Even though these days one can walk into almost any store that sells anything even vaguely electrical and purchase an ADSL router, I'm surprised that people actually do so and then use that purchase to power their business.

At of the time of writing this blog entry, you can pick up a branded ADSL modem router from a major superstore for £44.95 (inc. VAT) that doubtlessly has worked for many thousands of customers using it in their homes.  Home, apart from being where the heart is, should be where that product should stay; the occasional line drop isn't really that much of an issue for someone whose primary use involves shopping from Amazon or eBay.  If it drops then the user simply goes back downstairs and watches television or reads a book instead, although select words may be exclaimed if they were bidding on something and lose it as a result.

When transferred to a business environment, line drops and other such problems quickly start to cost the owners money because you now have several people unable to use the Internet rather than just one person.  You've lost your ability to email your customers & suppliers, take orders from your eCommerce site and track parcels, etc. These problems don't just affect those in the office, it affects those trying to access from home, on client sites or elsewhere "on the road".

It seems to be generally accepted amongst the small business community that ADSL is "flaky" and that one needs to live with that, however it's simply not the case.  Small businesses try to couple cheap ADSL routers with products from their Internet Service Providers (ISP) designed for home use rather than using an business-class router in conjunction with a business-class ISP.  Over time a love-hate relationship develops whereby they know their set-up is no good but just won't leave their existing ISP because "they were once really good" or fork out for a stable and secure router.

Please, business owners, do me a small favour and think about your current arrangements for accessing the Internet: if you're running your business off of a bit of plastic that costs less than a typical dinner for two then please re-examine your options and talk to the professionals - one of my team would be delighted to hear from you.