Grex Helpers Conference

Item 82: Grex System Problems Item

Entered by i on Tue Jun 22 00:19:07 1999:

56 new of 162 responses total.


#107 of 162 by headdoc on Fri Sep 3 21:58:14 1999:

I dialed in from home.  Also, we have a separate line for the computer, so
no, no one picked up the telephone extension.  Any other ideas?  Could it be
a break of some kind in the telephone line outside the house?  Could it have
been something originating at the Grex terminal?  Could it have been something
in the Pine works?  I was e-mailing through pine.
Inquiring minds want to know.\


#108 of 162 by mooncat on Fri Sep 3 23:31:55 1999:

Hmm, I wonder if it could have been cross-talk somewhere along the line.
Every once and awhile while working in one office on campus we would
get calls for a completely different office with a totally different
number- but because of interference on the line we got their calls.
So somewhere, if wire were slightly frayed and hit each other just
right you could have gotten some 'noise' through your line.



#109 of 162 by rcurl on Sat Sep 4 02:13:54 1999:

You could have a poor connection in a modular plug; the telephone company
might have done something; an animal might have nibbled an elevated phone
wire; lightning?; wind could have rattled a bad external connection;
something might have happened at Grex (among which are all of the above
plus staff falling off their chairs....   :)


#110 of 162 by headdoc on Sun Sep 5 02:11:40 1999:

If I had to guess, it would be the cross talk or frayed lines.  No wind or
lightening at the time, Rane.  A day like today.  Now Grex staff members
falling off chairs. . .I am trying to envision.  Everyone seems so stable.
(a psychologists pun.)


#111 of 162 by tpryan on Wed Sep 8 02:39:03 1999:

        Just had a phunny phone connect.  Ring thru on the first line,
then after second line answered, a disconnect.  A quick re-dial got
me in.


#112 of 162 by otaking on Wed Sep 8 11:13:48 1999:

Yesterday, grex said that I had a bad participation file when I entered aora.
Now it says that I have 190 brandnew items. It's as if I never read anything
in this conference at all. Is there any way to fix that?


#113 of 162 by remmers on Wed Sep 8 11:59:29 1999:

Yes - type "fixseen" at the "Ok:" prompt (if you're using Picospan and
not Backtalk).  Then, to read responses new in the last day, type
"read since -1".

This problem occurs whenever Picospan tries to update your conference
participation file at a time when the disk is full. The /a disk filled
up yesterday afternoon. My participation file got zapped too.


#114 of 162 by otaking on Wed Sep 8 18:19:11 1999:

Thanks remmers, that seems to have fixed the problem.


#115 of 162 by drew on Wed Sep 8 19:51:34 1999:

/a is full again.


#116 of 162 by don on Wed Sep 8 21:02:13 1999:

Hmm.... owing to the full drive, would it be worth it to back up my
participation file (say, every time I log in or something)? Are they the .cf
files?


#117 of 162 by other on Thu Sep 9 02:36:37 1999:

yes, but only if you back them up off grex.  otherwise, you are just
contributing to the problem...


#118 of 162 by dpc on Thu Sep 9 14:57:39 1999:

I dialed in on -3000 a few minutes ago and was peaceably reading
my mail when I was disconnected.  When I logged in again, here is
what the System said:

Last login: Thu Sep  9 10:46:06 on ttyqd from 204.212.46.132      

I have been *repeatedly* disconnected for the past several weeks.
This is very disconcerting.  Does anyone have any idea why
this is happening?  Are others having this problem?


#119 of 162 by dpc on Thu Sep 9 15:15:06 1999:

I was just disconnected *again*!  When I re-connected, I was told:

Last login: Thu Sep  9 10:55:01 on ttyu7 from 204.212.46.132  

Do we have a bad modem/set of modems?


#120 of 162 by scott on Thu Sep 9 15:40:10 1999:

I haven't had any problems in a while.  Have you tried from a different
location (ie not your own phone line)?


#121 of 162 by jazz on Thu Sep 9 17:18:02 1999:

        Not strictly a system problem, but an amusing error message during the
daily queue:

...3
Sep  9 13:11 Sep  9 13:11 56880 -1 11229 203.197.98.6 LOST HEAD
...2
...1

        [203.197.98.6 is a part of VSNL's broken-DNS space]


#122 of 162 by tpryan on Thu Sep 9 21:39:46 1999:

re120:          Are you sure it isn't the 9/9/99 bug?


#123 of 162 by russ on Fri Sep 10 00:12:47 1999:

One of the modems at or below -3554 in the trunk hunt is ringing open.


