Firewall's that ends wall
Jul. 22nd, 2005 09:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
altivoSooo, today wasn't as painful as I'd feared, but it was very disrupted and busy nonetheless.
Yesterday noonish the library lost internet connectivity. Seemed like the firewall had crashed, and when it does, like a good security device, it shuts off all communication rather than suddenly opening up to all communication. I reset it and the main switch it passes through and connectivity returned. However, an hour or so later it crashed again. By then I was at home doing barn chores, Thursday being my half day after I work to 8 pm on Wednesdays. I told them what to do and suggested that they refer it to the tech consultant who was supposed to make a biweekly visit that afternoon.
The consultant (who doesn't impress me particularly, but I don't get paid enough to take on his work in addition to my own) concluded that the firewall hardware had failed and had to be replaced. It took him five hours to get the net up and running and he ordered a temporary replacement box for installation the next morning (today.) His patch job crashed a half hour after he left.
So I arrived at work this morning to a dead network, and the message that a senior consultant would arrive about 11 am to swap out the firewall. Meanwhile we have no catalog, no circulation capabilities (other than writing down the barcodes from library cards and books and planning to type them in manually later), and (big issue for the public) no internet browsing. A backlog of several hundred returned books that could not be checked in on Thursday was awaiting processing. I took a laptop with a modem in it, connected it to the fax line (the rest of our phone system is digital) and downloaded puTTY so as to have an SSH connection to the shared server. Then we proceeded to check in all those books.
Meanwhile signs were put on all entrances to the library stating that there was no internet access today. The monitor at every workstation was covered by a similar sign. Duh. People would walk in the door, ignoring the first sign. Make a beeline to a workstation and sit down, only then seeing the notice that covered the entire screen and read in 2 inch high letters "Internet out of service, probably all day." After that, they'd come to the desk and ask "Is the internet down?" And when we answered in the affirmative, the followup was always "Will it be down all day?" Duh. Double duh. As always, library cartoonists Barnes and Ambaum had accurately foreseen the situation. (Browse forward and backward from that strip for several good library internet laughs.)
When the senior consultant arrived, he was not only personable, he was good. He looked at the firewall and network hubs and said it wasn't the firewall that was bad. (So his colleague essentially had wasted the whole afternoon on Thursday.) Instead of a $5000 piece of equipment that is out of warranty, the problem lay in the linkswitch, a $500 piece of equipment that IS in warranty. He recabled to bypass the switch, and the network was up and running two hours after he arrived. The defective unit is boxed up and the RMA obtained to send it to 3Com for replacement.
I was much relieved. The director is on vacation, and though she has budgeted to replace that firewall in the next year, I didn't want to be forced to order a replacement without time to seriously consider the options. Being senior in responsibility and technical knowledge (though not in years of service at this particular institution) of the remaining staff in her absence, everyone kept looking to me for the answers. And dammit, they don't pay me enough to be responsible for that stuff. When I had that kind of responsibility, I earned double what I earn now. (And it wasn't worth the headaches, even so.) I was let off the hook this time, and only have to worry about telling her that her fish died in her absence. (A guppy in a 2 gallon tank in her office, which I dutifully fed but still it went to fishy heaven. She has terrible luck with fish, which hasn't kept her from ordering a 90 gallon tank to adorn the public reading room. Fortunately that one will be maintained by a paid service.)
TGIF! ;P
Yesterday noonish the library lost internet connectivity. Seemed like the firewall had crashed, and when it does, like a good security device, it shuts off all communication rather than suddenly opening up to all communication. I reset it and the main switch it passes through and connectivity returned. However, an hour or so later it crashed again. By then I was at home doing barn chores, Thursday being my half day after I work to 8 pm on Wednesdays. I told them what to do and suggested that they refer it to the tech consultant who was supposed to make a biweekly visit that afternoon.
The consultant (who doesn't impress me particularly, but I don't get paid enough to take on his work in addition to my own) concluded that the firewall hardware had failed and had to be replaced. It took him five hours to get the net up and running and he ordered a temporary replacement box for installation the next morning (today.) His patch job crashed a half hour after he left.
