We are slaves to the internet

The dawn of the internet age heralded opportunities that would make our lives easier. And it did. We can now pretty much do everything with a click. But unfortunately, whilst it has made everything easier, it has also turned us into slaves. We don’t realise how dependent we are until it’s taken away … as it was from me in the last few days.

Day 1

Morning

Friday morning, and no it wasn’t the 13th, dawned cloudy and rainy. Well, it was October! Switched the internet on and it fired up.

Logged on to my laptop, the teenager began watching YouTube and the aged parent checked his emails.

After an hour, the aged parent phoned my sister but couldn’t get through. She then phoned the house phone, yes we still have one, but when we picked up all we could hear was a crackly ringing phone.

Oh no! Phone line down … and the internet light was now flashing orange.

Of course I tried turning it off and on again. That was the first thing I did.

And still it flashed.

ARGH!!! How was I supposed to do work with no internet? I need to access Google Docs, online workspaces, timing software, plus all manner of websites for research, editing and creating.

With a temporary panic at mobile data not working on my phone, I had to use the aged parent’s mobile to access my emails so I could quickly email clients and advise them of situation.

A phone call to the phone provider put me through to a message that effectively said: “We’re busy, call back later!”

So it wasn’t just us, clearly.

LUNCHTIME

Lunchtime, the internet pinged on randomly. Ooo, quick catch up of emails, and managed to complete a few tasks for clients, before it disappeared again a couple of hours later.

Well, I guess it was Friday. Maybe it was the Universe’s way of saying: “Stop! Have some time off!”

EARLY EVENING

By early evening I finally managed to get through to the technical department of the telecoms provider.

“Oh, yes, I can see the internet’s not working!” (No sh*t, Sherlock!)

“Hmm, the phone line seems fine …” (Oh, we can assure you it isn’t!)

“… but I’ll get an engineer out to you.” (And when would that be?)

“The earliest date I have is Tuesday!” (Excuse me, what?!? But, but, but I have client meetings on Monday, what am I supposed to do?)

“Sorry, but that’s the best I can do.” (Guess you’ll have to book it in then)

By this time, the teenager was prowling like a caged tiger.

Day 2

Morning

Saturday morning … internet withdrawal symptoms have kicked in.

The teenager has morphed into Moaning Myrtle, asking when the internet will come back online. (If I was a mind reader son, I’d earn a fortune!) Thankfully, the teenager is off out to friend’s house, so he’ll be able to get his gaming fix.

The aged parent has decided, without prompting, to clean the front of the kitchen cupboards. (Thank goodness I was sitting down!)

I, meanwhile, am taking advantage of the downtime to write a few articles, so they are ready ahead of schedule. Plus, I can just relax and watch wall-to-wall Hallmark movies … though it beats me why they’ve morphed into showing Christmas movies from the beginning of October!

Afternoon

Ah, bliss! I have the house all to myself. Cup of tea, check. Movie channel on, check.

Still no internet, che … oh, hang on. Wait a minute! Is that a blue light I see before me on the router? Why yes it is!

I rush to open one of my online workspaces so I can upload my column before the internet flips off again. Article uploaded as I keep one eye on that beacon of hope, the blue light.

Nope, still there.

Ooo, I’d also better quickly check my emails while I’ve got a chance, not to mention Twitter. Hmmm, should I also have a little scout around for Christmas present ideas? Why not?

Then a thought strikes! Should I, before I go and pick the teenager up, switch off the internet again and say it still isn’t working? Would that be too mean?

Needless to say, I didn’t switch the internet off, and when the teenager got home, he literally rushed to switch his gaming device on as if he’d been starved for a year!

Evening

After six hours of activity and with 2 dances to go on Strictly, the internet once again decided it had had enough, and we were back to a flashing orange light.

The teenager started huffing and puffing, the aged parent had already nodded off, and I simply shrugged.

Half an hour later, the internet flashed back to life. Only for it to flitter on and off for the next hour.

Normally, I would turn the router off at night, but seeing as we now had internet I didn’t want to risk it.

Day 3

Upon waking, we were, once again faced with an orange light. No internet and still no phone.

After a couple of hours the internet came back to life again.

Normal service, it appeared, had been resumed.

For the rest of the day we had unlimited internet access. Oh, how free that felt!!!

Until about 8:30pm again, when it went off. This time it was only five minutes before we were back in business.

Well, for half an hour at least, when it decided to go again.

A 15 minute wait followed before the blue light reappeared.

And so, dear readers, that’s how we left it as we went to bed!

Day 4

Monday morning dawned bright and sunny. And lo, the internet light was still blue.

The week started positively.

With a client call at 10, I had already arranged a contingency … just in case … but all was well on the Western Front as I went to sign in to the call.

Yes!

B*gger! 15 minutes into the call, the faces on the screen froze.

“Hello? Uh, can you hear me?”

“Hang on a sec!” I yelled as I rushed to the router. (Not that they could hear me, they were stuck in the ether wondering where on earth I had gone.)

Oh yes, the internet gods decided to drop the line halfway through the call.

Thankfully, I did have several tabs open, including the one with the email details. So I found the dial-in option and called up.

After profuse apologies on my side, the meeting continued.

As I sit and type this, two hours later, the internet is still off! The engineer, is still due tomorrow.

What this whole saga has shown me, is how wholly reliant we are on the internet. And when it goes down, we feel lost.

Duh, mobile data!

I guess you’re probably thinking why didn’t I just use my mobile? Well, I’m one of these people who creates boundaries. I don’t actually have any apps on my phone. I can make calls, send text messages (no, I don’t even have WhatsApp), and take pictures, but that’s about it. I also switch my phone off at night.

So, yes, using my mobile data is OK for checking emails through the mobile’s web browser, and even checking my Twitter feed. But for everything else, it’s laptop.

Now I can’t be the only person in the world like this? Surely?

Besides, a mobile screen is just too small to work on all day. My eyes would be even worse than they are now.

Always have a plan B

So what’s the answer? Clearly we need to have some kind of back-up plan, just in case this happens again.

To be fair, I believe this issue is more phone than broadband related, seeing as we can’t make or receive calls. Well, when I say can’t receive them, we can, the phone rings, we can pick it up, but then all we hear is a muffled ringing tone. The caller doesn’t hear us pick up either, just hears ringing which then goes through to voicemail.

So I’m hoping that when the engineer arrives tomorrow, they will be able to fix the phone, which will, in turn, stabilise the broadband.

But how can we mitigate this happening again?

Do we have an extra phone line installed from a different provider? (Although I think BT pretty much owns all the phone lines, other providers merely rent the cable)

Do we, as a helpful person suggested on Twitter, buy a cheap PAYG ‘burner’ phone topped up with so much cash, that we can turn into a mobile hotspot if needed? I do have mobile data, but using it as a personal hotspot eats up the data, so 6Gb is not going to last very long?

Would love to know your thoughts? Has this ever happened to you? What back up plans do you have?

In the meantime, please cross fingers that it gets resolved tomorrow!