Anything longer than an hour without an internet connection can cause major stress.

Over the last few years there have been several occasions when customers have had internet connection problems and I am usually helpless to do anything except report the problem.

Usually the problem is one that affects many customers because it is network related.

Occasionally it is a specific problem associated with equipment attached to the customer’s line in the BT exchange.

In all cases there is nothing that can be done except wait for some third party to fix the problem.

For the type of internet service that is used by most homes and small businesses the Service Level Agreement in their internet contract would read something like this:

“…although we attempt to provide all customers with the best possible service, we can not guarantee that the internet service will never be faulty. However, we will endeavour to correct all reported faults as soon as we reasonably can…”

Unless you are paying more than £100 per month for your internet service you are unlikely to have a Service Level Agreement that guarantees anything better .

The last time that my customers experienced a general network fault that caused an internet outage of a few hours I had customers calling me and insisting that they had to have their internet connection restored immediately because “they were expecting some important emails” or “they had to get online to pay the wages”.

I sympathised, but unfortunately these customers have unrealistic expectations from their £20 per month internet service.

Ironically it is the fact that their internet service is usually very good that causes customers to rely on their internet connection.

Fortunately there is an inexpensive internet failure solution.

If you are in a situation where you can’t be without your internet connection for more than a few hours I suggest that you invest in a 3G dongle which you can either plug into the USB port of your PC or laptop or compatible router.

This will give you a true failsafe internet connection that will bypass your phone line, the equipment at the BT exchange, the backbone internet connection and your Internet Service Provider’s equipment.

It will not be as fast as your regular connection, but it should be sufficient for those infrequent periods when your main internet connection goes down.

It is possible to buy a 3G dongle for £20 on a plan that charges £2 per day, but only on the days it is used.

In other words there would be no charge for the days when it is not connected.

I suggest that buying a 3G dongle on that basis would be an exceptional investment.

This internet failsafe, or backup, strategy of course assumes that 3G coverage is good in your office, but that’s another issue…

Please contact me if you would like advice on how to continue working (or playing) when your main internet connection fails.

I’m not having much success.

The train is moving fast so I am going through areas of good coverage, poor coverage and no coverage.

This makes the connection unreliable and so far I have had to restart my computer 3 x times because the 3G application has locked up.

In First Class there is a wifi connection and presumably they are suffering the same problem, but possibly to a lesser extent.

The First Class wifi system must somehow be linked to a 3G mobile system with an antenna probably mounted outside the train, a bit like a car radio antenna.

The external 3G antenna will have a better chance of picking up a signal and shoulld therefore give a better, more reliable connection.

The First Class passengers will be having some problems, but they should be having a better internet experience than me.

In general I have been very disappointed with the quality of 3G mobile coverage.

On all the 3G mobile phones that I have had over the last few years I have had to switch off the 3G signal to get better battery life and better reception.

I have also given this advice to many of my customers.

My 3G dongle has an advertised speed of 7.2Mb/s, but even in a good signal area it feels much slower and less reliable that my home broadband speed which usually operates at about 3.5Mb/s.

A significant part of the problem is due to the fact that the higher frequency 3G signals do not go through walls and other obstacles as well as 2G signals.

I also suspect that the 3G data network is increasingly suffering from congestion following the spate of offers of free 3G dongles with free laptops.

There is talk about the mobilephone networks being the basis of a high speed broadband network for the UK with 4G and beyond.

However, my experience with 3G does not give me any confidence that this would be an effective long term solution.