Test Layout

I recently found out that you can have multiple IPs on a MTS (Manitoba Telecom Services) Internet connection. I haven't investigated this for a long time and this was a pleasant surprise when migrating a client from a more expensive Internet connection to MTS after MTS upgraded the connectivity in their relatively remote building. Adding additional IPs with MTS is done by purchasing a framed route. The minimum size is 6 IP addresses for $9.95/month. Pretty good if you need an extra IP or two as our client did. The description of the service is here: https://www.mts.ca/mts/business/internet/features/framed+route We have the framed route up and running for the customer and it worked very well once it was configured. What we ran into was vague documentation and a support person that wasn't familiar with it and messed up the configuration on the first attempt (a second tech was very helpful and got it right). MTS provides the following document to clients: https://www.mts.ca/mts/su...

Microsoft has just released a nice video on optimizing network connectivity for Office 365: How to optimize your network connectivity and performance with Office 365 and Azure A quick summary of the video: A lot of connectivity to Office 365 is not in your control. However, you should have an understanding of connectivity to the data center to your tenant. In some cases, MS has worked with ISPs to optimize connectivity in cases where there was obviously bad routing. For example traffic being routed unnecessarily over trans-oceanic links. If you have high latency to Office 365 you can use tools such as PSping to look at connectivity. PSping performs a connection to a service at a port number rather than using ICMP packets as regular ping does. You can also use Network Monitor to identify some issues. PSping is free from Sysinternals: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/jj729731.aspx It's important to know that DNS lookups are based on geographic location.  For exa...