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This item is for system problems. If something on Grex isn't working right (line noise on a modem, weird behavior from a program, etc.), this is the place to announce it. Except for security holes. If you find a hole in system security, mail information about it to "staff".
205 responses total.
The net connection is down. And I don't know how to fix it, either. Hopefully some other clued-in staffer will get it going again.
Doing a traceroute today from work, it looked like the problem was with equipment at our ISDN service provider. Ouch!
STeve has attempted to get in touch with our provider. I don't know if things have progressed beyond that.
If someone from staff can contact me, it would be great.
The missing line problem that plagued M-net not too long ago appears to have reached Grex. I could not read the second line of #3 until I typed "3" at the respond/pass/etc. prompt.
Hm. I'm not having the problem, so it doesn't affect everybody.
Are you using a pager, such as "more" or "less"? Also, have you
made any recent changes to the terminal emulation setup at your
end, or to your access method? (For example, do you normally
telnet to grex, but switched to dialup due to the network
outage?)
I suspect an incompatibility between your local setup and the
pager you use. You might try turning off paging ("define pager
none") or changing pagers (e.g. "define pager less" if you
currently use "more").
Another possibility is that the number of lines on your screen
does not match the number of lines that Grex thinks you have.
This can cause problems for pagers. To find out what Grex
thinks your terminal size is, type "!stty -a". If there's a
mismatch, type "!stty rows N", where N is the number of lines
on your screen and see if this fixes things. You might also be
able to fix it by typing "!resize".
I've contacted jared so he can help get us back on the net. It's a long story involving our current donor moving, but we should be back online tonight or tomorrow.
Yay! Thanks, Scott.
I'd like to hear the long story.
Me too.
I'm working to resolve the ISDN issue. At this point, the ISDN line is currently up, but the connection to the ISDN provider is down. This should be fixed sometime tonight (i hope).
Jared, you rule!
the long story is that the current donor got the impression from mdw about two weeks ago that the isdn was no longer needed. I did not know about this infamous conversation, so when the donor moved yesterday (wednesday), the equipment was unhooked. at around the same time, the T1 that this donor uses stopped working. I was out of town tues, and wed, so was not able to check up on the moving issues until today. Today the donor has literally left the country for a week of vacation. I have access to the equipment and facilities, and am still working to get the T1 back up. I got the ISDN back up a few hours ago, but there is still no upstream internet connectivity for that site. /sigh Grex is not the only location that was messed up with this, another local group (www.caida.org) is currently down because of this issue. staff@grex and board@grex should all have e-mail from me with my contact information for a more realtime update. If the T1 is not up in the morning, I will facilitate in getting ISDN working with the same people that will be providing the GREX dsl, using the same ip addresses that the DSL line will use. Futher questions, you can contact me online at jared@puck.nether.net, or ask here. I will keep an eye on this item until things are all up again.
I haven't been getting email; people have been sending it. Is this related?
Yes.
Right. With the net connection down, off-site mail can't come into Grex.
I'm still checking up on the net connection stuff. The problem that existed at midnight last night is now clear, but I've not been able to get the line up that is causing problems.
When we get our net connection back, I assume we will shut down even dial-in access for a while in order to handle mail backlog. I'd like a little notice on that, if we can please, since I'm using Grex a lot to communicate with Grexers. If we're going to be totally shut for a few (many?) hours, I'd like advance warning. Thanks and hugs to the wonderful staff who spend their own time solving problems like this for us.
Where does mail go that we thought we sent? Jared, you are wonderful!
The mail you've sent on Grex is sitting in /var/spool/mqeue, patiently waiting the chance to escape. The mails others have sent Grex are sitting in those machies equivelant of mqeue, impatiently awating the chance to attack Grex. Yes, if the net comes up while I'm at work I will block human access so we can process the 17 tons of mail that will descend upon us, the moment its back up.
The network is back online (very kludgy, believe me) using the old ip addresses.
Glad to have Grex back on the net. And Scott, thank you for leaving a message and letting me know the status of Grex these past 48 hours or so.
Um, while I don't mind the occasional question, we don't recommend that people call staffers directly to find out system status. Rest assured that if Grex is down for more than a couple hors somebody will notice it and take action.
*cough*
Hmm? Sorry, didn't quite catch what you said, willard. Sounded something like "M-Net would never be down this long".... (big toothy grin) (Way back there with cmcgee's request for advance notice on stuff like this: Well, we can't really give notice in this sort of thing. Moments after we came back on the net we were being bombarded with mail, so it's not like we could leave logins open for a few hours so people could find out the status. And staying off the net longer would be bad)
Ah, more wisdom. Thank you.
Can grex establish a small web site somewhere (e.g. www.yahoo.com/~grex) for the express and only purpose of indicating the system status of grex (e.g. "up", "down because...", etc.)? When the net connection is down, only dialing in (for those who can) holds any chance to discover that fact. And grex could be entirely down, with therefore no way to inform people of the particulars.
I used ping and traceroute to determine that grex was down and why.
Re: #28: That sounds like you had access to another system from which you could execute UNIX commands on the internet. I'm sure many people don't have that capability - I don't.
I doubt he was suggesting it as a general alternative to your website idea -- which is a good one. I'm very glad that we weren't serving M-Net's website from the M-B0x at the time of the crash.
Actually, I think it is a general solution, for those who care. Windows now ships with tracert, and WhatRoute is available for the Macintosh. Of course, that is no reason not to put up a web site, as long as there is a volunteer or three to maintain it.
much thanks to grex's staff folks for resolving grex's isdn issues and getting grex safely back on the 'net. grex lives.
Thank you, Richard. I think STeve, Scott, and especially Jared Mauch (not staff, but a good friend of Grex) did most of the work. If we established an "offsite website" for reporting system status, can someone think of a good way for people to find it when Grex itself is inaccessible? They'd have to remember the URL, or have had the foresight to bookmark it.
Wasn't there a web page on http://hvcn.org where one could go to get info about grex when grex was down?
I don't remember that, but it's certainly plausible. If it's true, I think it illustrates one of the problems with the concept.
We will still need to take Grex offline to reassign IP addresses and fix all the the things that break when we change IP addresses.
It is hard to tell the difference when the telephone server grypos, is deliberatly hanging up the phone (such as during the e-mail rush) and it's normal random hang ups after connection.
Wouldn't have to be much of a site, really. Just a line or two stating grex's status, and a link to grex for when it's up.
Right. But if kaplan is correct and there already is such a site, ease of maintenance is not the issue.
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