t’s bad enough when your personal Internet service repeatedly goes offline for whatever reason. It’s worse having a business that relies heavily on the Internet and have it repeatedly go out. There are a lot more connections between an office computer than a home computer that can fail and you have to wait for in-house IT people to repair it. Here are some tips to get by on while your Internet service is offline.

1. WIFI SHARING - INTERNET SERVICE OFFLINE, AGAIN?
By Mike Trumbature
It’s bad enough when your personal Internet service repeatedly goes
offline for whatever reason. It’s worse having a business that relies heavily
on the Internet and have it repeatedly go out. There are a lot more
connections between an office computer than a home computer that can
fail and you have to wait for in-house IT people to repair it. Contract
people take longer to respond if the problem can not be resolved remotely.
The first thing you do at home is get on the phone, call the 1-800 tech
support number, press 1 for English and then it all goes downhill from there. Multiple menus to
access for this and that, sometimes recycling you back to the operator menu - no live person to
talk with to get you directly to the tech support department. If your phones are through your
Internet provider and it’s a signal problem, then you’re on your cellphone on hold forever, finally
getting a recording “ALL OUR TECHNICIANS ARE CURRENTLY BUSY HELPING OTHER
PEOPLE WITH THE SAME PROBLEM, PLEASE TRY YOUR CALL LATER.” Having had that
experience with Comcast, I learned the best way is to use their online chat service. It usually
only takes a few seconds for someone to respond and set up a service call and you have a
transcript of the conversation that can be printed to PDF and saved.
That’s the good news. The bad news is, you need an Internet connection to use the chat
service. Cell phones for some time have had the ability to connect to another device’s WiFi
radio through a process called WiFi Sharing. Older Windows Mobile uses a third party app by
XDA Developers. Androids and others have various ways, built in and third party apps
depending on the age of the phone and service contracts. Earlier services required a monthly
fee. Most are standard now. In addition, tablet PCs that have Internet connections can be used
as a wireless router also. The really slick trick is having your portable devices enabled to
connect to your cell phone when at locations without WiFi or whose service is down. Most
portable devices today have built in WiFi radios and several most phones have unlimited data
plans.
For a desktop for emergencies at home, or work, you can get a
small inexpensive USB WiFi Dongle like the one in the photo from
Radio Shack (requires software installation). Here are other plugand-play EXAMPLES. My Comcast Internet service went offline
Sunday morning - no extra programs running or Internet settings
changed. The main cable box in the back yard is over on its side
and full of bees. A quick “direct-connect” modem test (bypassing
the router) shows low and missing power signals to and from the
modem. I could not directly connect to the Internet with two other
working laptops. I plugged in the WiFi USB dongle I bought
awhile back and set up for emergencies, logged onto Comcast’s service chat room and reported
the problem. Comcast was unable to access the modem remotely. The earliest they can get to
it is Wednesday. In the meantime, it’s business as usual around here. Web page loading is
almost as fast as cable, large file transfers take slightly longer depending on the cell phone’s
service and connection. Verify your cell phone’s data plan limits first. I recommend starting
out with the battery fully-charged. This increases surfing time and helps prevent excess heat
from battery charging while operating. Note my phone position during operation below is for
demo purposes only. When operating, the phone is face down and the back cover removed to
allow the phone and battery heat to escape easier if low on battery charge. These units are
small and take up little room and power, their range is limited for full time wireless use
compared to other larger wireless USB radios.

2. WiFi sharing can be done with tablet PCs capable of “ad-hoc” detection. Some tablets may
require “rooting” to detect the phones service.
Desktop computer on the Internet through cell phone’s WiFi to wireless Netgear dongle
10” notebook computer, built-in WiFi, on the Internet through cell phone’s Internet service

3. Activate the phone’s WiFi Sharing and set the computer connection to Automatic. To deactivate,
turn the phone OFF or STOP the service.