Views
Internet and Remote Connections
From NGOPedia
| ICT Guide for Decision Makers |
|
Contents |
Connecting with the world: Internet
What is Internet anyway? In the Organisational Technology Infrastructure we talked about connecting computers in our office to form a network. Well, internet is a global system of interconnected network of these computer networks. So all networks (Local Area Network) connect with each other in a hierarchy to form a global network, which we call the "internet".
In order to connect all these together, without causing a chaos, there needs to be rules and regulations:
Athough there is no centralised governance on internet, each constituent main network (generally country or region wide) defines their own infrastructure and standards. For example, in South Africa this is done by SAIX (South Africa Internet eXchange) an IS (Internet Solutions). Of course there are some overreaching definitions like the addresses or domain names (like ngoconnectafrica.org) are maintained by a centralised organisation called ICANN.
Standard communication means which are called "protocols" are used to connect billions of users worldwide. Computers "offer" services such as World Wide Web (or web service in short), E-mail, or file transfer to name a few. All these require different "protocols". For example this is the reason we start a web site address with "http://" to define the protocol (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) which is used by World Wide Web.
We are not going to dive more into the the subject, but for more information on Internet and the story of it go to this Wikipedia article.
The next you need to know about internet is that in order to connect to it, you need an intermediary called Internet Service Provider (ISP). These intermediaries connect your computer or office network to the internet backbone or main circuit. Depending on the availability in your area you may have different methods to connect to your service provider. Also for each method you would need equipment specific to it.
Dial-up Access
This is one of the oldest methods of access. It requires a land-line phone connection and a device called "modem". Like a phone call you dial a number provided to you by your service provider via this modem to connect to the internet. It's initial cost is small - though the communication speed is way slow by today's requirements. However, lacking other methods, you may do emailing and simple browsing, file transfers with this method. One other drawback of this method is that it occupies the phone line during connection - thus not allowing simultaneous voice calls. In Africa specifically, if you have a landline, and close to the telephone exchange, you may choose to go with DSL, or mobile (cell-phone access) rather than this.
ISDN
Similar to the dial-up access. It requires special ISDN service by the phone company and ISDN modem. It allows simultaneous data and voice calls and speeds are higher than the dial-up method with better quality. However the availability of this service is very limited and not available in many areas in Africa.
Methods listed below here provide "broadband" internet access. You will here this term a lot. In simple terms it means high speed internet access, which allows the user to fully (or mostly in case of Africa) utilize services on internet.
DSL
DSL access is increasingly the most common and cost effective method of "broadband" access. It requires a land-line phone, DSL service from the phone company and DSL modem equipment. One other requirement is that the end point, which is your office should be within 2km (1.25miles) from the telephone exchange. You should talk to your phone company for availability for your office. Sometimes, they may need to perform a line test before they can confirm this. It can be always on. You may use your phone line for voice calls simultaneously, though you would need special filters for your phones. These filters are generally provided by your phone company. DSL may come inf various speeds, however the real throughput is dependent on many other factors as well.
CATV - Cable access
Utilizing the existing Cable TV cables and with special modems the cable tv operators may provide internet access with similar speeds and costs to DSL. However I am not aware of such service in Africa so far.
Cellular Internet Access
Accessing internet via cell phone network is gaining popularity, especially in Africa due to having more cell phone coverage than landlines. For this you would need a cellphone that works as a modem or cellular modem with SIM card. Availability and speeds vary with location coverage (GPRS, EDGE, 3G - from slowest to fastest). Generally your phone or modem adapts to these speed changes. Up coming 4G service, (whenever it cometh) promises much higher speeds. Costs are higher than DSL. If you need to regularly use this, check with your cell-phone company about data packages to optimize costs. One advantage of this method is, it allows mobile access.
Wireless Broadband
Like the cell-phone network, some service providers provide wireless network access especially in business complexes or urbanized areas. You would need to be in their coverage area and a wireless modem (generally provided by the service provider). Speeds and costs are similar to cellular access - but more stable.
Satellite access
Connection service can be provided by satellite operators. This is sometimes the only method you would get in deep rural areas. You would need complex and expensive set of equipment - and the costs in Africa are higher than the previous methods.
T-Lines
These are offered to organisations that require speedy access with lots of users, or running servers on the internet. They require leased-lines, telephone lines dedicated to your organisation by the phone company. They are costly.
Now that we have covered internet access methods, let's summarize what you need for connecting a typical small office network in Africa:
First, depending on the connection available, an internet service provider. If DSL is available most Internet Service Providers, would handle the DSL phone company set-up work for you. If you are using cellular phone access, then check your cellular phone company to add data package to the service.
You would also need equipment to connect to Internet - generally a modem. Most modem devices come with networking capabilities, with even office wireless network. That way you can jump start a small office network with internet connection with a simple equipment, with which the whole office can share a single internet connection.
Connecting to your office remotely
As we have accomplished to connect our office network to internet, then comes another option: Connecting to your office remotely. Why would we need that? Well, there may be myriad of reasons to do this. For example, when you are at a conference, you may need to access some files, or mail at your office, or there may be two or more offices that need to work as if on the same network (like utilizing accounting) or many others. In a connected world it is relatively easy:
Dial-up connection
The simplest way to do it... have a dial-up modem on each end, dial your office number like dialing a phone call, and connect to the network. Although it is easy and relatively secure, since it is a private conversation, there are some drawbacks with this. It is slow for one (as dial-up connection speed is slow.) Second it requires and occupies a phone line at each end - thus making it expensive to sustain long periods.
Private connection through internet
Internet is a public network. However we said that there are many protocols on internet that allows you to utilize different services. With a special protocol you can create a private virtual "tunnel" between two connections to have them work as-if they are on the same local network securely. This is called VPN (Virtual Private Network) or PPTP (Point to Point Tunneling Protocol). All it requires internet access on both ends and capability on the hosting side (i.e. your office) to be able to manage this. Most modem/routers today have simple VPN capabilities, if you intend to use this method, look for equipment with this capability. With this way you can connect to your office from your mobile computer, and work like you are there, or you can connect two or more branch offices together as-if they are connected locally.
Other Private Connections
There are other ways to connect especially two offices that are relatively close to each other. These may include wireless connections (Wi-Fi or MicroWave) or leased line connection. These type of connections are cost effective if the traffic between two offices is too much or too critical (like banking).
A few words about security
We talked about all kinds of connections to the world. With that comes the security concerns, since there are billions of good people that are happy that you are there, as well as some number of bad people that would like to take advantage of your being there unprotected. As you shouldn't drive in a car without seatbelts on public roads, on a public network (i.e. internet) you should take all precautions. Here are bare minimum you should do:
- All computers connected to the internet or on a network that connects to the internet should have internet security products, at least an anti-virus program. There are many out there, some are commercial, some are free. There is no excuse. Use them without exception
- At the connection point there should be some barrier to eliminate known bad traffic. This is called "firewall". Most modems today have at least simple firewall capability. Ask a techie to help you to set it up.
- When you go to a town that you don't know, you avoid questionable areas, especially in the dark. Well same is for internet, avoid places that are shady - avoid too-good-to-be-true offers. If you can't decide, ask someone who knows. better.
Organisational Technology Infrastructure | Mobile and Remote Technologies 
Content is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 South Africa License.