Their cellular backup is usually included in a bundle when you set up a business account. (Business owners pay attention. I will give you one quick tip to determine if your backup internet works, but that's later.)

The included Cradlepoint E100 should be set up in a certain way for failover to work. However, when speaking with Spectrum, it doesn't seem that even customer service can explain the network topology.

Spectrum has rolled this new feature out so fast that I don't think they provided their installers with the QuickStart Guide in the package, which I've read a few times as a Cradlepoint dealer and installer.

So here's what I want you to do, business owners. Here's your quick tip for testing your cellular backup:

1. Unplug the power on your cable modem.

2. And if you have a Cradlepoint for "Backup Cellular Internet" and you still can't reach Google or any other website after a minute or two. I want you to grab your bill and see the line item cost for the backup internet. (Don't worry, I'll wait)

3. Then schedule a call if you want your business's network set up correctly.

Ok, you've done the test, and it's broken now. What now, you ask?

If you're savvy, the QuickStart Guide I linked above should get you well on your way. But here are a couple of notes:

1. Your Cable Modem's WAN port should be plugged into the WAN port of the Cradlepoint (it's just managing your external Wide Area Network connection between the cable modem and Spectrums LTE connection through Verizon)

2. The Spectrum Wi-Fi Router's WAN port should be plugged into one of the Cradlepoint's LAN connections. (The Spectrum Wi-Fi router will report an internal address where you usually expect an external one. If you need port forwarding, this can be achieved using IP passthrough on the Cradlepoint. [Which won't work over the backup unless you get static cellular addressing from us])

But CellPhoneDude, how can you be so sure your right?

With the above setup, the Cradlepoint won't be able to provide LTE internet when the cable modem's connection fails. The Spectrum Wi-Fi Cloud Router won't handle failover as there is no way to tell it one of the LAN ports is used as a secondary WAN. The only thing in this topology that can do failover is the Cradlepoint.

So how do you set up failover internet correctly?

The above network topology is how it should be set up. The Cradlepoint becomes the edge device for your network (What I don't cover in this article too well is the additional configuration needed if you require port forwarding for services hosted internally.). In the event of a failure on Spectrum's DOCSIS network, the Cradlepoint will automatically fail over to the internal Verizon cellular connection.

If you're already not comfortable handling that, consider reaching out to a Managed Service Provider like ours (Not only do we cover Los Angeles, but we have technicians in most major cities nationwide.)

Here's the video where I document the experience, including my call with Spectrum to try yet again to word them up that their techs are still doing it wrong.

Things I couldn’t figure out:

• Their cloud-managed Wi-Fi router at first (beginning parts of the video) didn't appear to want to connect to Spectrum's endpoint over LTE, even after several restarts. Curiously while I was on the phone with them, the internet started to work at some point, with their Wi-Fi router finally being able to connect to their cloud endpoint. Chop that up as strange.

• The failover policy failed on the LTE connection just fine, but it wouldn't failback. I would have fixed it, but...

• The default password printed on the Cradlepoint didn't seem to work. I tried admin and user, and I didn't bother reading the manual to see. Still, I'm sure if I spent five minutes looking at the config for the failover, I could have fixed the default failover policy to use the WAN as the primary connection when available and not degraded (there are a couple of nice options there to make sure the connection is solid before it fails back).

Why the lengthy post?

At this point in the article, if you are still reading, you may wonder why I care so much. For one, I don't particularly appreciate seeing people get ripped off. And not in a mean intentional kind of way, but in a gross negligence nobody knew. The other reason is to bring awareness that a large networking company needs help setting up business networks. That alone is worth pointing out.

Sure, I spent the better part of the first bit of lockdown making an LTE failover router that can sustain VoIP calls even admits a failure. And sure, I built an MVNO with priority two access to Verizon's and T-Mobile's networks. So not only is our LTE failover faster than the one Spectrum provides, it provides instantaneous access to the internet all the time, with no lag, unlike what you see in the video of Spectrum's solution.

Our demo for our failover is done in the middle of a speed test, never showing a connection error, even amidst a failure. And we're the only firm that can say that. (I know because I tried. I built a NetMaxX because everyone else's solution sucked.)

The lawsuits allege that Facebook shared data from users and their friends with third parties without the users’ knowledge or consent and then failed to monitor or direct how these third parties accessed the data or what they did with it.

The plaintiffs’ lawyers estimate about 250 to 280 million people may be eligible for payments as part of this suit.

The money being paid to each person depends on how long they’ve had a Facebook account and how many people actually file claims. Users will get “points” for every month they’ve had an account between May 24, 2007, and December 22, 2022. The money will be split (after lawyers’ fees are paid, of course) based on those numbers, so don’t expect a financial windfall that will allow you to move to Beverly Hills. The only people getting rich here are the lawyers.

If you had a Facebook account during the dates above, you’re automatically part of the settlement, but you must submit a claim by August 25 of this year using this website. If you do nothing, you won’t get paid, and you’ll give up the right to sue or be part of another lawsuit against Facebook related to these claims.

However, suppose you’re feeling ambitious (and have deep pockets to pay the legal fees). In that case, you can opt out of this lawsuit and attempt to sue Facebook separately, under your own initiative.

We should all be happy that big tech companies accessing, selling, and sharing our data without our knowledge or consent are being held accountable. Still, it’s not enough to depend on lawyers or our government to protect our identity and personal information. Companies like Meta make far too much money from our data to turn away from selling it and using it. For example, Meta made over $116 billion last year from a FREE app. That money is coming from selling access and data. This lawsuit, while sizeable, only represents just 0.62% of the company’s total revenue – a rounding error.

The entire dark web and the rise of hacking demonstrate how much money there is to be made from gaining access to personally identifiable information, so you need to be careful you don’t end up a victim of your data being stolen, shared, and sold.

One of the ways to prevent your information from being shared is by going into the privacy settings on Facebook and finding “Your Facebook information.” From there, click “Off-Facebook activity” and “Recent activity” to clear your history.

You can also click “Manage future activity” and choose “Disconnect future activity” to disable this feature. Of course, if you like the ads you get from Facebook, this will (should?) make all of that disappear.

Another suggestion is to check the privacy settings on your phone to ensure apps installed aren’t getting free access to your camera and microphone unless you are expressly permitted by you to perform those functions. Many apps will install with that access feature turned on and require you to opt-out.

Of course, as a business owner, YOU have to also think about how you are storing and using your client’s data. But, as this lawsuit proves, the government is taking data privacy and protection seriously, which is why you’re seeing more regulatory compliance for data security and privacy hitting all industry sectors.

If you want to make sure you’re not accidentally exposing your clients’ data and violating data protection laws, schedule a quick call with us to discuss your concerns and see if there are ways we can help you avoid exposing your clients’ and employees’ data by accident.