Power,internet, and bringing a job with you

[Susan]

My husband may be able to bring his job with him as his employer openly offered the chance. My concern is the reliability of a strong, solid, internet connection and power to run a laptop continually for 8-12 hrs a day. The test period would be to work from there while building our small cabin. (Not sure how to pull that off yet.)

He wants to go solar.
I want to tie into electric (I know,slap me) and have an additional small non grid tie solar.

We are about to get a building permit and want to plan this right. Money is an object.
Does anyone out there work a high tech job from home where connectivity to mainland servers and fast download times are important?

If he can do this then I may be able to bargain the same deal from my employer for a short period of time.

(I realize this is not a good time to discuss electrical stability [])

Thanks in advance.

[HI_Someday]

Susan, I'll be watching this with interest as I work from home (conference calls and web meetings) on the west coast. I can technically live anywhere and do my job. I've broached the idea of moving to Hawaii to my boss, who has been generally supportive, but her boss - not so much.

Where are you building your cabin?

From what I've been reading on the various forums if you buy in Puna region internet availability can be spotty and take a long time to get. For cable internet I've read of limited "ports" and having to wait for someone to drop service (giving up a port) before the next in line can get service. That's just getting a cable internet connection if that area has cable to begin with. There are areas where cable hasn't been run. I have no idea how fast or reliable it is (outside of tropical storm/hurricane caused outages) in the areas that do have it.

I've also read a lot of folks have satellite because, obviously, you don't need wires run from a pole. However, for what I think you are looking for (me as well), satellite just isn't fast enough.

Also, on the Home page of this forum, on the upper right side look under Where to Move. There is a table that lists the different sub divisions and the services (i.e. Cable) that they have/don't have. I don't know how up to date it is but I find it helpful.

Looking forward to hearing from folks who live there and have either cable or satellite.

[PaulW]

I would pick an area that already has broadband. If electrical reliability is an issue then buy a generator.

[kalakoa]

Management support is usually a bigger problem than bandwidth: typical scenarios include

- Inability to manage a remote resource. Most managers can't quantify deliverables, so rely on the "sitting at desk = doing work" paradigm.

- Missing the spontaneous "hallway meetings" that happen whenever/wherever.

- Policy change. A new manager (or Director of HR) might suddenly decide "no remote workers".

Related: Does your company have sufficient legal presence to cut W2 paychecks to a Hawaii resident? Will they do this for just one person? (If payroll is already outsourced, the bigger providers are already "present" in all 50 states, so not a problem.) Eligibility for healthcare has similar issues.

As far as the bandwidth goes: do not expect "enterprise" reliability (or performance) from a "consumer-grade" connection, especially out in the sticks. The internet can (and will, especially if wireless) fail at exactly the wrong moment, creating the impression that you're "flaky" whether or not it's deserved.

Note that "ports" (luck of the draw, no waitlist) are a DSL thing; cable broadband is usually available wherever the cable goes.

[redefinehappy]

Aloha Susan,
We work from home in Nanawale. The area we live in only receives internet via Exede satellite which was spotty when it was windy, rainy, sunny, muggy, dry, the coquis were too loud, etc...we're thinking service will improve now that an entire albizia forest which previously blocked the signal is now a pile of rubbish. Won't know until we have power to check out the signal, but crossing our fingers. We knew going in that we would have an issue with internet but even though our jobs depend on it, we still chose to purchase our house there because we fell in love with the area and couldn't imagine not living where we now live. I guess to clarify, we don't technically "work from home" all the time, maybe 50% of the time. The other 50% of the time we work "near and around our home".

Since we have to have stable internet for at least 4-8 hours almost every day, we use a variety of resources:

Pahoa library - great (free) internet, generally quiet; downsides are a limited seating area and you can't plug in your computer/phone, etc, so you have limit your time there or buy a backup battery or depend on a longerlasting battery-life option such as a chromebook/ipad

Hilo library - great (free) internet, generally quiet, lots of room to spread out, generally quiet and lots of plugins for our energy hungry electronics; downside is having to drive to Hilo every day or if taking the bus it is a bit of a walk or bike from the bus depot

Hilo Starbucks - one on Kilauea Ave and one at Prince Kuhio Plaza - both have great (free) internet (Google provided), lots of sitting area if you get there early (we work mtn or eastern time hours so are often there right when they open at 4:30am), coffee (with free refills if you are a "gold card" member), both are close to bus drop offs; downside is again the drive in to Hilo, having to buy corporate coffee and/or dealing with the occasional screaming child wanting a double soy mocha latte with whip (that actually has never happened, but i hope every day that it does because that would be an awesome story).

Our next step is renting co-working space at Hawaii Techworks. For $60 a month they have fantastic internet, air conditioning, they are next to Rainbow Falls and a great locally-owned coffee house, it's a cozy space and has a conference room in which you can take calls, etc when you need quiet/privacy. For $200 you can set up your own desk in the space (so you're not always hauling your stuff back and forth, very handy if you're on the bus) as well as have the internet, etc. They have great security and overall I was impressed with Tony's set up. I only know this much about it as I went to check it out a week or so before the storm as we are potentially starting a project that requires super internet and is conducive to 8-10 hours of concentrating at a time.

We stay in touch our various project teams via Google Docs (for sharing and modifying docs with the ability to see who changed what when) Google Chat, Skype Video Chat, join.me and other desktop-sharing apps, phone, Facebook and email. While I admit I sometimes miss the social facet of working in an office, the same type of feel has naturally evolved via these other communciation routes. I rarely feel as if I am missing out on anything and without the constant distractions I feel as if my work is of better quality.

I hope your experiment goes well and that you are able to find a good balance!

Cheers
-Allison

I do not fear computers, I fear the lack of them.
- Isaac Asimov

[DaVinci]

Internet access is a big issue here. The problem with most cell service solutions is the cap they put on a monthly plan. Satellite services have such a lag that VPN and teleconferencing are often impossible. The line-of-sight services are good for those who can get them, but you've always got that middleman handling your last mile.

I've been running my consulting business from the Big Island for nearly 5 years now, with only mainland clients, but I had to bite the bullet finally and get a business DSL account from Hawaiian Telcom (apparently plenty of ports for those and no waiting list) because no cable is available at our location. I considered renting office space in Pahoa or Keaau to solve this problem at one point, but my wife likes it that I'm "around" so we do it this way. My DSL is great though. HT came and installed a switch right inside my house, and I pay for 3Mbps up and down and nobody else is on "my" switch. Their service guys are awesome too. I've got my guy's cell phone number. He says just call him when I have a problem, instead of going through the robot menus. Costs a lot tho.

[KeaauRich]

Scott, what do you pay for your business DSL?

[Carey]

WELL... this is probably not the week to ask about electricity & internet for most folks here, as most of upper & lower Puna are still without power, many cell towers are still damaged & internet is down for many...
That said, we have very reliable elec & Internet & cell on here in Keaau town w/ DSL

[Susan]

Thanks for all of the replies. I think we should keep this dialog going as I see so much potential to build a hi tech community of workers. I agree that a consumer grade connection isn't going to work for us. The Techworks concept is very interesting. I just wish it was in Kea'au or upper Puna.

Let's keep talking.
He needs to test a couple of different options while we are on island in October.
Just FYI, we are in Orchidland on pavement mid subdivision. We have been prepping our lot for a couple of years now.

Carey, yes, thinking of this now too because of the storm situation. We got hit by Hurricane Ike. It sucked.

[terracore]

I didn't know business DSL was an option. HOW MUCH?