As we are mainly all working from home, we rely on Internet Service Providers (ISPs) keeping us connected. Recently there was a major outage by a leading ISP which affected me and likely many of you as they are a popular provider. For this recent outage at least most of it was in the evening rather than normal working hours, but clearly it could have been worse, and it has been.

What can you do about it?

If you are feeling flush you could pay for a backup connection (if you have, say, both cable and a landline telephone). For example, at home we use a main ISP for a 220Mbps connection over cable, but we also have a cheap, and much much slower, landline service from another provider. I must admit this was as much of an historical accident as planning, but for around £10 a month I think it is worth it.

What is more likely is that you own a smartphone: Apple's iOS-based ones or Android-based from various companies. Hopefully, you don't use the same ISP as your main connection as sometimes 4G connections and internet connections from the same company can be affected simultaneously. Diversity is your friend!

Most modern smartphones let you use them as a WiFI hotspot. On my iPhone it is under Settings and called Personal Hotspot; it is easy to set up and even if you don't have a large or unlimited data plan, it can see you through an emergency outage of your main system. Don't forget to set a lengthy, unique and difficult to guess password!

Similar to using your smartphone are 4G, or even 5G, dongles which typically connect to your PC or laptop via USB, or they can be standalone WiFI hotspots.

Using Research IT (and other UoM) services, such as the CSF or Condor, will not be affected by you using an alternative connection; for example: the VPN Global Protect will just automatically switch to using your new connection. The majority of people already store their large data sets on Research IT's research data storage areas, so that enormous data transfers over 4G can be avoided.

When using such alternatives remember your home printer may not work, as it is likely confined to your main router's local network. To print something, switch back to your main network – and even though it will say No Internet Connection, because of the outage – you will be able to print. Then, just switch back to your alternative broadband solution!

You can let us know any of your own top tips for home networking issues by contacting us.