Windows

I suggest setting up an appointment with someone at your local ISP. They're been doing this since Day One and can give you a quick education on the concept, methodology, the tools and the hardware.

Sounds like fun. Good luck.

Al Hedstrom

I agree with Answer 1's suggestion to meet with your ISP. They can help you with the selection of router/firewall appliances, TCP/IP setup/address, etc. You can also request them to monitor your traffic for certain period or time so you have benchmarks of your users Internet activities. Maybe a DSL would suffice!

You should also set up meeting with our phone system supplier. They should also advise you what would be the expected phone traffic on the T1. This will allow you how many channels out of the 24 x 64Kbps you can allot for your ISP.

Hope this helps.

ISP have in-house consultants that will be able to assist you. Or you can bringing in your own consultants.

As to where to get basic info on h/w, price..etc, check out

nwfusion.com
networkcomputing.com

hope this helps!

First of all:
A fractional T-1 or T-3 line is a T-1 or T-3 digital phone line...that is leased to a customer at a fraction of its data-carrying capacity and at a correspondingly lower cost. A T-1 line contains 24 channels, each with a data transfer capacity of 64 Kbps. The customer can rent some number of the 24 channels. The transmission method and speed of transfer remain the same.

2nd: your strategy at this point in time (that is, the beginning of this project) should read somethinglike this:
1. evaluate your current bandwidth through communication with whomever provides your internet access
2. determine if a T1 is necessary. refer to this as a "Cost-Benefits analysis". Do this by having a T1 provider assess the bandwidth evaluation.
3. if so, have the T1 provider give you a quote AND the ISP give you a quote. Between the two of them, you will have covered all aspects of the project.

Lastly, I would beef up the "plan", put it in writing, schedule some meetings, and, most important

Got cut off....
Lastly, I would beef up the "plan", put it in writing, schedule some meetings, and, most importantly, give the impression to the "big wigs" that you can handle this job, because this project will be 95% supervision on your part; the technical part is done by the other people. GOOD LUCK