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Do you have an ISP backup?

By John Fariss

Real Estate Appraiser with Fariss Appraisal Services

October 30, 2007 03:34 AM

I was working late last night and debating about wether to stop working and get up early to start again or work into the wee hours of the morning. In the past I typically worked unitl 2 or 3 in the morning, but I've switched to getting to bed earlier and waking early to start over. I posted on this very topic last night, the last thing I did for the night, to see what other people do.

Last night I decided to quit "early" and restart this morning. Well, to my surprise this morning, I discovered that my internet service provider was down. We had some thunderstorms last night but nothing major. So, I couldn't finish my work this morning as planned.

I use cable and don't have any other means to connect to the internet, well I have a cell phone, but that's no use. Does anyone have a backup system for times like these? Perhaps a laptop card, a data cable for your cell phone, a dial-up?

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Don Stern

Realty Executives South Louisiana - Baton Rouge, LA

Greater Baton Rouge Real Estate

I normally work from home and COX is my default ISP. My backup ISPs are:

Sprint - through my Broadband card
Other wireless connections... my broker's office, local coffee shops, Sonicburgers, some McDonalds, etc.

Oct 30, 2007 03:56 AM

Martinelli Caputi

Martinelli Caputi & Associates, Ltd. - Warwick, RI

& Associates, Ltd.

My thoughts exactly. If you have a wireless card, sometimes you can jump onto another network (i.e. if your neighbor has a wireless router that is open to the public). The other backup would be other wireless hotspots (coffee shops, etc). The laptop with a wireless card is your friend! :)

Oct 30, 2007 04:16 AM

Ted Baker

Carmody and Associates LLC - Winter Haven, FL

MidFloridaMediation.com

Hi John - I live in Florida and have considered the problem you describe.

At home my primary carrier is cable (Brighthouse in our market) but I do have DSL (from Verizon) as well. My VOIP line is on the DSL and it also provides me with a backup broadband connection.

I also have an air card on my laptop and I maintain one dial up account for situations when the air card may not have service.

I recently had an incident where I had a series of BPO reports to file and was working into the night when my cable connection went out. Customer service advised me that on a Monday night they had scheduled maintenance to perform - impacting a wide area (so I could not go to the office). (when I was in technical services, we scheduled that sort of thing on weekends and provided customers with advance notice - but apparently not the way these folks do it) I switched to my alternate connection (DSL) and got my work done. It is a mortal sin in the BPO world to miss a deadline - so I was glad to have the backup plan.

Oct 30, 2007 04:27 AM

John Fariss

Fariss Appraisal Services - Bakersfield, CA

Appraiser - Bakersfield, CA

Ted - having the voip system as a backup is great. I too am on Brighthouse and thought about their phone system, but I like the way you have it set up.

Richard - I didn't even think of trying my wireless internet with some of the neighbors. Although, I have in the past and they are secure, but I should have at least thought about it.

Don - I've been thinking about a broadband card for use in the field. That would have been a great save.

Thanks for all your comments.

Oct 30, 2007 04:32 AM

Gene Allen

Fathom Realty - Cary, NC

Realty Consultant for Cary Real Estate

I use a dialup service from AT&T but they raised their price by quite a bit. I am going to see if Verizon has a dialup which I think they do. I haven't used dialup in a while because except for email it is dreadfully slow.

Oct 30, 2007 09:52 AM

Gary Woltal

Keller Williams Realty - Flower Mound, TX

Assoc. Broker Realtor SFR Dallas Ft. Worth

John, I thought I was the only geek out there that had this covered. At the house I have cable modem and dial up. I can plug into a LAN at multiple businesses I visit. I also have Wi-Fi at least at 30 locations I've mapped out. Someday I may get an Air Card and be covered in the entire region. Some of my colleagues have that. So John, I ALWAYS can get a connection except in between sites in the car.

Oct 31, 2007 04:37 AM

Okay, I'm finally back online. I thought I had problems yesterday! Today was even worse. This is only the second time I've had such an outage, but it always happens when there is a bunch of work to do.

I think I'm going to check into DSL, which is a bit cheaper than cable, and add a broadband card. Two days of horrible service just can't happen again. And going to Starbuck's or some other Wifi spot just isn't realistic for long outages. Dial-up might be a good option too.

Oct 31, 2007 02:44 PM

Do you have an ISP backup?

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