Margie's computer is fry'd!

[Scott]

Rich set up the computer and Margie completed part of the registration. However it turns out that Margie had her internet connection switched to her old house thinking she was moving back. When the move got postponed her cable company did not know what to do. (See "Why Not In Old House?" at the end of this post)

The cable company foolishly tried to direct dial Margie at home and of course had no luck. Not knowing to call Matt who would have told Rich to let Barb know. who could have resolved the issue, the cable company disconnected Margie's Gavilan high speed connection so she now has no internet. She has called but they can NOT fix it until Monday.

Only time will tell whether Margie will ever be back on line. I have notified Matt to tell Rich to tell Barb. Also Matt will tell Margaret who will tell Uncle Ken. However, the "tele-margaret" loop is still not functioning reliably as I tried to get a message to Matt last night and he did not get it until this morning. Thus Uncle Ken may only get this message by reading this forum. He is a regular reader so I am not worried.

As for free time on my hands? Not likely as it is virtually all taken fixing Margie's computer, or processing her messages as one of the relay links. Although the kids have started to help, so I often tell Alyssa, to tell Doug, to tell Jaclyn to tell Margie. It works, but Margie is often so pleased with the routing that she has a hard time concentrating on the message being delivered.

Anyway, I have a call into Barb to tell Rich to tell Matt to tell Margie to tell Margaret to tell Alexandra that she is invited to come ski with us over xmas. With a 3% chance of message delivery due to the "tele-margaret" path, I won't make any plans.

Why Not In Old House? Read on....

It appears that Margie asked Barb to get permission from Rich to use their contractor. Margie claims Rich told Barb to tell her ok. When the contractor arrived, he had Margie call Barb to tell Rich he would be working at Margie's and not Barb's. Then Barb had a project she needed the contractor for, and told Rich to call the contractor to stop work on Margies and get back to their home but did not tell Rich to call Matt to tell Margaret to tell Margie. However, the contractor called Margie, who in turn called Barb to ask what was up. Barb said she would ask Rich and Rich would get back to her through Matt. Rich told Matt to tell Margaret to tell Margie that Barb needed the contractor, and Margie would have to wait. Margaret never delivered the message as usual, and Margie waited for the contractor who was at Barb's home. Margie called the contractor to complain but he told her to talk to Rich. When Margie reached Rich he said "talk to Barb" as it was she that changed the plans. In the mean time, Margie is without a contractor. She apparently called Wrong Way who called an electrician who called Margie. Margie is dealing with the electrician now which is why she has no time to wait for the cable company today and it will have to wait until Monday.

After talking to Margie about this issue for 15 mintues, she said she was happy with her computer and would e-mail me later if she had any questions. Rather then explain the need for an internet connection to use e-mail, I told her I looked forward to receiving her e-mail. I figured that once she does get a connection, I will get it, which is probably faster than using her normal message routing path.

[Uncle Kenneth]

Scott, that posting would be perfect with the addition of your guy banging his head on the computer table - positioned directly below the posting!!

Oh yeah! Nothing dysfuntional about communication is this clan!!
As a confirmed Luddite, I salute the benefits of snail mail!
Love to all, Uncle K

[Matt]

New tricks for the Old DawGG ?

[Uncle Kenneth]

How'd ya know the dusky damsels out heah'bouts refer to me as "Slurpy Dogg Dogg?"

[Matt]

No models

Just strippers

They call me the big tipper

With the Big Dipper




Hey Scott........did Pops get on the list................?

[Uncle Kenneth]

Matt, very interesting little guy "gyhumperating" as your symbol. I hesitate to point out that 863 muscles are used in establishing that performance and it continues with some guys for more than even thirty seconds!!! Now, the appendage in the mouth with which one speaks is oft favored for other activities, takes 9 muscles and thus can be sustained 81 times longer, with the same expenditure of energy -- a simple matter of bio-physics. I learned that from you actually, Matt. With sufficient use, the muscle builds up and one can develop a yodel, even in a canyon.
Well, you started discussing a '64 Dart convertible, but after the conversation went to Rich, Scott, Margaret, Scott, Margie, Barb, Scott, Jimmy, to Latisha Boom Boom who, ah, "gave" it to me, it seemed to alter a bit. Speaking of which, we are back to Margie's filet knive, I see!

[Matt]

Two whole years (almost) of high school, and I can't understand a word of that ........

[Uncle Kenneth]

So he says, tongue in cheek.

[Scott]

Yesterday the cable company came to fix Margie's connection. Although there were problems possibly requiring a back-hoe and trencher, it was finally fixed. She even received a new modem!
She sent her first e-mail last night, but did not get on the forum. This morning after she called for assistance she was able to log on to the forum although for only 30 seconds.

She said it will take some time before she can set asside all that indirect communication and go back to the "direct efficiency" offered at http://www.kraftfam.com. I am confident she will make the transition. Day by day, week by week she WILL come around.

Just to make sure, I called Matt who will ask Rich to have Barb call her with some words of encouragement. Uncle Ken, if you read this you might want to do the same!

I can't help but wonder if that dryer incident was really an accident!

[Uncle Kenneth]

Scott! You want ME to be part of the Cuckoo Communication Circuitry aimed at Margie??? I have faced hoods, guns, "irritated lovers," and more. I simply have not the courage to be part of the communications relay team which occasions smoke to emanate from Margie's ears and the filet knives to flash!!!! I sing Basso Profundo just fine and do not intend to be a suprano-tenor.

