What should I consider when choosing an Internet Service Provider (ISP)?

Since Heartland Retail is a web-based application, choosing a reliable high speed Internet Service Provider (ISP) will be an important factor in the quality of your experience using it. This guide may help you choose a new internet service provider or evaluate the quality of your current provider.

We recommend selecting a fiber optic service (FiOS) or cable internet connection if one is available in your area. DSL is not recommended but can work as a last resort if the bandwidth is sufficient (see below). A 4G internet connection is suitable as a backup or secondary connection but may be too slow to use as your primary connection depending on service in your area and your specific requirements.

For best results, we recommend a connection with a download bandwidth of at least 10 Mbps and an upload bandwidth of at least 4 Mbps. Slower connections may work but your experience might be somewhat degraded. A faster connection may also be required for locations with many stations.

Latency or "ping" time also plays an important role in your ultimate experience. A ping time under 100ms will provide the best experience for using Heartland Retail. The lower the better.

To test the actual ping and available bandwidth of your current internet connection you can use a speed test site (for example, http://www.speedtest.net/)

A static IP address is not required to use Heartland Retail.

Note about installation of networking equipment

We recommend that you have your store professionally wired by a networking specialist, especially if you plan to use LAN/Ethernet printers that require the printer to be plugged into the router via an ethernet cable.

Based on our experience, we recommend that you avoid power-line based networking hardware. Use dedicated ethernet cabling instead.