Turnkey ISP

Increasing demand for remote internet access has led many to setup business as internet service providers. In the early days of the commercial Internet, this was something only attempted by the very technically astute. To cater to the less tech savvy entrepreneurs, a whole industry sprang up offering "Turnkey ISP" businesses.

Turnkey ISP Equipment

The advance in technology of one key piece of equipment, the remote access server, has changed that, making it much easier to setup an ISP business--at the same time making it a much more competitive undertaking. The latest remote access servers are reliable, easy to install and manage. All that is required to get into the ISP business is access to an Internet backbone, a couple of redundant servers to handle the email, website hosting and DNS, the best remote access server available, and UPS and telephone lines.

Starting Small

It is possible to start small and scale up to meet growing demand. Most remote access servers nowadays have excellent embedded monitoring and reporting software. ISP managers use this feature to decide when to order more telephone lines. In the initial stages when the subscriber base is small, there should be one phone line for five users. As the user base grows, this can gradually be raised to around seven or eight users per phone line.

ISP subscribers don't want dropped connections and busy signals, so the reliability of the RAS is critical. Manufacturers recognize this and have designed devices that have no moving parts and that include dual redundant power supplies. In addition, the modern RAS is able to handle both analog and digital telephone signals.