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Internet Apocalypse Survival Guide

By Eric Garrison

On Friday, April 19, 2019, an EF-2 tornado touched down a little less than an mile from the WTE Office. While we didn't suffer any damage, the Internet infrastructure of the area was a mess and took days to fully recover. What became very evident to us was how un-prepared many businesses are to deal with an outage of this type. As businesses and individuals are becoming more and more dependent on their technology, if that technology is down for more than four hours, there can be significant impact to their business. ALERT: The average company will experience at least 14 hours of internet outage per year. Are you prepared?

A few tips to consider are listed below, even if you don't have a storm on the horizon. Have your business toolkit ready, just in case.
  • Buy LED flashlights. Get a lot of small, cheap ones for your office and home. For example: https://amzn.to/2Pro91M
  • If you have iPads, consider buying them with Cellular Sim active. With the long battery life, they work as a MIFI and are an available device in an emergency.
  • Have a plan for your digital phone lines. If you have a box that runs your phone calls over the Internet, make sure you have a backup plan. Most Cable companies will have a portal to manage the call forwarding. Send to a Google Voice number on a cell phone, which will allow you to return phone calls without using your personal number. Google Voice numbers can be on 3 devices, and all 3 will ring. This makes a great backup phone solution.
  • Don't use Credit Card terminals that are Ethernet-only. WIFI terminals can be tethered to the backup MIFI, or iPad hotspots. You can also have a backup SQUARE card reader. If you rely on credit card transactions, you should have a backup SQUARE anyway. Bars, restaurants, small medical offices are perfect candidates to have a backup SQUARE for emergencies or heavier times.
  • Don't have an Exchange server in your office since all your mail will be down. The worst location for Exchange is in the office closet. If you still run a local mail server, contact us about O365 and a migration plan. Please!
  • If you are a Doctor/Dentist/ Chiropractor office - make sure you can access your schedule software over a backup hotspot or iPad.
  • Know your router/cable modem. How many lights and which ones should be on when it's functioning properly? If your Internet is down, but your neighbor is up, it may be your equipment. Know what the lights should look like when the connection is good. Consider taking a photo, then print the account number and support phone number on the page and tape the info to the side of the router/modem. You may not be able to rely on getting the info from your online account.
  • Storms usually take down power and Internet. Essential equipment should have a UPS (uninterruptable power supply) battery. Don't cause your own internet outage due to not having the proper gear on battery backups. This is our favorite battery pack for charging phones and iPad: https://amzn.to/2ZzQszA. Most cars cannot charge an iPad in their USB ports.
  • Many people are "cutting the cable" what that means is that they are 100% reliant on Cable Internet for news and storm information. Apps like MyRadar allow you to stay informed and to get weather alerts.
  • Remotely check on your locations. Many new smart devices can let you know if you have power and Internet at a remote location. Smart thermostats, Alarm.com-enabled alarm panels, video cameras, and lighting automation systems can notify you of electricity and Internet issues. New Battery Backup systems like APC Smart-UPS can also monitor and send alerts to keep you in the know.