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Remote work, outside the US [sucks?]

5 points by uptownhr ↗ HN
I'm a web developer, and for the longest time, I've dreamed about working remotely while traveling from country to country. Recently I went on a short vacation to china and attempted to work .

Now, I know China may be an exception but in my opinion, this is not a country a web developer can work remotely. You're hands are tied behind your back with blind folds on. Internet through mobile is widely available, but speed is normally capped at edge speeds(56k). Then there's the bigger problem of censorship. Google, facebook, twitter, and tons more are blocked.

VPN you say? Before, I left I did setup my own vpn server on Digital ocean and tested before leaving. Now, I need to investigate this further when I return but it is not 100%. I can't say why, but I've ran into many connectivity issue trying to surf through the VPN. Having to deal with reconnecting and timing out a lot. Might be due to poor internet connectivity in general. Also on the mobile, I haven't figured out how to tunnel traffic through VPN. Another thing I should research.

When internet is not fast, I do not feel like using it. As a developer, browsing, googling are things you do 90% of the time. More than coding.

How do you guys handle remote work in other countries with censorship and generally slow speeds?

7 comments

[ 4.0 ms ] story [ 23.6 ms ] thread
gorachel007
Working remotely from anywhere can be great, you just have to research the setup before you go and be prepared.

I've worked remotely from Oregon, Seattle, Singapore, Tokyo and Manila (where I am now). None of the cities except Manila caused any problems once you get around the time zone issue. The Internet in the Philippines is generally slow (averaging 1 mbps) and expensive. I'm not sure if this is due to infrastructure or a monopoly or something, but it's tough to work with a slow, expensive connection especially when you're a web developer.

I manage it by working late at night or early in the morning, when the connection seems to be faster (less people are awake and online). I also keep two different connections handy--one is my mobile data, which I can hotspot and use on my computer, and the other is a portable broadband device. That way, even if one of them loses connection (did I mention in addition to it being slow and expensive, the Internet is unreliable???) I can still work using the other one.

Even with the awful Internet I still get things done in Manila, and if it's possible here it's possible anywhere.

wrd
I was just in Manila a couple of weeks ago and found the Internet to be infuriating. I could simply not find a place with decent Internet. Even the mobile Internet was terrible. I left Manila and one point and went to a remote-ish island and got faster mobile Internet there than I did in Manila.

From my understanding, the reason for the slow speed is both infrastructure and business. Apparently all traffic in the Philippines is routed through California or something weird like that. On top of that, Filipino telecoms are corrupt and have little incentive to provide good service.

eswat
This was my case as well when I tried to work from the Philippines for a few weeks. I even stayed at a Hyatt and purchased room wifi, which did not work at all and would not be refunded by the hotel. Don’t get my started on the broadband sticks (tried three of them and none of them worked).

I’ve seen a few people successfully work from here on the nomads slack channel though. You just have to find places that actually specialize in this - like a co-working space - or an actual home because any public wifi will be spotty at best.

wrd
Internet is going to be spotty all over Asia unless you're in South Korea. The only reliable trick I've found is to find a local coworking space that caters to the tech startup scene. Typically these spaces have good, reliable Internet.

Otherwise, to deal with the censorship and monitoring VPN is the way to go.

mackenzielaffer
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