Is the network down?

[Kilamon]

So, I get a call as I'm putting my pants on from my boss saying that the network here is having issues. ok, NP. Gotta go out, get to my truck, uncover it from the snow that fell last night and drive in. So, 90 minutes later, I get in and sure enough, it's dead. The reason is obvious; the entire rack is powered off. After spending an hour with 2 other guys muscling around a UPS, we get it all fixed and powered up. A PDU for the UPS and one of the two PSUs in the switch broke.

Then it began... first via IM... from one of my networking peers.
John Doe... Network still down?
John Doe... obviously not. :)
Kilamon no, it's up... Notice how I'm on IM?

Then the email....
From: Roger Dodger

Hey Kilamon,

Any ETA on when the network should be back up?

Thanks,

Roger

Now, I understand how to some people, the network seems like this mystical thing, a mass of wires and whirring fans and blinky lights, but, honestly... How difficult is it to comprehend that if the network is down, and you're unable to get your files, the internet, EVERYTHING, that email won't work either? And contacting by IM asking me if the network is actually down...? :confused: I need some good analogies to use, like "hey, if your car's engine were removed, can you still drive to Topeka?" *sigh*

[Geek King]

Geez...that's like calling someone to find out if they got the phone hooked up.:confused:

[pbmods]

Or stopping by your office to ask if the power's back on (dur... what do those bright recessed things in the ceiling run on? A child's love?).

[SuperDan]

Actually, it's not necessarily that far out of whack. At my old university, there were times when the school's Internet connection would go down but we'd still be able to view internal pages, times the HTTP server would go down so you couldn't view web pages but you could still use e-mail through an e-mail client program, and even the few times the network core was down we could still do LAN gaming within the residence hall networks (but we couldn't bridge over to the public lounge computers, that was on a different net).

[Bagga]

There are Computing precedents for this, I believe:

"Keyboard not working. Press F1 to continue"

[MacPrince]

I seem to remember it was:
"Keyboard not found. Press F1 to continue."

Which is even better, actually.

[Geek King]

My personal favorite was, "CD-ROM speed detected is faster than possible. Please contact manufacturer for support."

Ok, so I was an early adapter on the 32x drives. I had a classmate in college whose father ran a good sized computer hardware supply company. Several of us bought them fresh out of the first shipping crate. :lol:

[pbmods]

I seem to remember it was:
"Keyboard not found. Press F1 to continue."

Which is even better, actually.

For a PS/2 keyboard, yes. For a USB keyboard, not necessarily. But my recipe calls for chopped words, not minced.

[Bliss]

One I love, is a daily, when a user calls and says: "the server is down", you see in user speak "the server is down" means: they have error 691 or 718 when dialing, they can't contact the mail server. They have too much mail, a page in usa changed background color, an ailiner jet smashed against a lake and the sharpnel hit an oak.... anything, I mean ANYTHING in this world that fails is resumed to us by the user as "THE sever is down."

sigh

[Kilamon]

anything, I mean ANYTHING in this world that fails is resumed to us by the user as "THE sever is down."

That is so true. Can't view your website (pr0n)? Server must be down. Can't get your network share? Network/server must be down. Never mind that you haven't rebooted your machine for three weeks and your network credentials have EXPIRED.

I have a tool for network monitoring that watches the servers/routers/switches and it tells me when there are problems. Amazingly, it's more reliable than the users. :p