Warning: 3 weeks of my life gone because I trusted a coffee shop's wifi

I landed in Medellin last month all excited to work from those trendy cafes they show on Instagram. My first client call dropped 4 times in one hour and I figured it was just the rain. Turned out the router was set to block video streaming after 500MB per device, and nobody in the shop spoke enough English to explain that to me. I wasted 3 full work days troubleshooting my laptop, my VPN, even my headset, before a local barista finally typed the settings page into my phone. Has anyone else lost billable hours to a 'digital nomad friendly' spot that just means they have a power outlet?

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1 Comment

kaiharris1d ago

That's brutal. Losing billable time to something that dumb would drive me up a wall. I've had similar things happen, like when a cafe's so-called "fast fiber" turned out to be a single repeater stuck behind the fridge, and I only found out after two hours of digging through my own settings. The worst part is everyone nods and smiles when you ask about wifi, but they dont actually know how it works. You cant blame the shop, but you also cant trust the wifi. Hope your next spot has a wired connection or at least a barista who knows the admin password.