User:MarkMLl/Andrews and Arnold

Andrews and Arnold is an Internet Service Provider (ISP) based in Bracknell, UK. They provide a range of broadband (over ADSL) and Ethernet (over fibre) services to business and domestic users, and also business VOIP services.

History
The company was formed in 1997 and launched the AAISP Internet service in 1998 initially with dialup POTS and ISDN connections offering static IP addresses. In 2000 it started offering business and domestic ADSL connections using BT for both core and "last mile".

AAISP started offering native rather than tuneled IPv6 in October 2005, but in 2008 found that BT's core network was not reliable with customer IPv6 broadband connections.

In 2008 AAISP started transferring customers onto BT's 21CN, this continues as BT rolls out its 21CN across exchanges. In August 2009 customers on BT's legacy 20CN were moved to IPstream Connect - thereby connecting 20CN lines to AAISP via BT's 21CN.

Market position
Andrews & Arnold deals with corporate customers of any size and with domestic users, offering the same level of support to both.

Products
AAISP focusses on the provision of Internet connectivity services and domain hosting. ADSL accounts generally include a bundled ZyXEL ADSL router with remote support, alternatively a customer-supplied router may be used.

They can also supply their own design of "Firebrick" firewall appliance, intended to be used in conjunction with non-filtering routers.

Product areas include:


 * Broadband over ADSL
 * Basic
 * Professional


 * Ethernet over fibre


 * VOIP


 * Domain hosting

Firebrick
The original Firebrick is a small router/firewall intended to be placed between a minimal ADSL modem/router and customer computers.

The FB6000 is a physically-small but high-throughput device which AAISP uses for routing, L2TP management etc. It also makes available per-customer statistics which are subsequently used to generate Continuous Quality Monitoring reports and graphs.

Continuous Quality Monitoring
A distinguishing feature of Andrews & Arnold's ISP service is that each customer can access statistics showing the amount of data transferred in the current billing period, and also a graph showing the degree of packet loss and latency. The latency is measured by the FB6000 which sends an LCP echo request to the customer's router every second.

Native IPv6
Subject to the customer having a suitable router/modem, AAISP started offering native rather than tuneled IPv6 in October 2005, but in 2008 found that BT's core network was not reliable with customer IPv6 broadband connections. IPv6 should be available over dialup links for experimental purposes.

BT's 21CN
In mid 2009 BT started moving AAISP customers to 21CN connections. This highlighted multiple problems which were either caused by 21CN's routing being unable to track changes to available equipment or by BT having inherent single-points-of-failure in the 21CN infrastructure.

Be Unlimited
In August 2009 after experiencing problems with BT's 21CN Andrews and Arnold entered into an agreement with Be Unlimited to provide both core and access network services. This will allow a customer to spread last mile connectivity over both BT and unbundled lines, and will enhance A&A's ability to connect to peer ISPs on the Internet.