So I arrived at work this morning to a dead network, and the message that a senior consultant would arrive about 11 am to swap out the firewall. Meanwhile we have no catalog, no circulation capabilities (other than writing down the barcodes from library cards and books and planning to type them in manually later), and (big issue for the public) no internet browsing. A backlog of several hundred returned books that could not be checked in on Thursday was awaiting processing. I took a laptop with a modem in it, connected it to the fax line (the rest of our phone system is digital) and downloaded puTTY so as to have an SSH connection to the shared server. Then we proceeded to check in all those books.
Meanwhile signs were put on all entrances to the library stating that there was no internet access today. The monitor at every workstation was covered by a similar sign. Duh. People would walk in the door, ignoring the first sign. Make a beeline to a workstation and sit down, only then seeing the notice that covered the entire screen and read in 2 inch high letters "Internet out of service, probably all day." After that, they'd come to the desk and ask "Is the internet down?" And when we answered in the affirmative, the followup was always "Will it be down all day?" Duh. Double duh. As always, library cartoonists Barnes and Ambaum had accurately foreseen the situation. (Browse forward and backward from that strip for several good library internet laughs.)
When the senior consultant arrived, he was not only personable, he was good. He looked at the firewall and network hubs and said it wasn't the firewall that was bad. (So his colleague essentially had wasted the whole afternoon on Thursday.) Instead of a $5000 piece of equipment that is out of warranty, the problem lay in the linkswitch, a $500 piece of equipment that IS in warranty. He recabled to bypass the switch, and the network was up and running two hours after he arrived. The defective unit is boxed up and the RMA obtained to send it to 3Com for replacement.
I was much relieved. The director is on vacation, and though she has budgeted to replace that firewall in the next year, I didn't want to be forced to order a replacement without time to seriously consider the options. Being senior in responsibility and technical knowledge (though not in years of service at this particular institution) of the remaining staff in her absence, everyone kept looking to me for the answers. And dammit, they don't pay me enough to be responsible for that stuff. When I had that kind of responsibility, I earned double what I earn now. (And it wasn't worth the headaches, even so.) I was let off the hook this time, and only have to worry about telling her that her fish died in her absence. (A guppy in a 2 gallon tank in her office, which I dutifully fed but still it went to fishy heaven. She has terrible luck with fish, which hasn't kept her from ordering a 90 gallon tank to adorn the public reading room. Fortunately that one will be maintained by a paid service.)
TGIF! ;P
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no subject
Date: 2005-07-22 08:22 pm (UTC)Still, I'm glad I'm not the one who had to deal with it. Both the tech and the people issues. People who can't read signs are...well, they get on my nerves, though I'm generally careful not to show it. :P
TGIF indeed!
no subject
Date: 2005-07-23 04:15 am (UTC)This isn't a new development. I've observed it for many years. Back when I was in library school I even did a specific study of it. I had an internship that involved mostly sitting at a reference desk and helping people find answers to questions. I was required to keep statistics about the questions, and one of the most frequent was "Where is the photocopier?" As it happened, the photocopier was large, obvious, and sat right next to the reference desk with the Xerox trademark written on the side of it in the proverbial large, friendly letters. After a couple of weeks I hung a large sign over my head that said "Photocopier, 10 cents" and had an arrow pointing directly at the machine. In the next two weeks, I was asked the same question just about the same number of times as in the previous two weeks when the sign had not been there.
Maybe the word "photocopier" looks too long and intimidating to puzzle out? And the word "Xerox" is just to alien looking? Who can be sure? Anyway, it did little to improve my opinion of people in general.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-22 10:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-23 02:04 am (UTC)I am, of course, having a little chuckle at American citizens' expense here. Don't take it too personally. ^)^
Indeed - TGIF - although, it's Saturday now, but the sentiment is still the same.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-23 09:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-23 09:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-23 09:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-23 09:53 am (UTC)OK - serious now - instead of trying to kill yourself, which I understand is very tempting given some of your fellow countrymen's tendancy to be morons, it might be an idea to try to change the idiocy before it's too late.
