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Part 2: Always Fly First Class or Business Class when traveling the Internet.
By: Carl Sconnely, President of Systems 2000, Inc.
As I covered in last week's blog "Always Fly First or Business Class When Traveling the Internet - Part 1," RV Dealerships have become increasingly reliant on the Internet in recent years, but many dealerships fail to realize the importance of using the proper bandwidth and network components to keep their businesses running successfully.
Your network is only as strong as its weakest link. Just because your dealership has made the jump to a business level Internet connection such as a T1, doesn't mean that your network will suddenly be lightning fast.
Last week, I mentioned that Systems 2000 typically recommends to our dealers Cisco, SonicWALL, Netgear, Netopia, and Watchguard network component brands. Lately, I have received a lot of questions about specific models we felt worked the best. To answer this, we recommend the Cisco ASA 5505 Router. This router not only operates as a typical high-end router, but also as a VPN and Firewall. The ASA 5505 is easy to configure, and although other models could possibly save you $150 in upfront costs, the reliability and scalability of this piece of hardware will pay for itself ten-fold with fewer tech visits.
You will want to limit your employees from using "unnecessary" real time streaming video and audio to greatly improve the Internet experience for your entire dealership.
There are 3 main ways of doing this:
1) The first method involves tweaking the settings on your firewall. By going into your firewall management program, you should be able to "prohibit" certain website URLs from being accessed on your network. This can also be done on a per user basis, which will allow you to still give your Internet manager and salesmen the ability to perform their typical duties. This eliminates the distractions of any non-work related bandwidth hogging sites such as YouTube, MySpace, and Facebook.
2) The second way of limiting access would be to disable certain programs from running, such as Windows Media Player, QuickTime, etc. to ensure that non-work related video streaming and web surfing is held to a minimum. This is less effective because there are a variety of smaller alternative programs to view videos.
3) Some of our clients have resorted to blocking the Internet completely for non-managerial users.
As with most decisions in a dealership, you should have a strategy meeting to determine who needs access and where they need it.
It is important that dealerships have in place an Employee Internet Policy section of their handbook. This section should state a zero tolerance of non-essential use, personal shopping, and offensive sites.
Unfortunately, some rural dealerships and campsites are still without the option of high speed internet. I have gotten a few inquiries that ask what a dealership limited to a dial-up connection can do for a faster internet experience in a rural area. There are a couple of options available and you will want to purchase the highest bandwidth available from the supplier of your choice:
1) Satellite internet is available to anyone that has a view of the sky. This allows even the most remote dealership to have a reasonably fast internet connection. Typically satellite receivers cost about $500 and the monthly internet service plans vary between $50-$100.
2) The second option is the use of long range WiFi. This is very similar to a standard WiFi connection but on a slightly larger scale. This is great for multi-location dealers with locations within 5 miles of each other. If one location has a good internet connection and another is lacking, a powerful transmitter can be installed to provide internet between both locations. The cost of this is roughly $50-$75/month.
3) The third and probably the most common way of bringing internet connectivity to rural areas recently is with the 3G wireless data card. These cards are able to pick up internet almost anywhere you can get a cell phone signal. Although the upload/download speeds are slightly slower than the other options, they are the most portable and are very useful at RV shows. Be sure to opt for a provider who supplies 3G service in your area. Monthly service plans usually run about $30-$100.
Once again, if you are currently having Internet related problems, feel free to email me a copy of your services and I will have our engineers take a quick look and offer some suggestions.
Email cs@sys2.com, Subject: Internet Connectivity.
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