Put Backup Internet In Place
Let’s face it, even with the best companies, technology can fail. And LCWA’s radio network, too, is going to fail periodically—no question about it! Same with your home network. Same with your computer. So, you should have backups in place.
If internet access is critical to your job, business, or schooling…
If internet access is critical to your job, business, schooling, safety, health, happiness, or sanity, then you need an internet backup plan to fill the gap when your internet goes down. Put in place an internet backup option now!
So, what sort of backups can you use for internet access?
Cell Data? For me, since I have cell phone access at home, my backup is cell data. It’s not super-fast, but it works well enough for my needs (I’ve even run Zoom meetings over it), and it’s already in place. Be sure to learn how to activate the internet hot spot features on your smartphone, though, ahead of time so you are ready for the outage—such hotspot features let you connect your computer to your phone’s internet. Read more about that in this linked article. And ask your cell provider for instructions on how to set up hot spots in your home when needed.
A Neighbor or Office? Another backup source might be a neighbor or in-town office space you can drive to, to use internet there. Have that identified ahead of time.
Phone DSL? Others have phone DSL access. When you get LCWA, don’t disconnect DSL access. It may not be as fast but leave it active, so you have a backup.
Starlink? Starlink is now becoming available in this area. For many people it’s your only backup choice, and yes it’s expensive and has its pro and cons, but if you absolutely need uninterrupted internet, then you must pay the money. Starlink recently introduced a low cost plan at $50 a month. Data is limited but for backup it’s probably sufficient. Go to the Starlink website page that describes it here: https://www.starlink.com/service-plans
Regular Satellite Internet? If nothing else is available, consider regular satellite internet service like HughesNet. They have tons of issues, and don’t use these as your primary internet source because you will quickly reach your monthly data limit, but they are good enough for occasional back up.
Isn’t this Expensive?
Well, yes. Paying for two sources of internet each and every month costs money. But losing your job, your home business income, your access to medical care, or your access to schooling is even more expensive. So, bite the bullet and put a backup source in place. Urgent demands to LCWA to “fix it NOW” will not speed up LCWA volunteer repairs (they might even slow it down). It’s up to you to have backup if internet is critical to you.
If your employer is requiring you to have home internet access, you might ask them to fund the backup system for you—it’s in their interest as much as yours.
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Fixing the Backbone Network Can Take Time
Of course, if all or part of the LCWA backbone network goes down, we will do everything we can to fix it quickly. But it can take up to a day or more to do that, too.
Just like PNM, we might have a major repair that’s needed. Some of our AP radios are in very remote locations and can take hours just to drive to them. Sometimes a unique part will fail and we have to order it and that takes time. So that’s yet another reason to have a backup internet source in place, while you wait for our backbone repairs.
Using Internet as your Phone
Also, if you use LCWA internet to run your phone—if you get and make phone calls through your internet—that’s fine but note we don’t support that for emergencies.
On our website, and in the member agreement everyone gets, it states: “LCWA does not provide internet connectivity for emergency and/or essential services connections, not limited to but including 911 and e911 service.”
So if uninterrupted phone service is critical to you, and internet is your only source, then put backup internet in place, and switch to that backup when needed for phone access.
Get a Home Network Repair Kit
In addition to having backup internet, ahead of time you should purchase a home internet repair kit. You see, most outages are due to member-owned network equipment failing at the home. If components of a home network fail, LCWA won’t come fix it. And think about it. Does PNM come to fix your failed breaker panel, or fix bad electrical wiring in the walls of your house? No, that’s up to you to arrange a fix for.
As a member, you are a volunteer too. Your first volunteer duty is to try to fix issues at your home yourself. Many internet things you can fix yourself with a little remote help from us. If internet goes down, always first dial 800-536-6149 and select Option 1 to see if we have discovered a regional outage. Keep trying since it can take us over an hour to figure out where the outage is. If one is reported, there is no need to contact us, we know about. If nothing is reported, it’s probably an issue at your house, so after confirming no regional outage, send an email to tech.support@lcwireless.net describing your problem. We can look remotely at your site and recommend what replacement parts to get and swap in. But don’t wait for that to happen to order parts from Amazon, which can take a week to deliver these days. Instead, order a spare network parts kit now and have it in your house. Read this article for how to create and use such a kit: Internet Repair Kit
Specialized Parts
There are a few replacement parts that are specialized to our network. One is a replacement radio “horn.” The other is an airCube router. Both must be configured for your specific account. If you have an outage and send an email to tech.support@lcwireless.net, we’ll look to see if those can help and offer to prep them for you to come pick up. But keep in mind, it can take 2-3 days turnaround on those, and you’ll be down that whole time. Yet another reason to have a backup internet service in place.
Contractors Do In-house Repairs These Days
Years ago, there were lots of LCWA volunteers who would come to your house to debug and fix issues. But those days are gone. Most members are not willing to volunteer for that, especially with Covid.
Instead, we can recommend paid contractors for you to contact who will come on site, and who know the LCWA systems well.
But again, expect a delay. Most computer professionals in town are swamped by too many requests for home network upgrades and computer repairs as COVID-19 drives everyone onto their homes for work or school.
So have a backup internet service in place to cover any such days of down time. It may cost a bit, but ask yourself this: Is your job, business, or family worth it? I think they are.