PSA: My Chiang Mai apartment internet went down for 8 hours last Tuesday

I used to panic and lose a whole workday, but now I just hotspot from my local SIM and head to a cafe. What's your backup plan for when the Wi-Fi dies?

4 comments

4 Comments

oliver_nguyen1529d ago

Actually read a blog post about this exact thing! The writer called it a "connection ladder" which really stuck with me. My first step is always the phone hotspot like you said. If that's slow, I have a cheap backup USB dongle with a different carrier. Cafes are the final step, but sometimes you just need to get out of the house anyway. Being able to keep working without the stress is a total game changer.

drew_hart46d ago

Ever think about how weird it is that we all have these little rituals? Like, my friend always puts his backup dongle in the same zipper pocket of his bag, right next to a granola bar. He says it's his "get out of jail free" kit. I guess we all have our own version of that now, a little pile of tech that keeps the world from falling apart. Makes you wonder what people did before all this, just sit and stare at a blank screen?

the_rowan29d ago

My buddy Mark in Bangkok got totally locked out of his building's network for a full 24 hours last month. He had a big deadline and his phone data was almost gone. He ended up walking to a 7-Eleven and buying one of those little tourist SIM cards with a week of data, cost him like ten bucks. He just popped it into an old phone and used that as a hotspot. It was slow but it saved him. Now he keeps one of those SIMs in a drawer just in case.

viola_lopez3029d ago

That's such a good idea, having a backup ready to go. I did something similar when my home internet died during a storm last year, used an old phone with a prepaid card as a hotspot... felt like a total genius move.