#124 of 162 by goose on Fri Sep 10 04:11:56 1999:

does this look okay?:
16 waiting, 64 remote + 3 local users; 72 max remote users; 4951 head
...2 of 17; 67 users
...2 of 17; 66 users   
...2 of 16; 65 users  

IT's not that I had to wait a long time to get onto Grex, but I read it
as eight less people should be waiting to get on (72 max remote - 64 remote)


#125 of 162 by cyklone on Fri Sep 10 12:00:06 1999:

I've experienced what Dave has mentioned. It seems to come and go, but
last week there were many times I would suddenly get the dreaded NO
CARRIER message. Since I do live on the same side of town as Dave, I
wonder if it isn't related to the horrible phone lines, perhaps
exacerbated by the increased amount of phone work that takes place this
time of year. If this is true, though, our problems should decrease, as my
Ameritech friend says most of the installment "rush" is over. 



#126 of 162 by mooncat on Fri Sep 10 13:30:39 1999:

I've had some troubles getting randomly disconnected as well. <shrugs>
Generally happens to me in party though.



#127 of 162 by dpc on Fri Sep 10 13:49:19 1999:

Since I also M-Net from the same computer/phone line, and *never*
have random disconnections on M-Net, I'm sure that this is a Grex
problem, not a phone line problem.


#128 of 162 by mdw on Fri Sep 10 22:31:25 1999:

It could just be that your brand of modem doesn't like our brand of
modem.  Kind of like cats and dogs.


#129 of 162 by tpryan on Sat Sep 11 00:27:09 1999:

        Kinda like Apples and Intells?


#130 of 162 by wh on Sat Sep 11 02:49:43 1999:

I've also been disconnected a number of times the last few weeks.
It seems to happen more often in conferences if I hold down the space
bar a couple seconds to page through an item. Have also seen it happen
in Lynx. 


#131 of 162 by bdh1 on Sat Sep 11 08:22:11 1999:

Odd. I seem to have entered three identical items in this .cf.  I
entered the first, and then attempted to add updated info and was
'disconnected' which with an autodial reconnect seems to instead
resulted in the three separate but identical postings.  I wonder if it
is a 9/9/99 sort of thingy (outside of grex)?  I also could not get a
connection for some time to any of my local POPs (getting an 'unable to
dial' intercept) and finally it resorted to dialing the toll free 800
number which in fact worked which I was then connected to even though
now I think I am back on my local POP?!?!


#132 of 162 by pfv on Wed Sep 15 14:22:58 1999:

Trying 204.212.46.130...
telnet: Unable to connect to remote host: Connection refused


Same with grex.org & cyberspace.org - and we're now down to 10 users..

Annon was on mnet and typed to me of this problem - he was totally
incapable of reaching grex. What gives?


#133 of 162 by gull on Wed Sep 15 15:07:15 1999:

I get 'Connection refused' using telnet, too...I'm currently connected via
ssh, which is working just fine.  Wow, Grex gets fast with only 9 users
connected...


#134 of 162 by jep on Wed Sep 15 15:25:13 1999:

Backtalk is working fine.


#135 of 162 by jor on Wed Sep 15 17:54:38 1999:

        phones: I also have been getting disco'd, typically
        while in party, perhaps a dozen or more times in the
        past week.

        


#136 of 162 by dpc on Wed Sep 15 18:10:32 1999:

I was unable to get in on the *dialins* this morning around 9:30,
so it wasn't just a telnet problem.


#137 of 162 by dpc on Wed Sep 15 18:29:20 1999:

I'm getting a mysterious error when I read some e-mail.
The apostrophe (') is replaced with "m-^R".  Does anyone know
what is causing this?  Is there any way to set my e-mail so
that this doesn't happen?  Thanx.


#138 of 162 by scg on Wed Sep 15 20:30:29 1999:

When you connect on the dial-ins, you dial into a terminal server, which then
automatically telnets you over to Grex.  The only way to access Grex without
telnetting is on the console (or via ssh).  I'm guessing inetd probably
died, and somebody probably restarted it, but I don't know for sure.


#139 of 162 by remmers on Thu Sep 16 01:51:39 1999:

Re resp:137 - It looks like you're getting email messages from
folks who put 8-bit characters in them, but that something
along the line is substituting a symbolic code for such characters.
It's not clear to me whether it's something on Grex or something
in your local setup.  You might try putting the line

        PAGER='more -r'

in your .mailrc file and seeing if that makes a difference.


#140 of 162 by dpc on Thu Sep 16 17:41:14 1999:

Thanks, remmers!


#141 of 162 by remmers on Thu Sep 16 19:22:42 1999:

Did my suggesetion work?


