What do you mean, there's no Internet?

That's not something you want to hear when you have packages to ship. Today, Internet service is pretty reliable. But there are system outages, cut cables, and other Broadband connection disasters that happen. And anytime your Internet service goes down, you know that sinking feeling since you don't know if it's going to be gone for 2 minutes, 2 days or 2 weeks. When you depend, as so many do today, on the Internet for your shipping and other business functions (your VOIP phone system!), being without the Internet for even an hour can be a real problem. Even worse, you cannot control this. Or can you?

Well, there is something you can do. Get a second Internet service. If you use DSL, get cable. If you're using cable, get DSL. If one fails, it's very likely the other will be working. Normally you'll use the fastest connection for your day-to-day operations, changing only if there is a problem. After you sign up for the second Internet service, making it work is pretty simple. You can do something as simple as move the network cable between the router and your network switch from the DSL router to the cable router. A more elegant solution (and not that costly) is to use a Dual WAN router that connects to both Internet modems. The Hotbrick router is one example of a Dual WAN router. Connect both modems to the Dual WAN router, then setup the router to connect to the cable and DSL services.

That's it, and you've just added a great layer of inexpensive insurance for your business. Now, your shipping department, your VOIP phone system, the email connection to your customers - all of your mission critical business functions are protected with this inexpensive, redundant Internet connection. Another plus? The right Dual WAN router can let you use both Internet services at the same time to give you an even faster connection when they are both working. You win both ways with this.

Happy Connected Holidays!