Internet connection had become a necessity long before the pandemic even began. From studying and working to online shopping and streaming movies, many households and businesses have been heavily reliant on high-speed internet. Unfortunately, even though you have the most reliable internet service provider, you will still experience internet shortages or downtimes, especially if your provider is upgrading something or facing some issues.
During these situations, backup internet always comes in handy. Regardless if you have DSL, cable, or fiber internet, it’s always to have a backup, especially if you’re a remote worker who depends on an internet connection for a living. If you’ve been having doubts about getting a backup internet for your home or business, we’re here to tell you the importance of having one nowadays.
What is Backup Internet?
A backup internet connection is exactly what it sounds like: a secondary network connection that enables you to continue using the internet in the event that your primary connection is interrupted.
Having a backup internet connection at your office is a no-brainer because you need to be able to continue working even if your WiFi is down. Employers, on the other hand, have a hard time seeing the utility of a second network connection when their employees are spread out throughout the country and working remotely.
For homeowners, it’s not as critical to have a backup internet, especially if they only use their internet for entertainment purposes. However, their priorities will change if someone in the household studies or works remotely. It has become a matter of priority. And it most cases, having a backup internet always wins for both residential and commercial use.
Internet Outages Are Inevitable
Internet outages are common in the United States—it is inevitable, even further highlighting the importance of backup internet. There are several factors why your internet can experience downtimes, and in most cases, it’s not your internet provider’s fault. Here are some of the most common causes of internet outages:
- Network Traffic
Congestion on a network can keep you from going anywhere online, much like a traffic jam on a highway can prohibit you from getting to work on time. Many internet disruptions can be traced back to weakening in the cables between your home and the ISP.
Another possible cause is when a popular website becomes overworked, lowering the amount of pipe that can be used by everyone else. A DDoS attack in September of this year, for example, crippled Wikipedia and caused online delays worldwide. According to a study from Network Computing. Due to the attack on Wikipedia, there was a “substantial loss in HTTP server availability and a dramatic spike in HTTP response times.”
- Equipment or Software Failure
Every piece of equipment has a limited lifespan, and sooner or later, it will fail. If you have a service agreement for your internet-related equipment, you can be back online within a day.
Companies who provide a virtual private network (VPN) to their employees for security or access to specialized software want a continuous, dependable VPN now more than ever, given the increasing number of remote workers in the office. However, if your office’s internet goes down, so does your VPN.
- Weather
Storms cannot be prevented nor controlled by anyone, and neither are the damages they can inflict on the affected areas. Intense weather events, like earthquakes and tsunamis, can affect the towers of both your internet and cell phone provider. Once these towers get damaged, they won’t function properly, resulting in a network outage.
- Service Provider Issues
In addition to weather and equipment failures, cable and infrastructure damage, as well as more technical issues like system misconfigurations, can cause service provider outages. If you notice that your internet provider usually encounters these types of issues, it’s best to have a backup internet or switch to a different provider.
Backup Internet for Residential Use
If you’re a remote student or worker, you understand the importance of a speedy internet connection. Whether it’s for your school activities or work meetings, your productivity will highly depend on the speed of your internet.
Unfortunately, if you suddenly experience a network outage, you’ll need to drop everything you need to do and wait for the connection to be restored. Many network downtimes may take hours, so it can affect you massively if you’re in a situation where time is of the essence.
You may think of backup internet as an additional expense and nothing more, but it can be a life savior, especially if you’re in an important meeting when your primary internet network suddenly goes down. To give you an idea of how often network downtime happens in the United States, you can use many free apps online, such as Downdetector. We highly recommend you check it before thinking twice.
Backup Internet for Commercial Use
Backup internet is a definite must for both large and small businesses. Now that many companies have shifted digital, they heavily rely on cloud-based applications and Saas to operate. By having no internet backup, you run the risk of losing revenue once your primary internet suddenly experiences an outage.
Compared to residential internet outages, commercial internet downtimes are much more critical, allowing companies to lose a significant amount of their revenue, especially if the outage takes more than an hour.
Aside from that, your staff productivity will also be affected, meaning you can owe your customers compensation for a delayed service, for example. So, you’ll never want to take that risk. On the other hand, if you’re worried about the costs, you might want to think about the losses you may experience if you don’t have a backup internet.
Have You Made a Choice?
Having a backup internet connection entails many benefits for both homeowners and business owners. Whether it’s about seamless communication with loved ones or maximizing the productivity of your team members, you can never fully rely on a single internet service provider—especially if many factors are at stake.
So, get yourself an internet backup today, and have peace of mind knowing you’ll have a plan B if anything happens.
