This week is Get Ready Queensland Week, 5 to 11 October, and storm season is on its way. Most preparation lists cover the gutters, the trees and the outdoor furniture. Very few say what a storm does to the small box of cables in the corner of your office.
So here’s that, in order, with what our own tickets show and what’s worth fixing before the first big one.
What our year of outages looked like
Over the past year our clients logged 17 internet outage tickets with us, from 14 clients. None of them is recorded as caused by a storm, and we’re not claiming they were. But they show clearly what an outage feels like from the inside:
- An office where the internet went down and turning the modem off and on didn’t bring it back. Someone had to go to site.
- An accommodation business with an NBN fault that took nearly three hours of work.
- A vet clinic whose internet went down on a Saturday, reported to us on the Monday.
- A client that reported a beeping UPS, the battery unit that keeps equipment running in a power cut, twice in the same week.
- A charity that lost power and asked us to forward its phones so calls could still be answered.
The last one is the most useful. The charity’s first thought wasn’t the computers. It was the phones.
What fails when the power flickers
Even a one-second flicker can knock over a surprising amount. Roughly in order:
1. The internet box, modem and router. They restart, and some take several minutes to come back. Anything relying on them drops out.
2. Wifi and the network. Access points and network switches restart too. Laptops on battery stay on, but they’re offline.
3. Phones. If your business uses a hosted phone system, the desk phones need both power and the internet. When either goes, the phones go.
4. Desktop computers. They switch off, and anything unsaved is lost.
5. Servers and storage boxes. An unexpected shutdown is the worst way for these to stop. Most recover, but it’s the moment files get damaged.
And that’s just a flicker. A proper outage adds time, heat and, sometimes, a surge when the power comes back.
Where the NBN fits
It depends on your connection type. According to NBN Co’s page on power blackouts, for fibre to the node, fibre to the curb, cable and Fixed Wireless connections, phone and internet services won’t work if there’s a power outage in the network or at your premises.
For fibre to the premises, the NBN connection box needs power. Some premises have a battery back-up unit for it, but NBN Co stopped offering those from June 2024. Where there is one, it powers the connection box for up to about five hours. It doesn’t power your router, your wifi or your phones.
NBN Co’s advice is simple: keep a charged mobile phone nearby.
What a UPS does, and doesn’t do
A UPS is a battery box that sits between the wall and your equipment. When the power drops, it takes over.
It does:
* ride through flickers and short outages without anything restarting
* give computers and servers time to shut down properly in a longer outage
* keep your modem, router and phone system running for a while, if they’re plugged into it
It doesn’t:
* keep the internet working if the outage is in the street or the NBN network
* run for hours, unless it’s sized and bought for that
* last forever. The batteries wear out, and a beeping UPS is often telling you exactly that.
Cheap fixes before the first storm
None of these are expensive, and most take an afternoon:
- Put the modem, router, network switch and phone system on a UPS. That’s the kit that keeps the business reachable.
- Test the UPS. Unplug it from the wall and see what stays on, and for how long. If it beeps or fails, replace the battery.
- Plan a backup way online. A mobile hotspot at minimum, or a 4G or 5G backup service for the office.
- Decide how the phones get answered. Who can ask for a call forward, to which mobiles, and who do they ring?
- Check your backups finished recently. Before a storm is a much better time to find a problem than after.
- Save your IT provider’s number in your mobile, not just the office phone.
The next step
This Get Ready Queensland Week, unplug your UPS from the wall for one minute and write down what stayed on.
If the answer surprises you, get in touch and we’ll help you work out what to fix first.