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Frequently Asked Questions What service are you providing? We have brought multiple high-speed, low latency connections to the Internet into the park to be shared by the tenants. By sharing this connection, we all reap the benefits of the lower cost and increased bandwidth. We distribute this connection throughout the park via an Ethernet network. In much the same way that the telephone company provides you with a wall jack to their network and you provide a telephone, we provide a wall jack that is a connection to our network and you plug in your computer or network. How much will it cost me? Continuing with the telephone analogy, your cost is based on your usage. However, instead of the length of time you are connected (you are always connected), you are billed based on the number of bits of information you transfer to and from the Internet throughout the month. We use what is commonly referred to as "95th percentile bandwidth based pricing". We have a number of plans designed to fit your needs. If you are a small office who are currently using a dial-up connection for email and web browsing, you're probably looking at $30/month. If are a slightly larger office currently using ISDN or DSL you're most probably going to fall into $50/month plan. If you have heavier use, intensive file transfer needs, or are looking for guaranteed bandwidth, please contact us for pricing. How does bandwidth based pricing work? Every 5 minutes we record the number of bits you transferred in from and out to the Internet in the previous 5 minutes. This count is divided by number of seconds in the sample period to produce the average number of bits per second transferred. These averages are saved throughout the month. At the end of the month the samples are sorted from largest to smallest and the largest 5 percent of the samples are discarded. The next largest sample is your 95th percentile usage for the month. This means that in an average month you get about a day and a half of free traffic. Why do you use this pricing scheme? There are two main reasons that we have adopted this pricing scheme. One, our upstreams charge us using this method. Two, we operate the Drake Park Network on a shared or cooperative bandwidth basis which allows our users to get the bandwidth they need when they need it. If we were to offer fixed pricing, we would have to carve up the bandwidth, which would in turn limit the transfer speed available to you. What prevents me from ending up with a huge bill? We will work with you initially to make sure you're in the right plan for the way that you use the Internet. We also provide you with a way to monitor your usage throughout the month. Ultimately you are responsible for your usage in the same way you are responsible for your long distance bill. How much are the setup fees? We do not charge an installation fee. However, depending on the existing wiring to your suite, you may need to have a wire installed from our equipment in the wiring closet to your equipment. We have negotiated a flat $100 fee with a local cabling company to have a line installed. You may also need to have equipment installed on your end (see next question). What equipment do I need on my end? We are delivering an Ethernet connection. If you already have a local area network or a DSL connection, you shouldn't require any additional equipment. If you are currently using a dial-up connection from a single computer or have multiple computers that are not connected by a network, you will need to add an Ethernet card to each of your computers that require access. If you have multiple computers you will also need a hub or switch to connect them. I have several computers in my office, do they each require their own connection? No. All of your computers will be able to share the same connection simultaneously. How secure is your connection? Do I need a firewall? If we supply you with real IP addresses, you are getting a raw connection to the Internet. If you elect to have a private IP address you are behind our firewall and are reasonably well isolated. However, there is no such thing as too much protection. You are responsible for securing your network. Who will be my ISP? Nestegg will be your ISP. My current ISP hosts my email, can Nestegg do this for us? Yes. My current ISP hosts my email, can we access it through your service? Yes. Can you do anything about all the junk and virus infected emails I receive? Yes. Contact us for more information. Do I still need my dial-up account? You will not need your dial-up account or the phone line you call on (if you have a separate phone just for the Internet) to access the Internet from work. Some companies are using the same dial-up account to access the Internet from home or when traveling as they do from work. If you do this, you will still need your dial-up account for use outside the office. Since this is shared bandwidth, what sort of performance can I expect when the network is busy? We have more bandwidth leaving the park than many ISPs have to support all of their users. Our job as network managers is to make sure that the bandwidth is fairly distributed and to purchase more should we outgrow what we currently have. In short, at any given moment you should expect to get as much bandwidth as you need and should not see any degradation from other users in the park. Can you host our website? Yes. We can offer hosting from several locations around the country.
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