No internet installed for new job - new house

[jclm]

We are moving house next week (after some delays). The day after I will be starting a new civil service job which is WFH due to the pandemic. The problem is that we will not have Wi-Fi in our new house until 15 days after moving in, which is the earliest time the engineer can install the line. The people we are buying the house off have offered to leave their Wi-Fi running for another week so I can use that for my job. I will have about a week of no internet during my second and third week of the job.

My options are

1. Ask my employer to start two weeks later
2. Ask if there is any possibility of going into work to use the internet though the offices seem completely shut up
3. Stay with my parents so I can use the internet at theirs - though they live 6 hours away and I would need to take my daughter with me who would miss school.
4. Any other possibilities you can think of? I don't have family locally and libraries/cafes etc are all closed...

Im really dreading starting the new job and it's giving me sleepless nights :-(

Tether your laptop to your mobile phone
100gb is only £20 on o2. Should be more than enough for a week. I have not found a 4g signal to be any slower than broadband.
Just a suggestion.

Mobile dongle or hotspot your phone?

A dongle?

Use a hotspot from your phone.

4g dongle

Just either use your phone as a hot spot or buy a 4G dongle.

Just tell them. I'm sure the civil service can suck it up for two weeks.

Your work will be able to send you a mobile WiFi dongle (or you can buy one yourself).

Get unlimited SIM on a no contract deal which will arrive in a day or so, and buy a router to pop it into.

Much more reliable and secure than tethering/HotSpotting your phone!

It would be worth asking the question of your new employer. I'm local government and although our offices are officially closed, there are a couple of people who have worked in them throughout due to various issues with internet access.

Tether your phone or get a data box from whichever mobile provider is cheapest/ best signal. EE often give them away with phone contracts so it's highly likely someone in your family or friends would have one you could borrow.

Explain to your employer. They'll probably supply you with a dongle.

Why is there a service interruption and why is there an engineer needed? Is one ISP Virgin and the other not Virgin?

But if the interruption can't be avoided, mobile broadband. Get a PAYG or rolling contract (don't get locked into 18 months when you'll only need it for one or two!)

I would Hotspot to my phone

My work laptop runs on 02 4g so I can use it on site. I don’t have it attached to my home wifi at all.

I moved house and, due to Sky’s incompetence, was without broadband for 6 weeks while working from home. Used a mixture of a 4g dongle and tethering to phone with unlimited data sim and that worked well.

@FourEyesGood

Your work will be able to send you a mobile WiFi dongle (or you can buy one yourself).

This. I work for Defra and moved house in Jan - 2 week wait for Wi-Fi. IT sent me a dongle, next day delivery. Ask, it should be fine.

I’ve been using a 4g dongle provided by my uni for a couple of weeks and it is much more reliable than the WiFi I pay for!

Thanks so much, these messages are reassuring. I will speak to work and will also see if I can buy a sim router for the children who will also be without internet for 2 weeks.

This happened to a colleague recently. Work gave her a dongle for a fortnight til sorted x

Ask your employer to provide you with either a work phone to tether or some sort of dongle

When my DS moved flat his work allowed him to work from the office for a fortnight as he had a similar issue. It was a private company, not CS, though. He quite enjoyed the change!