Find similarly irate people, arm yourselves and head for Washington. I'd, er, advise shaving any beards off before leaving, and don't wear any Middle Eastern clothing - otherwise you will be shot dead before you even get into the city limits. :P
no subject
Date: 2005-07-23 10:07 am (UTC)Thus accomplishing what I can't do with my oven. ;-)
Seriously... the question I ask sometimes is, are things bad enough to where there ought to be an armed insurgency here? It's still pretty good, actually. Even though I'm pretty countercultural, I'm employed and make sufficient money and go about my daily life unhindered, as do most (all) of my friends. There are things I'm concerned about, but for the most part there are either extenuating circumstances or the supposed evil is not being taken to anything near its full extent. So maybe we don't need to get an army of progressives to storm Washington or the so-called red states. Being more involved in the traditional political channels would be ideal, though. And being watchful.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-23 11:05 am (UTC)I loved living in the US - sure, there were some things that I didn't like, but they were all trifling little things. And, in truth, the people around me were not dumb. Perhaps it would be fair to say that a lot of people really were not interested in life outside of the United States, and that's fair enough. It is, after all, a big place with enough things going on in it to keep anyone busy. Still, as you say, there are things taht concern me also, and yes it's important to keep an eye on the gradual curbing of freedoms that appears to be going on.
"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance."
no subject
Date: 2005-07-23 11:37 am (UTC)If you drop a frog into hot water, it hops out. If you drop a frog into cool water and gradually raise the temperature, by the time it becomes too warm the frog is already so weak and sleepy that it can no longer escape.
The current administration in Washington is doing just that. Creeping fascism has advanced from a snails pace to that of a turtle, but because each step is still tiny and people think it only applies to the other guy and not to them, no one is complaining or doing anything to stop it. This week's idiotic vote to make the so-called "patriot act" a permanent part of US law is an example. I can't imagine what people are thinking when they continue to support an administration that wants to do this sort of thing to them. I guess their brains are all absorbed with NASCAR and where the next six pack is coming from. Placing young men with extreme right wing mindsets onto the Supreme Court is another part of this strategy, and again hardly anyone is calling it into question.
Meanwhile, Canada starts to look better all the time. :(
no subject
Date: 2005-07-23 12:09 pm (UTC)Canada IS better. The Tim Horton's donuts are fresher and they almost never have triple-digit temperatures (and I don't mean because they use Celsius, either).
no subject
Date: 2005-07-23 12:10 pm (UTC)A bill on compulsory ID cards is being rushed through the Commons now. A month ago, there was enough negative sentiment to see it squished, as it should be. The compulsory ID card has no function in a liberal democracy other than to erode the civil liberties of its cenizens. A piece of plastic with an iris scan and thumbprints on it won't stop a British-born terrorist from blowing himself up on a train. It will easily, however, allow a government to monitor essentially every aspect of its citizens' lives.
In a similar vein, new laws on enciting racial hatred will soon come into force. I understand the need to stop people from preaching hatred to young (Muslim?) people, and to help curb yobs from stoning people to death on the street and making other people's lives hell - however, the new laws are so loose in their definitions as to allow myself to be prosecuted for saying that Islam has been hijacked by a few fundamentalists for their own vile purposes. It's.. dare I say it.. dumb.
Perhaps you're right, 'Tivo. Canada is looking better and better all of the time...
no subject
Date: 2005-07-23 12:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-23 04:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-23 04:11 pm (UTC)Boiled Frog
Date: 2005-07-23 07:42 pm (UTC)Re: Boiled Frog
Date: 2005-07-23 08:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-23 03:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-23 10:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-23 11:41 am (UTC)What offends me is the attitude they take when asked to step into the foyer if they are going to use their phone. Usually it consists of "You can't tell me to do that. There's no law says I can't use my phone wherever I like."
...Good, lady. Please try it on an airplane and see what happens to you.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-23 12:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-23 05:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-23 07:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-23 01:40 pm (UTC)*does the bow-wave*
I'm not worthy! I'm not worthy!
^_^;
Sorry, I had delusions of Librarianship once, and I
view libraries the way some people view church.
As for the consultant.
Feh. >.<
no subject
Date: 2005-07-23 05:49 pm (UTC)