Comments on: Web Worker Lessons from a Cable Service Problem

By: Could the iPad Be My New Travel Computing Device? – WebWorkerDaily

Could the iPad Be My New Travel Computing Device? – WebWorkerDaily — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 23:22:12 +0000

[...] As I wrote recently, I have been looking for a back-up system that will give me a way to bypass our local cable company to access the Internet in emergencies. I’ve been shopping around, looking at various types of [...]

By: Jay

Jay — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 22:31:42 +0000

Brighthouse internet issue isnt solved yet. Even though brighthouse says it has been fixed. I’m still having trouble loading gmail. Then when it loads I cant type anything because gmail freezes up. I’m still having trouble as per today, January 2nd. I’m currently researching my internet options so I can drop Brighthouse.

By: Stop the Cap! » Bright House Says Their Internet Outage Was Everyone Else’s Fault; Tough Luck: No Service Credit For You

Sat, 02 Jan 2010 08:02:16 +0000

[...] For those brave enough to stay, lessons were learned. As one Web Worker Daily contributor lamented, the most effective way to get Bright House off their collective butts was to embarrass them in the [...]

By: Jenise Cook

Jenise Cook — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 22:35:57 +0000

Nancy,

For those pay-as-you-go wireless cards, let us know the results of your research.

@jenisecook

By: Robert Lucente

Robert Lucente — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 12:49:26 +0000

This is going to sound crazy but I keep the cheapest land line plan around and get this a dial up modem.

It is not cheap. About $240 / year.

However, during emergencies, its great.

The side benefit is when I go visit relatives that don’t have cable modems (yes those people exist), I can still function.

The other downside is that, you don’t have that much bandwidth available.

As with anything, we all have to find the solution that works for us.

By: Nancy Nally

Nancy Nally — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 04:49:10 +0000

I’m contemplating looking into a pay-as-I-go wireless card for my laptop as a backup plan myself. I live in Florida so hurricane outage is a real danger. I should probably have a more solid back-up and this was a good reminder of that.

Walter – my issue with needing connectivity is that I can’t deliver my work without the internet because of being a writer who publishes on the internet. I can write all I want but without an internet connection I can’t publish anything.

By: Stephanie Cockerl

Stephanie Cockerl — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 23:36:34 +0000

I also got a contingency plan, a USB wireless modem for my laptop. My home connection tends to go in and out at critical times. Its nice to have an extra layer of access.

By: Jenise Cook

Jenise Cook — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 19:13:59 +0000

Helpful comments so far. I’m in southern California, and over the past few days northern Baja Mexico, southeast of San Diego, CA, has had a 5.8 quake, with several “swarms” of around 3.0 on the Richter scale.

Nothing major, but it’s a good reminder that I need to have a secondary access to the Internet, and I’ll investigate Verizon. However, past experience has shown that after a major earthquake (Ex: 1994 Northridge quake), the cell networks are used by emergency and government personnel, and it’s difficult for the general public to gain access immediately after a natural disaster. I’ll need to ask Verizon if that could affect WWW access.

When our local utility company needed to do repairs and shut off all electric power for the day, at least they gave us prior warning. I worked at a local, family-owned coffee house near our public library, so I had two (free!) Wifi hotspots to use that day.

Nancy and commentors, please continue to share your ideas.

Happy New Year!

@jenisecook

By: Walter Wimberly

Walter Wimberly — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 18:21:22 +0000

I was affected by Brighthouse as well. Given experiences with them in the past, I have a WWAN from Verizon as a backup. However, the only sites I had real issues getting to was Google’s sites, so I switched to Bing for a little bit, and didn’t worry about Google Reader, or GMail, or Goggle Docs. I don’t rely on Google for any serious business however – I use them for side projects, tests, and fun. Therefore, my email wasn’t down, the spreadsheets I needed to work on got worked on, and my business projects stayed mostly on track – all because I worked off my local files.

Incidents like this is why I’m personally against cloud computing for anything you are truly dependent on for work. I can back up my hard drives, my computers, etc – but I can’t make a second Internet connection nearly as easily.

By: Vlad (Small Business Blog)

Vlad (Small Business Blog) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 18:07:57 +0000

My contingency plan includes a cellular data plan from Verizon and an iPhone unlimited data plan which (in case of emergency) can be sort of temporarily misused by plugging in SIM card into one of my older Windows Mobile phone that allow tethering. It’s not cheap, but at least I have 3+ layers of padding (my cable connection, Verizon data, AT&T and I can always opt to go to the nearest Starbucks that isn’t hooked up by Cablevision (Optimum Online).