I couldn’t get on the Internet this morning. After about 45 minutes of resetting/rebooting my computer, router, and cable modem I gave up and called the cable company. Busy signal, so I went ahead and rode to the shop. I should be able to get on the Net from there, right?
Wrong. The Internet was down everywhere, for a couple of hours. (Yes, it came back up, otherwise I couldn’t post this!)
This got me to thinking: What if I had one of those Internet/TV/Phone packages? Lose the cable and everything is out. Single point of failure. What would be my Plan B?
Years ago I was laid off from my job at a Fortune 100 company. Rather than looking for another job I started my own business. It’s guiding principal was to have multiple clients so that they’d all have to “lay me off” before I’d be out of work.
How many backup plans do you have? For example, if your car dies do you have another way to get to work? What will you do if your power goes out for several days? If your house burns down, where will you live?
What are your Plan Bs?
A friend sent me this:
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Failed router gives Time Warner customers trouble connecting to Internet
By Robert A. Baker / The Post-Standard
March 11, 2010, 9:45AM
Syracuse, NY — A faulty router in Rochester caused problems for Time Warner Cable Internet and digital phone customers in the Syracuse area this morning, a cable company spokesman said.Time Warner Cable
The problems started around 7 a.m. and have since been resolved, spokesman Jeff Unaitis said. Before the router was repaired, there were sporadic problems with cable company customers accessing the Internet over a widespread area in Central New York and around Rochester.
The router was repaired and calls to the company’s customer service number have dropped to normal numbers, Unaitis said. He did not have a number of cable customers affected.
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I guess I wasn’t the only one affected (I knew that!)