The battle for bandwidth: part II

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What is Liveport doing to help you manage guest demands for bandwidth?

Last month, we wrote about changing guest demands for wireless, and how improving your Internet package with your ISP can help. This month, we want to share a bit about why and how we’re managing your guests’ bandwidth on your Liveport hotel wireless network.

Why does Liveport manage bandwidth?
Remember the garden hose analogy? With a limited amount of bandwidth (the amount of available Internet speed at a given time) coming in to your building, Liveport needs to make sure that that bandwidth is being shared equally. This allows each user to have reliable access and ensures that no one user can hog all of the bandwidth.

Without bandwidth management, just a few people downloading illegal movies or TV shows on your network could shut everyone else out. That’s why wireless bandwidth management is considered an industry-wide best practice.

How does Liveport manage bandwidth?
Liveport does two key things to make sure everyone has fair access:

1. We set upload and download speed limits for each individual guest. For most properties, this means 500kbps download and 200kbps upload. It’s likely slower than guests’ home connections, but more than fast enough to browse the web, send and receive emails (including those with large attachments) and watch YouTube clips. This limit can be increased as your available bandwidth increases.
2. We can block users who are downloading large files (known as “torrents”). Even with restrictions in place, multiple users downloading illegal files for hours on end can cause trouble for your network. We are able to identify who is downloading these files and, when necessary, turn off their wireless connection. Blocked guests can call our support number any time, day or night, to get back online—with a gentle reminder to share the network with others.

Our bandwidth blind spot
While we can see what’s happening and actively manage your wireless side, we have no idea who is downloading what on your wired network. If you’re running both from the same connection, a few heavy wired downloaders will affect both sides of the network. If it’s a problem at your property (the biggest symptom is periods of slow speeds even though the wireless network looks good), we have a couple of suggestions.

First, you could simply turn your wired network off—provided it’s not required for business or government travelers. Second, you could run each network off separate modems (requiring a second connection from your ISP). Lastly, you could use Liveport’s wired network management service, which lets us see what’s happening on your wired side, manage wired bandwidth and take care of your wired guest Internet support. It costs an additional $1 per room, per month.

As always, we’re happy to walk you through the process if you need to make a change.