< ![CDATA[When you undertake work at client sites, there is something very important to understand. You are a second class citizen in that environment. If the client has allowed you in the building with your own mobile and laptop equipment (there are many secure locations where all of that would need to be checked at the door), then you have the problem of using it.
1. Power
Not always easy – you may have to find the item you least need in your borrowed desk space, and disconnect it. Using your own extensions and adapters can work, but often the client's Health and Safety henchmen will come down on you like a ton of bricks for those.
2. Network connectivity Part 1
You are expected to work but they will not let you connect to their network… This used to be a killer. You had to generally do all your work offline and then send email by finding the local fax machine, walking over and connecting your modem to the auxiliary port or disconnect the fax machine entirely for your connection. Remember, many offices have digital phone systems that will fry your modem (if you have one) as soon as you connect it. Now though you can (as long as the building is not a perfect Faraday cage or is in the Outer Hebrides) obtain a High Speed Data card and use that for all your communications. You should have nice spiffy 3G card/dongle or at least GPRS of some flavour (although this should only be fallback on your 3G device these days – upgrade!). You just need to pick your tariff right. Remember, rates per MB are going to see all your fees disappear. 250MB per month is fine for light browsing, but is not going to see your through more than a few days a month at a client in the modern world. You need the 3GB, 10GB or higher tariffs, particularly if you want to use IM or VoIP. These can be more pricey, but compared to what it would have cost you last year it is pennies. You could almost never need anything else.
3. Network connectivity Part 2
Ooh, they let you connect to their network or DMZ or whatever. What goes wrong next?
Firstly, are you protected from them. They are all worried about you, but it should be the other way round in most places. You have control over your laptop but not their network, it may be as dangerous as connecting to free Wifi in Starbucks. Protect yourself with Firewalls and using VPNs (more in a future post).
Next thing is, that connectivity to the outside world is filtered, moderated and logged. You find that your email does not work, your VoIP is barred and they require you to go through a proxy. Nice, your best option today being to drop back to your 3G wireless data solution as in Part 1 to be honest. You may find though, that this is your only option in some situations. In which case, you will need to wait for my next post about those 'application' level rather than pure connectivity issues.]]>
OK so the Outer Hebrides do not have 3g
We do have a wireless broadband service but it is incredibly expensive at £450 a month for a simple 4mb connection. Rural China gets 3g before the Outer Hebrides even though there are plenty of people who would eagerly take advantage of the increased speeds, especially with the recent offers by the phone networks for 3g broadband.
OK so the Outer Hebrides do not have 3g
We do have a wireless broadband service but it is incredibly expensive at £450 a month for a simple 4mb connection. Rural China gets 3g before the Outer Hebrides even though there are plenty of people who would eagerly take advantage of the increased speeds, especially with the recent offers by the phone networks for 3g broadband.