The key lesson that has been driven home to me is how dependent my world has become on internet connectivity. It is an exaggeration that like oxygen I cannot survive 3 minutes without it...but honestly it not much of an exaggeration.
(You cannot survive 3 minutes without oxygen, 3 days without water and 3 weeks without food)
No I am not so addicted to social media and news sites that I cannot live without them. Rather it is the business functions that rely so heavily upon "cloud based" applications.
I have a very IT sensitive business environment. My accounting functions (AP, AR, payroll, etc) are cloud based systems. My bills cannot be paid without them since almost all vendors require an ACH. My customers cannot pay me without their systems since they demand to be paid by ACH.
I cannot communicate even by voice with customers since the phone system uses VOIP. On top of that the telephone directory for the customer contact information is in the cloud. Emails require internet connectivity.
The move to cloud based systems was exacerbated during COVID and remains a real weakness for my area of the world.
I can and have downloaded and keep on local file storage file as much data as possible but again without internet connectivity I have to be present with that server to access the data. :headbang:
The solution is simple never lose internet connectivity... :rolleyes1:
Obviously easier said than done.
Satellite providers like Hughesnet may provide an alternative but I have never read good things about the service they provide.
I would be interested in hearing form others what plans they may have to address this new oxygen
Go home and wait for my IT department to fix it.
If they can't fix it, get out my gardening books, become a farmer, and figure out how I'm going to cook when the natural gas stops flowing. Cause I don't have a decent cooking solution for a true civilization ending event.
Quote from: Raptor on September 15, 2021, 04:30:52 PM
I would be interested in hearing form others what plans they may have to address this new oxygen
I use Hughesnet, not by choice but necessity since there's no other high speed option but satellite internet here. Work from home, even pre-Covid, and have their small business plan which is 40 GB of high speed data a month (before they throttle you back to about 200kB/sec, but unlimited at that speed) and the next business day express repair option for
about $120 a month IIRC $134/month.
Pros: Internet in the woods. Other than weather related outages, haven't had an outage yet where Hughesnet itself (or the satellite I'm on) was the cause.
Cons: Cost and speed. Propagation delay makes things like multiplayer online gaming and audio conferencing challenging. Heavy precipitation will cause loss of access.
Using https://speed.cloudflare.com/ , results with my VPN disabled:
(https://i.postimg.cc/bvVJxwdH/hn2.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/VsC6t1wn/hn3.jpg)
I'm guessing (only guessing) that this will be the main application for Starlink (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlink) and similar networks. They talk a good talk abnout bringing the internet to off-grid parts of the world but it's data-dependent businesses looking for fall-back connectivity that have the budget to pay for satellite data plans, not remote nerf herders.
Edit to add: I went to http://www.starlink.com and checked my address. Service will be available in mid- to late-2021 (roughly now?). The hardware will be US$499 and the service plan US$99/mo.
(I was quoted in GBP but most of the readerrs of this board are more familiar with USD).
I have signed up for Starlink and paid the $99 signup fee but to date they are focused on providing service to higher latitudes than NOLA. They suggest late 2021 and 2022. I suspect late 2022 is more likely.
Quote from: sheddi on September 16, 2021, 03:45:00 PM
I'm guessing (only guessing) that this will be the main application for Starlink (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlink) and similar networks. They talk a good talk abnout bringing the internet to off-grid parts of the world but it's data-dependent businesses looking for fall-back connectivity that have the budget to pay for satellite data plans, not remote nerf herders.
I think it will be different in the US. High speed internet available anywhere opens the floodgates for huge numbers of people to get out of the cities and take their jobs with them to rural areas. We're already seeing significant numbers of people moving. If this works, it could reshape huge elements of our country.
I have worked remotely from an office fulltime for five years now. Essentially as long as I have my laptop, a connection, and a place to perch I can perform my entire job function. Before COVID caused my closest corporate office (about an hour drive away) to close permanently I had never actually been there; the next closest office is two hours away. My immediate colleagues are on three continents and I have met only my manager in-person. My job role is to maintain servers in nine cities around the globe. So internet connectivity is definitely essential to my business.
We (wife, three kids, and myself) also enjoy RV camping as a hobby, which is very convenient during a pandemic. I can work from the road as long as I can connect, and my children (who presently range in age from 10-15) may well not be able to go three minutes without Internet connectivity. We have managed to address this fairly successfully by diversifying our mobile data providers. We all have smartphones that use the Verizon network, there is a mobile hotspot using the T-Mobile network, and I have the option to activate an AT&T hotspot in my truck if the other two networks are not available or have poor performance. I'm not actively considering Starlink yet, but once I have a chance to see how it holds up it may also go into the rotation.