[Scott]

Are you implying that my moms communication method is in someway flawed! Although I find it somewhat comical, I must take exception with your idea that she would be other than pleased with you adopting it.

It does provide for many people to be exposed to a variety of messages thus keeping a wider group of people informed. Although efficiency is sacraficed.

Absent this forum, her methods at communications have been the glue that has kept us all informed. I would never have heard about John Duckets wedding had Kakie not told you to tell my mom who told Jill to tell me.

Thus as we transition to the forum, we must not forget that should it fail, we will have to go back to Margie's method!

Rest assured the forum's servers are very reliable. Here are the specs:

The server facility (NOC) is equipped with a Raytheon fire suppression system, designed to immediately extinguish fire and protect equipment and personnel. The command center is controlled via automatic doors to further secure and protect the equipment.

Finally, the NOC is located in a secure, monitored, class A building with a minimum number of approved personnel allowed access to highly sensitive areas and equipment.

Uninterruptible Power System

To guard against local power failures, the NOC has two industrial-grade, three phase Liebert UPS systems. These act as back-up batteries, maintaining uninterrupted power in case of surges or power outages. With these backup systems in place, we can keep our network up and running indefinitely without relying on external power.

Industrial-Grade Air Conditioners

The NOC has two Liebert ten ton industrial air conditioners, which condition our computer rooms and operations center. The computer room is kept at an optimal temperature of 65 degrees fahrenheit.

Custom Web Servers

The web servers are custom-built industrial machines designed for a 24/7 web serving environment. All servers are equipped with dual redundant 450-watt power supplies, hot swap Seagate Baracuda/Cheetah drives and force-filtered cooling systems. In addition, our NOC is equipped with an inventory of identically configured, burned-in standby servers.

Force Filtered Cooling

All of the custom web servers are equipped with a positive pressure filtered-air system. Four large fans pull filtered air into each server's protective case and the components within are cooled by fans which circulate this purified air. This constant introduction of clean air into the case creates a positive pressure environment ensuring dust and particles remain outside of the server.

Hot Swap Seagate Drives

The drives and drive bays of all our servers are constructed from high-grade aluminum, and rest in shock mounted drive cages, which adds to the durability of the hardware. The drives proudly feature the lowest failure rate in the industry.

Redundant Hot Swap Power Supplies

Each server employs dual-redundant hot swap power supplies. If a power supply were to fail, the server would continue running with power from the alternate supply. Meanwhile, alarms would alert a technician, who would quickly restore redundancy. In the meantime, servers and client sites would experience no downtime.

Standby Servers

We keep spare servers on-line of all CPU configurations. If a server were to experience a hardware failure, we would turn a key, grab the handle on the drive, pull it out, and insert it into an identical standby CPU. We would then reboot the second machine and the server would be up and running again in a matter of minutes.

Connected to Three Backbones

The NOC is OnNet with GlobalCenter (GC), Qwest Communications and GTE through three separate bandwidth-on-demand connections.

GC, a Tier 1 provider whose 13,000-mile fiber optic network and Dense Wave Division Multiplexing (DWDM) technology provide an enormous 460 gigabytes per second (Gbps) of capacity worldwide, has an Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) fiber node.

Qwest comes in with an OC-12 line and plans to upgrade their connection to an OC-48 in the near future. They also have an ATM fiber node floors below the NOC. Our Qwest connection enables additional redundancy and better routes to Europe, Latin America and Asia. With our carriers, our router has up to 150,000 possible routes to send each packet of traffic.

Genuity, a division of GTE, is our third Tier One Internet backbone. Genuity provides excellent network performance as a result of their high-speed peering arrangements with other Tier One Internet backbone providers. The GTE global network delivers customers directly onto the Internet via a high-speed connection to its private, super-capacity backbone, including 17,000 miles of fiber and OC192 capacity. It is comprised of more than 800 U.S. local access points and approximately 1,500 international local access points in more than 150 countries.

Furthermore, because of these unique connections, we do not need to link to the Internet though an OC3 or T3 Telecom circuit. Instead, independent cables run inside the NOC to all three carriers points of presence. These lines can handle the bandwidth of a T3 or an OC3 with DWDM. Plus, they handle several times the bandwidth of an OC3.

Network Redundancy

We have intelligent end-user routing software called Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), between Qwest, GC and GTE, who use the same protocol. BGP identifies which path is the most efficient for each data packet and then routes the packet to its destination on the fastest path. This increases the speed at which web pages sent from our NOC arrive at their destination.

Studies have shown that the most common reason for downtime is circuit failure on Tier 1 provider backbones, the major data highways. To guard against this potential problem, we have three Tier-1 providers. If one experiences problems, we can route traffic down the other one. Furthermore, because we are OnNet with GlobalCenter, Qwest and GTE, we share their digital distribution architecture, which includes private peering network connections to major Internet carriers such as MCI, Sprint, UUNET, EUNET, AT&T, AOL, Best, Erols, @Home, IBM Advantis and others. These private peering arrangements allow the NOC to exchange packets of data with every major backbone carrier in a one-to-one environment quickly and efficiently.

In addition, GC has high-speed links to eight public exchanges including both MAE East and West and several NAPS. Through these public exchanges, customers have the ability to reach their site, no matter from where they are coming on the Internet.