#142 of 162 by wh on Sat Sep 18 20:55:45 1999:

Couldn't dial in this afternoon. Grex starts up, tells me about
birthdays and mail, then asks for login again...and again...
telnetted in to post this. Same problem with -3000 and -5041.


#143 of 162 by dpc on Tue Sep 21 18:19:13 1999:

I was disconnected *again* twice within just the past few minutes.
Is any staff person working to track down the reason for these
repeated disconnects?  At least I can see from the reports of
others that it's not just me...


#144 of 162 by cmcgee on Tue Sep 21 18:21:13 1999:

That's funny.  I haven't had any disconnects that I know of in over a month.
I'm often on for a long time, but I also use *70 as a dial-in prefix because
of my call-waiting feature.  Maybe it protects me against random line noise
too?


#145 of 162 by rcurl on Tue Sep 21 19:52:14 1999:

No disconnects, but the systems 'hangs' for minutes at a time, now and then.


#146 of 162 by scott on Tue Sep 21 21:00:34 1999:

I have routed around a floky terminal server report.  But disconnects are by
no means a universal problem.  I haven't been disconnected in ages, myself.

Maybe we are getting more line noise than usual.  An error correcting modem
link would appear to "hang" while riding out a burst of noise.


#147 of 162 by katie on Tue Sep 21 22:54:59 1999:

Two unrelated things: Someone tried to log in as me Mon night.

loginid 'patti' has been logged on for over 24 hrs.

Dunno if either of these things is a problem.


#148 of 162 by i on Wed Sep 22 00:16:32 1999:

I have some things-seem-to-hang-while-the-modems-deal-with-line-noise
problems on about a third of my calls to grex; disconnects are somewhat
less frequent.  Reading of a failed login attempt or two when i log in
is routine.


#149 of 162 by mooncat on Wed Sep 22 00:50:12 1999:

Earlier today I tried several times to log in, but all I got was
garbage.  I could however, type my login, and then password and it
would show me the MOTD but the letters were all replaced with odd
characters.



#150 of 162 by scg on Wed Sep 22 03:32:09 1999:

A useful piece of information for those being disconnected is the area code
and first three digits of the phone number you're dialing from.  It would be
interesting if we could tie it to a particular Ameritech switch.  That sort
of trunking problem doesn't seem nearly as likely going between two Ameritech
switches as it is when dealing with multiple phone companies, but it could
still be there.  What kind of modem you're using would also be interesting
information.


#151 of 162 by i on Wed Sep 22 03:35:43 1999:

734-975, Practical Peripherals PM1440FXMT (old!).


#152 of 162 by dpc on Wed Sep 22 15:21:36 1999:

Thanx for the reroute, Scott!  I haven't been disconnected *today*
so far.   8-)  Steve, my number starts with (734) 769-.


#153 of 162 by gelinas on Thu Sep 23 03:26:31 1999:

I've noticed that a mis-typed password results in a 'failed login' report
when I finally get it right.


#154 of 162 by catchar on Thu Sep 23 06:58:47 1999:

I coulden't get loged into grex tonight, It would dial up and connect 
then just stop. I'm in here from the net with a variation of my name :) 



#155 of 162 by jdeigert on Thu Sep 23 13:47:15 1999:

I have also been unable to dial in to grex today and we are learning how 
to use the web interface.  The software and modem say I am connected but 
there is no response from grex.


#156 of 162 by remmers on Thu Sep 23 16:17:18 1999:

Hm...  I don't dial in that often but have never recently had
trouble.  Soon as I'm off the internet I'll give it a try and
see what happens.


#157 of 162 by eprom on Thu Sep 23 16:46:35 1999:

I use ssh usually to get to grex..but when there is a waiting queue
I log in but then my ssh connection freezes...and I have to use telnet
is there any way for ssh logins to be added in line to the queue?


#158 of 162 by mooncat on Thu Sep 23 17:06:11 1999:

I've been hving the same trouble as the others.  I dial in, and it
says I'm connected (my terminal program) but I get nothing from Grex.
It just kinda hangs there... I let it go once and after three minutes or
so it still said I was connected- but I never got the "Welcome to Grex"
bit.



#159 of 162 by jiffer on Thu Sep 23 18:14:07 1999:

SSH just doens't work with the queue, wait in line like everyone else.


#160 of 162 by gull on Thu Sep 23 22:38:18 1999:

Is there no way to have ssh be handled in the queue the same way as telnet,
then?  I like to use it, mostly because it eliminates the chance of someone
packet-sniffing my password.


#161 of 162 by mdw on Thu Sep 23 23:58:28 1999:

In theory, there's a way, but it would be a ugly ugly hack.


#162 of 162 by charcat on Fri Sep 24 03:00:06 1999:

grex worksok today, no broblems  :)


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