Freelancing with lousy internet

samnwck

I recently left the US to live on a tiny island and found the internet to not be entirely satisfactory. This isn't currently an issue since my plan on moving out here was to focus on my portfolio to hopefully land some freelancing gigs within the next year or so. 

So my question comes down to this, my max download speed should be 15MB/s (bytes, not bits, not bad), but the max upload is limited to 512 KB/s. Uploading a project that is even a few gigs would take at least a few hours at a minimum. If I explained my situation to a future employer am I pretty much shooting myself in the foot? Obviously I don't want to be dishonest, but I also don't want to lose jobs either. Has anyone ever been in a similar situation?

Keep in mind, this is one of the higher tier internet plans, with the maximum upload speed on the highest tier being 1 MB/s at like 2.5x the price.

thomasp

sounds fairly typical to me. i am on cable with plenty of down-speed but upload is like 7xx kbit or 1 mbit at the most. to get anything significantly better i would have to go with a corporate plan.

however it seems like a minor issue so far - i split uploads by type (sculpts, workfiles, engine-exports, etc) and not just pack them into one gigantic archive. makes uploading more manageable and updating archives on the FTP easier and also it's not like you're submitting every day. it should be easy to plan for and perhaps let it run through the evening so they have it next morning.
also if you can agree with the client on using a better format than standard zip, that'll help with upload sizes (7z for example).

Michael_Ingrassia

I'll share some advice from a director's pov if I was to hire you and your internet became an issue.
1) I work with several contractors all over the world. I have a policy that they are on Skype with a good connection to communicate with me on a constant basis. I dont need video, but I do need to connect, not just text, so I can share my desktop and transfer files easily.
2) I also use Dropbox for file sharing and we can have files as big as 1gb at times, so speed is necessary. You cant be a professional freelancer and take 12 hours to download a project file.
3) what would happen if I found your internet slowing down production or making a simple task of Skype or file sharing a burden would be to let you go and not pay you if the delays were causing me to lose sleep.

So here is a suggestion. Try finding an executive office center like Regus. You might have one on the island. If so you can usually rent an office for a day or use their services like internet when necessary. This way you can at least send and receive your emails with less pain.
otherwise just become a bartender and be kewl man.

musashidan

I'm in the same boat, except I moved to a huge island...... Australia. I'm in Western Aus, living 5 min from the city centre and I've had a nightmare experience trying to get a decent Internet service. But, I just do as @thomasp does, upload in .7z categories : meshes, textures, etc.

samnwck

Thanks for everyone's thoughts on this. I guess coming from having an upload of 2-3 MB/s, 512KB/s sounded really slow. But hopefully in the end it will be a non-issue.

slipsius

You shouldnt have to explain anything to your clients. As a freelancer, it's your job to upload on time. If you know that means you have to start uploading 5 hours before the due date, then so be it. Do that. If you need that 5 hours for work, then you should be adding the upload time to your time estimates. Least, that's my view on it. 

AlecMoody

Michael_Ingrassia said:
3) what would happen if I found your internet slowing down production or making a simple task of Skype or file sharing a burden would be to let you go and not pay you if the delays were causing me to lose sleep.

I just wanted to say that is totally unacceptable and if I had a client decide they didn't have to pay me for my work because of my internet connection I would be weighing the cost of a lawyer vs the outstanding funds.  If it is really a huge problem terminate their contract and move on. You still have to pay them for the work they have done.

OP:
Having terrible internet might cause you problems. The best thing to do is bring it up with a potential client before you start working for them to make sure they are okay with it.

claydough

Is there a phone carrier with coverage on yer Tiny corner of the world?
Whose data plan you could leverage for time sensitive emergencies or prioritized material in general?

That way you could have a queue of assets going 24/7 in the background with your normal ISP connection?

Also, 
Does a network of friend, family and associates exist there that could help u by allowing you to leverage their resources?

Good Luck.
 (  I imagine/assume Satellite solutions are the only providers on a small island? Do they have a budget oriented Business account that is affordable for an indie business? A business account should provide a realistically useful upload bandwidth?? )

claydough

I c thomasp already mentioned using a corporate plan...
Hopefully they have a reasonable list of choices that is affordable for a small independent like freelancers?

CreativeSheep

And here I wait for the day I can get 300mbps or 1Gbps. 

samnwck

Well the plan I have is decent. Mainly my worry was that if they needed something sooner than expected I really couldn't work around that (assuming it was a large file). However, as mentioned above, just reaching an original deadline is workable since I can plan ahead. I just wouldn't have great flexibility if they needed a large file sooner than when we originally agreed upon.

Otherwise the internet is decent enough to get the job done.... Well it will be anyways. I'm paying for 120mbps internet and only receiving about 15 mbps, which is like an 1/8th. So I've been having to deal with the runaround with them. However my wife does work for the second largest employer on the island, so maybe I could use a flash drive and upload it from her work computer, assuming I'd be able to connect. 

However now, another issue has cropped up, and that's that the power is constantly going in and out here... so it looks like I'll also need a generator for backup so I won't have several days where I'm unable to work. About  5 out of 7 days last week power was out for 3-6 hours during work times of the day which  is pretty unworkable.