Alternative Internet connection for infrequent office visits

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Topic Author
lgb
Posts: 288
Joined: Fri Mar 01, 2019 8:46 am

Alternative Internet connection for infrequent office visits

Post by lgb »

Since Covid I have been doing a lot of work from home. Having done so for over a year, I guess I have passed the test of wondering if I can work from home or not.

My office at work I pay for internet connectivity and just have a wireless router in there and really only use the office for a laptop and a PC and the printers can be USB connected if/when needed. The cost for unlimited internet connectivity we have presently in this office is probably $75/month at the lowest speeds they offer as we aren't doing anything too demanding in there when we were there full-time to pay extra for higher speeds. Now when we are there infrequently we obviously aren't doing much that is too demanding so if there was an option to have a cap on the data amount or something we'd do it, but our internet provider doesn't offer that type of stuff I don't believe. Just browsing, Google apps/web-based etc...Quickbooks local to the Laptop etc...

My question is - since we haven't messed with Internet connectivity stuff for several years for any reason, are there some options for either Cellular based solutions or maybe something else that maybe focuses on our current model of infrequent connectivity (last mile type service in a sense, even though we aren't in the middle of no where or anything) for just a Wifi laptop and WiFi PC in a small office? Just figured there might be some options out there to lower that cost per month or something....

One person in that office uses Verizon, the other uses ATT for their cellphones, I believe.

Open to ideas.
SnowBog
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Re: Alternative Internet connection for infrequent office visits

Post by SnowBog »

In theory you could look at adding a mobile hotspot to your cellular plan. If you live in an area with decent signal, that might be fast enough and less expensive.

The downside is that these usually have limits on how much data you are allowed per month (either on the hotspot itself or as part of your entire plan). You'd need to into the details to understand that limit, what happens after it's reached, and what that means to your circumstances.

For me personally, we use too much data - at least on occasions such as upgrades - for this to be practical as our sole home internet option. YMMV.
dukeblue219
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Re: Alternative Internet connection for infrequent office visits

Post by dukeblue219 »

It wound be frustrating to micromanage employees' use of limited bandwidth. If their usage is more than you think and you hit the cap 25 days into your monthly cycle you're going to get blocked or severely speed limited. For a business that would be unacceptable to me. I don't want to spend time monitoring employees on the wifi to make sure they aren't streaming music all day or watching YouTube on their lunch break.

Are you running any off-site backups for your computers? That'll eat bandwidth too...

The difference in cost is less than you think since the whole thing is expensed on your taxes anyway.
ClassII
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Re: Alternative Internet connection for infrequent office visits

Post by ClassII »

The routine security and feature updates your office computers will be downloading makes a cellular hot spot all but impossible. Only exception would be something like T-Mobile’s home Internet plan which is designed for heavy use. Not sure if that’s even available to businesses.

$75/mo for business Internet seems like a steal to me. It sure I’d upset that apple cart but always good to shop around. Perhaps cut fees like modem rentals by buying your own. To me there’s no bigger scam in the business than convincing customers to rent a $90 modem for $15/mo.
Topic Author
lgb
Posts: 288
Joined: Fri Mar 01, 2019 8:46 am

Re: Alternative Internet connection for infrequent office visits

Post by lgb »

SnowBog wrote: Sat Oct 23, 2021 1:05 am In theory you could look at adding a mobile hotspot to your cellular plan. If you live in an area with decent signal, that might be fast enough and less expensive.

The downside is that these usually have limits on how much data you are allowed per month (either on the hotspot itself or as part of your entire plan). You'd need to into the details to understand that limit, what happens after it's reached, and what that means to your circumstances.

For me personally, we use too much data - at least on occasions such as upgrades - for this to be practical as our sole home internet option. YMMV.
I will look into the hotspot options, as we use both Verizon and ATT. I will have to see how much actual 'data' we use as it can't be much since we are so infrequently at the 'office' any more. That may be the simplest way to go/test - just add the option if it doesn't already exist, and use that for the next few months to connect our Laptop and PC that is at the office and see if that does the trick. Then if we feel it does enough, we could actually cut-off our current internet provider. Kind of like cutting the cord when we went from old school Cable TV provider to just streaming everything over our WiFi internet connection at the house.
Topic Author
lgb
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Joined: Fri Mar 01, 2019 8:46 am

Re: Alternative Internet connection for infrequent office visits

Post by lgb »

dukeblue219 wrote: Sat Oct 23, 2021 6:32 am It wound be frustrating to micromanage employees' use of limited bandwidth. If their usage is more than you think and you hit the cap 25 days into your monthly cycle you're going to get blocked or severely speed limited. For a business that would be unacceptable to me. I don't want to spend time monitoring employees on the wifi to make sure they aren't streaming music all day or watching YouTube on their lunch break.

Are you running any off-site backups for your computers? That'll eat bandwidth too...

