Getting 2nd Internet line for Wife's home office

[TechBoyJK]

Hi All,

My wife is being sent home to work and they require a dedicated internet line for her work.

We can use our primary line, but if we do, they require their vpn device to be the first device in the chain, which acts as a router, does nat, etc. Problem is since it has to remain hippa compliant, I can't alter the configuration. Which means it would break my network and how I access it.

So we have to get a 2nd line.

My thoughts are that since we already have Charter Cable, we should go for a different provider. The only option there is AT@T uVerse.

1) Charter said if we get a 2nd line, we can use them both fully and neither will impact the performance of the other.

2) However, if charter has an outage BOTH of our lines will be down.

3) If we get ATT, and Charter has an outage, or vice versa, we still have another provider we can utilize

4) I found ATT to be more reliable when I had them last year. Charter has better bandwidth, but ATT simply never went down for me, ever. Charter has outages monthly.

So my idea is that we get ATT for her office line, and stick with Charter for our home usage. I think it's safer and provides more redundancy.

Thoughts?

 

[bigboxes]

You know best, but I've rarely have outages on Charter. Personally, I prefer cable internet over AT&T any day. Now, if work is paying for her line then yeah, AT&T and be done with it. Just know that phone lines go down too. Maybe it's just anecdotal, but the ones that have issues usually make the most noise. I say a line is just a line at this point. They both have fiber all over the place. Just different ways of connecting the end point.

 

[TechBoyJK]

You know best, but I've rarely have outages on Charter. Personally, I prefer cable internet over AT&T any day. Now, if work is paying for her line then yeah, AT&T and be done with it. Just know that phone lines go down too. Maybe it's just anecdotal, but the ones that have issues usually make the most noise. I say a line is just a line at this point. They both have fiber all over the place. Just different ways of connecting the end point.

Yea, I've had good luck with Charter, for the most part.

My biggest concern with dual charter lines is that if Charter has an outage, both are affected, and she has nothing to fail back to.

 

[mxnerd]

I have Charter. It's been good for about a year now. But in the past, it could have gone bad for 2 or even 3 days, usually in the weekend, however, several times a year.

I would not trust using one ISP in your case. Get AT&T and have a backup.

 

[JackMDS]

Technology is Not "Soup Opera", I like, I feel, I have Luck, etc.

In your case logic dictates to use second ISP even if its is Not good as Charter.

LOL, does any of this "Cheats" are Good.

Actually you can feed two connections to a Double WAN Router and total protection in bot of your Networks.

 

[sdifox]

Technology is Not "Soup Opera", I like, I feel, I have Luck, etc.

In your case logic dictates to use second ISP even if its is Not good as Charter.

LOL, does any of this "Cheats" are Good.

Actually you can feed two connections to a Double WAN Router and total protection in bot of your Networks.

Since this is patient information we are talking about, I would say dedicated dsl straight to that one computer to avoid any possible issues.

 

[Mike64]

Since this is patient information we are talking about, I would say dedicated dsl straight to that one computer to avoid any possible issues.

I agree about using a direct connection (though not necessarily wired) for the work PC, both as a simple matter of both respect for/courtesy to your wife's patients/clients (however indirect), and also as a matter of potential liability, however slight that probably is as a practical matter. Even if a breach didn't result in a lawsuit or regulatory fine (and I think neither is likely in any event), just as a matter of work-related appearances, you don't want your wife to end up being labeled "The Person Responsible for the Breach". But I don't think it matters whether it's a DSL connection or cable, an Internet attack isn't any more or less likely with either type of ISP connection.

As for cable vs DSL:

1. Do you care about having to run a new line for another cable connection vs using your existing phone wiring for DSL?

2. What, if any difference is there between cable and DSL pricing? Presumably your wife won't need especially high speed and, given the hardware/networking constraints you outlined in your other thread, presumably you'd only be using her connection for basic access as a back-up if your main household connection goes down, rather than as a complete stand-in for everything you use your current connection for (I'm thinking especially of higher-bandwidth uses like streaming media, etc) So there's not much point in paying a significantly higher rate on a regular basis for a higher-than-absolutely necessary-speed plan on the work line...

3. How long do the cable outages last when they do occur? Hours? Days? In other words, how big a factor is that as a practical matter?

 

[mxnerd]

Dual WAN router can cause https authentication problems if using load balancing function.

You can configure the dual WAN router to route all https traffic through your wife's router.

But I believe since she is in health care industry and her work is HIPAA compliant, probably all traffic is through https, that defeats the purpose of load balancing completely.

Dual WAN router locad balancing in this case does not help.

 

[Ketchup]

I guess it all depends on where you live. I had DSL for about 2 years and Cable for 6+, and we are still at 3x as many DSL outages over cable. So unless it would be easy to switch her over to cable, in case of emergency, I would just get another cable line.

But that question (cable vs DSL reliability) would be best answered by other folks in your area IMO.

Ideally, and if money was no object, you would get another cable line for her as well as a DSL line for backup.

