Posted on

18-Jul-2013

Internet Lights Out
Two days ago, when trying to acces webmail at 16:00, the connection that was fine 15 minutes earlier, was gone completely. None of the sites was accessable, even the router could not be accessed, something that is normally no problem. Seconds later I got a message on my cellphone that TV was gone as well. Tried to phone: gone as well.
Because the TV worked, except it didn’t get a signal, en the phone looked fine, it was obvious it wasn’t a power outage. So either the router broke down, or something was wrong with the external (Fiber) connection.
When at home, two hours later, I checked the router by checking the wifi-signal, but that looked Ok. I could connect both phone and laptop op Wifi, and access any machine on the local network. But any attempt to get out onto the Internet, failed.
So it was definitively a matter of the external conenction. So I looked at the box that connects the router to the fibre. And indeed, one of the LEDs that should blink, was off. For my ISP that was proof that the lights of the Internet were turned off….
Service disruption, indeed. So a ticket to handle the repair was created, and I would be informed – over SMS – of any change.
But yesterday at 16:00, no message had arrived, so I decided to call the ISP on the progress: since ALL services were off, I would expect them to hurry…But no, I was to be handled today; they couldn’t locate the problem remotely so the problem might be in the PointOfPresence. Worst case, if not, an appointment would have to be made to have a look from my side. No idea how long THAT would take.
Given the reuptation of the big company behind the ISP, it could take days, if not weeks….

Luckily, the disruption was solved when I tried to access the webmail site at 16:00 this afternoon.

But not any status update over SMS…..

Well, it all works again. But if you promise your customer to inform him on the progress of the work on the ticket, it would be nice if that promise was kept. EVen if it turns out the disruption is caused by a mistake – or even something stupid.

Posted on

01-Jul-2013

Maintenance – as usual.
No problems. Nor a lot of spam last month:
PMAS statistics for June                                                                                                            
Total messages    :   2776 = 100.0 o/o                                                                                              
DNS Blacklisted   :    492 =  17.7 o/o (Files: 30)                                                                                  
Relay attempts    :    222 =   7.9 o/o (Files: 29)                                                                                  
Accepted by PMAS  :   2062 =  74.2 o/o (Files: 30)                                                                                  
  Handled by explicit rule                                                                                                          
         Rejected :   1322 =  64.1 o/o (processed),  47.6 o/o (all)                                                                 
         Accepted :    386 =  18.7 o/o (processed),  13.9 o/o (all)                                                                 
  Handled by content                                                                                                                
        Discarded :     98 =   4.7 o/o (processed),   3.5 o/o (all)                                                                 
     Quarantained :    216 =  10.4 o/o (processed),   7.7 o/o (all)                                                                 
        Delivered :     40 =   1.9 o/o (processed),   1.4 o/o (all)
This had been noticed already: most days the OPERATOR.LOG file is relatively small, just a few 10th of Kb, where 200 – at least – used to be appear regularly. It’s just the last days that the amount of rejected messages increased again.

Posted on

30-Jun-2013

Several updates – on the Pc/Windows side
Two major events caused me to take action on the PC front.
First, the workstation – built upon an ASUS P9x79 motherboard – had a problem from the beginning but I could work with it: To install 8Gb of memory (2 4Gb DIMMs) , there is a recommended configuration, and one of thos slots wasn’t working properly: if memory was put into that slot, the hardware detects a memory error and the power-up self test fails. Another slot however accepts the DIMM so I could get the thing running. But it’s sub-optimal.
These boards have a 3-year warranty so I decided to swap the board; Even better: I swapped it for a board one level up – since that comes with a front-end USB-3 connector – one that is missing on the base-level board. On the other hand, it doesn’t offer a COM port but I have room to install one, or two.
Swapping was a painless exercise, but I had to re-activate Windows8 and update some drivers.
As it tuned out, there are some more differences, but these do not interfere with normal work.
One piece of ASUS software however, fails to install, I still have to find out why. But the system runs fine.
The laptop – HP probook 4720s – in quite another story.
Originally, this system was equipped with Windows, and I upgraded this system to Windows8 as well. First, all seemed well, but after several updates it became more and more instable, in the end it wouldn’t even boot anymore. I first tried a refresh – actually a re-install of Windows8 that leaves the files alone – just what is installed from disk or Internet would have to be re-installed. It seemed to work – but once more, the system became instable and so I reinstalled Windows7. It meant re-installation of software one more but since al files are available, it wasn’t that problematic. Just the drives are a lot of work… It’s working now – most of it anyway. Even after I had to revert an update because one of the installations of updates after boot hang…But give some time, it will be Ok.
Looking back, it’s not that strange I ran into trouble: This type has not been qualified for Windows8 – it carries some software that is not compatible with Windows8 but it’s heavily used by HP’s additions…
On the VMS side – I should update the system as well, but there is too little time, with a full 40 hour workweek, some distance from home (including travel time, it’s about 11.5 hours…). But one day, I’ll update the system!

Posted on

01-Jun-2013

No surprises
All has gone fine in last night’s monthly cleanup job.
PMAS statistics for May
Total messages    :   2847 = 100.0 o/o
DNS Blacklisted   :    655 =  23.0 o/o (Files: 31)
Relay attempts    :     20 =    .7 o/o (Files: 28)
Accepted by PMAS  :   2172 =  76.2 o/o (Files: 31)
  Handled by explicit rule
         Rejected :   1434 =  66.0 o/o (processed),  50.3 o/o (all)
         Accepted :    407 =  18.7 o/o (processed),  14.2 o/o (all)
  Handled by content
        Discarded :    121 =   5.5 o/o (processed),   4.2 o/o (all)
     Quarantained :    174 =   8.0 o/o (processed),   6.1 o/o (all)
        Delivered :     36 =   1.6 o/o (processed),   1.2 o/o (all)
Even the number of relay attempts is minimal. And according the number of messages I got from the router, it’s pretty silent as well..
The last few days I’ve been very busy preparing the photographs and tracking data of last month Moroccan holiday. All in all over 2000 images (1700 by me and 400 by Rita) and tracks of almost every day….So far, almost all images that needed to be combined have been processed, there are just a few that remain; all tracks have been stored and projected on Google Earth so we do have an idea where we travelled :). Some speed is required since the other group members will have the opportunity to download what they need, and it should be possible to do so as soon as possible. Some time next week there will be that possibility.

Posted on

31-May-2013

Holiday is over
Returned last Monday from a 2-week trip to Morocco, mainly walking in the willd inlands; meaning no internet access except the few moments on intermediate travel when we stopped at locations that offered wireless network access.

Of course, no trouble on the VMS side. All went well, as was to be expected.

Quite a lot of messages. I may have lost messages that were captured by the spam filter, and were not handled within the retention period of one week (I forgot to extend the period…) but I guess there wasn’t any: no complaints received.