. We always recommend that you put the cost of the system, second to its ease of use, age of technology, and growth ability. We recommend that you never purchase a system that only one vendor can service. This may be cheaper in the beginning, but very costly in the long run. Systems like Nortel Networks are very common systems that any technician can program. Other systems may lock you into a vendor who can charge whatever they see fit for simple programming changes and limit your ability to shop around for better prices.

Q. What is Bandwidth, and why is it so important?
A. There is no easy way to explain this but I have found the best way to describe Bandwidth is to use the Garden Hose scenario. Under the road in front of your home or business there is a watermain. Lets say the pipe is ten inches in diameter. It is capable of carrying only so much water at so much pressure. If there is only one user connected to the watermain, there will be no change in pressure. Every added connection will affect water pressure depending on use and the size of the pipe that they connect to the watermain. The more they draw, the less everyone else has. To compensate for the low pressure, the water company can turn up the pressure at the pumphouse to provide more to everybody.

Now when you compare that a Telephone copper or Fiber Optic Cable carrying a Signal, Bandwidth becomes easier to understand. The ten inches of watermain is like the size of the wires or fibers inside the Telephone Cable. The water is the same as the signal carried by the telephone cable, and the number of pipes connected to the watermain is like the number of computers using the signal in the cable. The more computers sharing the signal, the less everyone has. Eventually, there are so many computers using the same signal that there isn't enough signal left to support connection and you get disconnected. Water pressure is measured in Gallons per Minute and Bandwidth is measured in Hertz. This is the width of the signal carried by the telephone wires and is the same as the pressure in the watermain.

Bandwidth is purchased in bundles of varying sizes. D.S.L. service comes in preset bandwidth packages. The more you want, the more you pay. Bandwidth is so important because when your computer sends information to or receives information from another computer, that information takes up space in bandwidth. You must have enough bandwidth on your computer network to support all of the computers communicating all of the time. Otherwise, information will get lost.

Q. What is the best value for internet connection?
A. this would depend on what you are using the internet for. If you are a casual user and for the most part only e-mailing then a simple dial-up connection would suffice at between $15.00 and $25.00 per month. However, if you are downloading High Volume Files like music, video, or high graphics, then a D.S.L. (Digital Subscriber Line) service is the best value. Residential D.S.L. service is roughly $29.00 per month depending on the service provider, and will supply you with enough Bandwidth to make the internet more pleasant and less frustrating. D.S.L. service can be added to an existing telephone line without interfering with telephone service and without the added cost of adding another telephone line. A residential D.S.L. service of 424 Kilohertz is common but can go up to 1.5 Megahertz. This is enough to power a small business.

Q. Should I have our alarm system monitored?
A. While a screaming alarm system horn MAY be enough to scare off a would-be intruder, it is nice to know that if it doesn't scare them off, a monitoring station will be calling you in seconds to make sure everything is alright. We monitor Residential and Commercial Alarm Systems and we have found that for the few dollars that monitoring costs, it is nothing when compared to the peace of mind.