3rd Party Remote Call Monitoring Feature

One of the nice perks of telecommuting is avoiding the gridlock that often happens during peak commute times. And with 3rd party remote call monitoring solutions, as well as IP-based phone systems, it’s easier than ever for companies to offer workers remote capability without sacrificing productivity.

Of course, telecommuting has its own traffic woes, although the traffic variable in this instance refers to the clogged up ether; non-working equipment means that the at-home worker can’t get to where they need to be in the virtual sense.

Such was the case with a wireless modem issued by Comcast (News - Alert), a piece of equipment that, as told by the cable giant, was a requirement to access its faster Internet speeds. What customers were finding is that the wireless modem was not doing its job; remote employees were unable to VPN into their respective jobs.

Recent news sources say that one such telecommuter, a paralegal, relies on her Internet to connect to her job. Upon installing the new wireless modem from Comcast, Alisha Helton found that her VPN connection was not working.

"I spent literally all day trying to get the technology to work to do my job and couldn't get there," says Helton according to Talk Radio 570 KVI.

"I called Comcast and they said all of our modems are VPN compatible," says Helton. "It's very frustrating to call and be told, 'Everything is working, it must be something on your end. Have you tried rebooting?' Yes I've rebooted; 80 million times I've rebooted."

Even after a modem exchange, the problem persisted.

This was not an isolated incident, as reports were coming in saying that numerous Comcast customers were experiencing similar issues. Once Comcast had its engineers troubleshoot the problem, it uncovered a “technical issue” which has since been repaired.

Hardware malfunction is a reality that can wreak havoc for people whose livelihoods depend on a reliable connection. As telecommuting requires a computer with an Internet connection, if something happens to the computer or the connection, there's nothing that can be done until a repair is made.

As a telecommuter, it’s a good rule of thumb to have a backup plan. Backup all important files onto disc and/or flash drive. Have another computer system ready to go, and prepare to travel in the event of a connection issue, perhaps to a café that has a working hotspot until further notice.