08-22-2020, 03:06 AM
PeterB wrote:
[quote=Racer X]
Be safe. Keep us posted. Just remember, if things get really ugly, phone texts can sometimes get through when cell phones are jammed for bandwidth or are down.
Actually that brings up a point of something else I think I'd asked about here awhile back. I no longer have a landline, and my whole house's connectivity is through a wireless access point (I have no wired internet at all). What I've occasionally had happen is to lose cell reception, but interestingly, the wireless access point usually still works. So... my question is, what's the best way to make phone calls over wireless? Do I just use FaceTime?
Facetime audio calls, yes. That would probably work.
But I'd have backups/failsafes. Skype and Google Voice at least. If a trunk goes down without taking down the whole 'net for your area, some services may route better than others.
...Messages uses data instead of riding the SMS service, so if cell service is spotty, it will fail. The "Send as SMS when iMessage is unavailable" option in the Messages settings under iOS is not reliable. (I experience this a couple of times a week when I try to send messages from the parking lot of my office where I'm out of range of WiFi, but the phone hasn't detected that it's no longer connected to the office WiFi network. Messages fail to send until I toggle off WiFi.)
Turn off iMessage in the Messages settings before the first storm hits and send a test-message to someone to confirm that they receive it as a SMS message. Turn it back on when the storms have passed and Internet service is solid.