The difference in cost is less than you think since the whole thing is expensed on your taxes anyway.
No, no sort of off-site backups... most everything is done via Google Apps and Office 365 or just web portals into suppliers and other systems....so all in the cloud..and again we aren't there at the office much any more. The users are responsible adults and always will be, but good point for others considering a switch if they have multiple employees and if we didn't have much oversight on them..
Topic Author
lgb
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Re: Alternative Internet connection for infrequent office visits

Post by lgb »

ClassII wrote: Sat Oct 23, 2021 7:06 am The routine security and feature updates your office computers will be downloading makes a cellular hot spot all but impossible. Only exception would be something like T-Mobile’s home Internet plan which is designed for heavy use. Not sure if that’s even available to businesses.

$75/mo for business Internet seems like a steal to me. It sure I’d upset that apple cart but always good to shop around. Perhaps cut fees like modem rentals by buying your own. To me there’s no bigger scam in the business than convincing customers to rent a $90 modem for $15/mo.
Good points. However - we don't actually go into the office much so if we needed to update a laptop or PC we would just do it from home, as well, the PC user who uses their PC at home now, could just bring in a laptop instead to the office when they do decide to head to the office instead of working from home. I agree, $75 a month may be inexpensive for an actual hardwired unlimited connection to the Internet - just trying to see alternative thoughts on how to limit the full expense since we just aren't in that office often, yet are paying as if we were there using the place daily...

Since this original post, I've been turned onto Google Fi, and looking to see how that could be leveraged as well.
dukeblue219
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Re: Alternative Internet connection for infrequent office visits

Post by dukeblue219 »

When you're in the office is it just a place to do work away from home? Or are you there specifically for critical meetings? Trying to understand the implications of losing your connection at the office...

If you're going down this path of saving $20-$40 a month on internet because you don't use the office much it makes me curious if there are much larger fish you could fry first. Do you even need an office at all? If you're paying utilities, are you leaving the AC/heat/lights on full time even on days nobody comes in?

It might not work for you, but simply biting the bullet and closing up the office might be perfect. Rent a shared office space for biweekly tag ups or whatever you need, and split the old lease payment budget amongst your employees to cover WFH expenses. Problem solved :)
HawkeyePierce
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Location: Colorado

Re: Alternative Internet connection for infrequent office visits

Post by HawkeyePierce »

Trying to save on a $75/month expense like this seems like a false economy. At most you're going to save, what, $50 a month? And that would come with data caps in the ~15GB range.
Afty
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Re: Alternative Internet connection for infrequent office visits

Post by Afty »

HawkeyePierce wrote: Sun Oct 24, 2021 2:26 pm Trying to save on a $75/month expense like this seems like a false economy. At most you're going to save, what, $50 a month? And that would come with data caps in the ~15GB range.
+1. Suppose OP is able to hack something together using mobile data or something. What if there are issues, or you run into the data cap, or whatever, and your employees aren’t able to work for a day. How much is that going to cost you? Or if you have to chase down that employee who forgot and downloaded a 2 GB OS update. It just seems like the downside outweighs the very small upside.

I guess another thing I wonder is what message this sends to the employees. This level of expense micromanagement might make them wonder whether the business is in trouble.
Topic Author
lgb
Posts: 288
Joined: Fri Mar 01, 2019 8:46 am

Re: Alternative Internet connection for infrequent office visits

Post by lgb »

dukeblue219 wrote: Sun Oct 24, 2021 10:27 am When you're in the office is it just a place to do work away from home? Or are you there specifically for critical meetings? Trying to understand the implications of losing your connection at the office...

If you're going down this path of saving $20-$40 a month on internet because you don't use the office much it makes me curious if there are much larger fish you could fry first. Do you even need an office at all? If you're paying utilities, are you leaving the AC/heat/lights on full time even on days nobody comes in?

It might not work for you, but simply biting the bullet and closing up the office might be perfect. Rent a shared office space for biweekly tag ups or whatever you need, and split the old lease payment budget amongst your employees to cover WFH expenses. Problem solved :)
Covid has allowed us to kind of prove out that working from home is doable for the daily tasks at hand. Indeed we have discussed whether it is actually necessary to have the office at all as it would save us say just $6K a year, so it isn't all that much spent on having it - but we do have some reasons (and they may just be 'image' and 'in our head' related reasons, and some actual kind of painful (big customers sending checks to this address, not easy to get them to change) and it is nice to be able to have an infrequent supplier swing by the office *but you could just as easily go to lunch*- so instead of moving out of that space we felt it was an ok expense to have since we've always had it, but with having it and not using it so much presently - it stings for some reason seems actually/psychologically? to be paying for Internet for something we are in so little. :happy
As well someone mentioned maybe having a quiet place to go to is also nice as an option if needed. It is a family business and we live a couple minutes to return back to home.
Like if we were to of started over and needed an infrequent office space and if there was an option for a trivial internet connection for the Laptop and PC there that would be used - we would likely have done that vs. having a full-on all the time option we're paying for.

I appreciate all the thoughts and considerations. Exactly what I was hoping to get, just some different perspectives!
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