Business vs home Broadband: Which is right for you?
To create a successful business, there must be an environment that supports collaboration and growth via ultrafast broadband that always keeps you connected. However, how do you know which broadband plan is right for your business and employees?
Can a small business or one which is run from home, operate efficiently on a FTTP broadband plan that is designed for home use?
This guide will discuss the specific differences between home and business broadband that should make it clear which service is right for you.
1. Dedicated customer support for business broadband
If your business network connection goes down, it's vital that your broadband service is resumed as soon as possible, or you could risk losing revenue, missing opportunities and damaging your reputation. For that reason, Your Co-op offers businesses higher grade care options, though both receive UK-based customer support, so you can get expert assistance with problems whenever they occur.
On a standard broadband care package, the target to fix the broadband fault is 40 clock hours, though with our Fibre care Premium package this is reduced to only 8 clock hours. All care level add-ons are available to both business and on selected residential broadband services.
2. Security
We offer the same default content filtration on our standard routers for both business and residential use. However, we can offer alternative models which will support advanced settings and configurations, in the case of business Ethernet we can also provide separate, Enterprise level, managed Firewalls.
3. A router that's made for businesses
Your Co-op business and residential standard routers for broadband are largely the same with Wi-Fi 6 on our premium model. Homes and smaller businesses with 10-12 computers operating at once shouldn't require a higher-grade to handle the staff demands. However, if you're a larger business, you may need even more powerful Wi-Fi solutions that can provide coverage that reaches over multiple stories and open office spaces.
We can also provide higher grade alternatives for those who want more granular control of their networks such as being able to set up your own VLAN’s, Multiple SSID’s, custom firewall, content rules and VPN management.
4. Static IP address
Some of our residential broadband services are provided with a single static IP address to identify your computer when connecting to the internet. This is included in our Enhanced and Superfast Plus packages with no additional charge.
If you have business broadband at home or in an office space, you will also be granted a single static IP address as standard, but you can also purchase additional ranges up to blocks of 16. This will enable you to use a variety of specific features that are vital to the daily operation of many successful businesses.
With a static IP address, you can:
- Run your own server, essential if your company needs to receive large files. This guarantees clients can access your server without difficulty.
- Host your website or domain name server.
- Grants remote access by connecting to your computer from another PC so staff can work out of office on business applications.
5. Ethernet
Unlike residential consumers Business broadband customers can also purchase Direct Access or Point to Point Ethernet, something that can support larger businesses who have high bandwidth requirements, multi-site connectivity or the need to support critical network services.. Ethernet offers a dedicated 1:1 connection, Symmetrical guaranteed bandwidth, Lower latency and Higher SLA’s which grant a business more protection over their services agreed performance.
