HERNDON, Va. — One of the things providing continuing amazement to me is how many seemingly intelligent individuals who literally depend on the Internet for their livelihood have no backup services whatsoever.
A case in point: One of the area’s dial up Internet providers found out on a weekend that a local telephone company had severed several fiber optic cables that provided service to thousands of dial up customers. The information I had indicated the phone company basically dug into its own line with a piece of heavy equipment.
In the blink of an eye, the dial up customers had no way to reach the Internet. I spoke to several tech support personnel from the Internet company and heard story after story about how customers kept calling in, practically in tears because the cable repair dragged on for days and they had no way to conduct business.
According to the reports I heard, these unfortunate dial up users begged, threatened to sue, and were very unkind to the tech support personnel, as if blaming the ISP’s techs personally that the break was not being repaired fast enough.
I usually write a variation of this column once a year, but for some reason my words are like those of the sainted John the Baptist: They echo in the wilderness and no one seems to be listening.
Listen up, dear reader: IF YOU MUST HAVE ACCESS TO THE INTERNET ON A 24/7 BASIS DO NOT LIMIT YOURSELF TO ONE PROVIDER. That’s as loud as I can say it in print. I could repeat it a couple of times, but if I did the computer that sets the type for this column would freak out and make the type look “funny.”
If you manage a business using dial up ‘Net connection the tragedy clock is ticking down to zero for you if you only have one provider. The relatively low cost of dial up service makes having two or more dial up providers obligatory to keep the wheels of electronic commerce humming.
An example might be to have a local provider as your prime supplier and a national provider, such as Earthlink, to be your secondary and/or backup service. This scenario would serve a dual purpose: It spreads the risk of a complete blackout to almost zero, and also provides a method for personnel on the road to have access to local phone numbers as they travel around the nation.
It’s also important to make sure that if your company has POP mail service, your supplemental service allows you to access your mail.
Here’s something I’ll bet many of you do not know: If you have America Online dial up service as a backup, all you have to do is use the AOL software to access the Internet. Once you have access to the ‘Net, minimize the window and fire up your regular Internet software such as Outlook or Explorer software. It will work just fine.
Of course, AOL has dial ups everywhere.
Finally, the same holds true for businesses and individuals using broadband services and must have access to the Internet at all times. All kinds of things happen and the chance of Murphy’s Law striking at a key moment is always there. Keeping a dial up account on the side for broadband dropouts also makes good fiscal sense.
Finally, finally (grin) if you want to be really safe, my suggestion is to obtain a domain name and find a third party company that will only host your e-mail. This company should provide both POP and Web access to your mail.
Today, many folks have a dial telephone, cell phone and a pager…just so they can be in communication for business. Why scrimp on ‘Net connectivity insurance?
Think of the additional dial up account as being the equivalent of AAA for your e-mail (grin).