 

[nerp]

I'd totally get a separate line, separate ISP, separate hardware. Based on the company requirements, I'd want to keep my stuff miles away and a totally separate line does that. No configuration for you, no fussing with network settings.

 

[kevnich2]

If your wife's internet went down, how long of an outage could she handle? Would she be able to work from a mifi type device if there was an extended outage?

I know for myself in the past, for healthcare related work, no actual work files were allowed on employee devices. All employee's remoted into either a RDP server or had a custom VDI system setup in order to satisfy hipaa compliance. No data was ever stored on their devices, so as long as they had a working internet connection, they could remote into their work profile and work.

Also, what type of work will she be doing? If she is transferring a lot of large files back and forth, a dsl connection would be slower. That's really the only negative I can think of with the dsl.

 

[TechBoyJK]

Well, it looks like we're going with dual cable lines.

The only other option besides Charter is ATT Uverse, and Uverse won't provide 'just a modem'. We have to use their combo device, and my wife's employer doesn't allow that.

So if we want 2 different providers, we'll have to use Uverse for our home line, and I don't want to do that. The speeds aren't comparable. I called Charter and they said there's plenty of bandwidth in our area, and having dual lines won't affect their capacity.

 

[sdifox]

Well, it looks like we're going with dual cable lines.

The only other option besides Charter is ATT Uverse, and Uverse won't provide 'just a modem'. We have to use their combo device, and my wife's employer doesn't allow that.

So if we want 2 different providers, we'll have to use Uverse for our home line, and I don't want to do that. The speeds aren't comparable. I called Charter and they said there's plenty of bandwidth in our area, and having dual lines won't affect their capacity.

that is awfully retarded on ATT's part.

 

[mxnerd]

What if you wife subscribe a DSL line? You can route all your wife's traffic to the cable modem except the work traffic your wife will use.

I believe those HIPAA sites use more text than graphics and don't require high speed internet.

 

[sdifox]

What if you wife subscribe a DSL line? You can route all your wife's traffic to the cable modem except the work traffic your wife will use.

ATT won't give them just a dsl modem, want to give them the combo dsl/wifi router but company doesn't like that.

 

[mxnerd]

The UVerse is fiber, only use DSL at the endpoint.

I believe AT&T still provide plain DSL service. Or maybe other 3rd parties probably still provide DSL services in the area.

 

[mxnerd]

What if put your wife's device on AT&T combo modem/router's DMZ zone? Or put the AT&T modem/router in bridge mode? Would that solve the problem?

Can't believe the company is so stubborn.

 

[TechBoyJK]

ATT won't give them just a dsl modem, want to give them the combo dsl/wifi router but company doesn't like that.

They want the cisco vpn device to get the public IP. It won't work on NAT, or they're not willing to put it behind a home users NAT setup (cause HIPPA).

 

[QuietDad]

I do believe ATT Uverse is fiber,not DSL. Like Fios, it's fiber to your house and then cable from the nib. DSL is the old copper wires. As a cable subcontractor, having two separate lines is really not going to do anyth8ng if your dealing with hippa requirements. If her line goes down and you put her on yours, she's not compliant and The Uvers modem wont work on the Charter line and vice versa.

 

[nerp]

What if put your wife's device on AT&T combo modem/router's DMZ zone? Or put the AT&T modem/router in bridge mode? Would that solve the problem?

Can't believe the company is so stubborn.

All it takes is for one employee to let a massive security breach happen and customer data and/or internal information is stolen and you'll understand why.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

All it takes is for one employee to let a massive security breach happen and customer data and/or internal information is stolen and you'll understand why.

About once a year we have a user with too many privileges bring in a virus that infects one or more of the systems at work - in one case ransomware encrypted all the data on our main file server. And yet we still have people whining about domain-enforced antivirus settings.

Peepl r dum.

 

[sdifox]

About once a year we have a user with too many privileges bring in a virus that infects one or more of the systems at work - in one case ransomware encrypted all the data on our main file server. And yet we still have people whining about domain-enforced antivirus settings.

Peepl r dum.

wtfbbq

 

[mxnerd]

About once a year we have a user with too many privileges bring in a virus that infects one or more of the systems at work - in one case ransomware encrypted all the data on our main file server. And yet we still have people whining about domain-enforced antivirus settings.

Peepl r dum.

It's because antivirus slows computer down quite a bit for old PC.

Some workstations are either have too little memory, or CPU & disk are too slow.

Been there.

 

[mxnerd]

I did some research and I think OP probably should go with cable.

It's much easier to setup instead struggling with AT&T Uverse.

But OP should have a plan that can use smartphone or 4G modem as a backup if cable goes down.

Here are some articles I found for AT&T UVerse.

https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/1161327-ip-passthrough-for-uverse-modem

http://www.jeffryhouser.com/index.cfm/2012/3/26/How-can-you-use-Static-IPs-with-ATT-UVerse-Service

https://www.att.com/gen/general?pid=23697

 

[TechBoyJK]

I haven't seen the numbers or know the details, but the wife said Charter is one of their preferred ISPs and if you use them, they are more tolerant for outages.