Do not go on vacation! in Wireless Service Providers http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r17018904 en Sun, 06 Dec 2009 03:08:54 EDT Sun, 06 Dec 2009 03:08:54 EDT Re: Do not go on vacation! http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17040392 Keithb : That's when I bring out the scotch tape. lol

said by LLigetfa See Profile :

I labelled hundreds of wires with a Brother P-Touch and figured they would stick well if I folded them over the wire and stuck the glued surfaces to each other. A month later I had hundreds of labels littering the floor as they all fell off!
]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17040392 Fri, 06 Oct 2006 18:03:52 EDT Re: Do not go on vacation! http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17039847 LLigetfa : I labelled hundreds of wires with a Brother P-Touch and figured they would stick well if I folded them over the wire and stuck the glued surfaces to each other. A month later I had hundreds of labels littering the floor as they all fell off!

I then tried the Brady wire markers that feels like cloth tape and come in booklet form. You peel each individual digit and wrap them, making up the number as you go. Months later, they too started unravelling and falling off in handling.

The Brady labels I posted have stood the test of time. I also use colour coding and the important stuff I document.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17039847 Fri, 06 Oct 2006 16:26:56 EDT Re: Do not go on vacation! http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17038710 Keithb : I'm our IT guy, for our company as well as the wireless network. Lord help us..!! lol I have a binder with all invoices, and a Word document of all the contacts I have in this industry and what their strong points are, and who we have purchased what/why from.

The network diagram is almost complete as we've did some modifying recently, but man is it good to have. I have an Excel folder with IP addy's, and other info to help troubleshoot, even for myself to look back upon at times.

You can never have enough documentation of your network, as it's always the smallest detail that will trip you up and you'll overlook it.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17038710 Fri, 06 Oct 2006 12:57:42 EDT Re: Do not go on vacation! http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17038530 John Galt :
said by Chele See Profile :

I labeled one of our POPs with a Dymo label maker only to go back a few weeks later and find the writing on the labels had disappeared! I think it was the heat :( Looking for a different method now.
Use one of the labels above and you will be happy.

;)

Also, it really helps to have a system drawing and Excel spreadsheet of what goes to where.

Documentation is critical for troubleshooting...and it also helps you to focus on what you are doing when you are building. Don't make the mistake of building it all thinking 'I will document it later'...we all know that NEVER happens. Start your documentation process during your design phase.
--
A is A]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17038530 Fri, 06 Oct 2006 12:28:44 EDT Re: Do not go on vacation! http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17038499 Keithb : Chele,

We use the Dymo label maker for our meters. We number each meter for inventory purposes and started using the White plastic labels only to find out that moisture sunlight, and other environmental factors faded the label. I then purchased the metallic label (silver) and it works great. It is actually a metal material and has lasted at least 3 years in direct sunlight in South Texas.

»global.dymo.com/enUS/Products/LetraTag.html is the label maker we have. The metallic label # is 91338.

Like I said, we've used it for a few years now and have had great luck with them. Unfortunately, we labeled about 100 meters with the plastic label that are in the field. If not for the serial number, we'd have a hard time identifying the meter. ;)

said by Chele See Profile :

I labeled one of our POPs with a Dymo label maker only to go back a few weeks later and find the writing on the labels had disappeared! I think it was the heat :( Looking for a different method now.
]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17038499 Fri, 06 Oct 2006 12:24:40 EDT Re: Do not go on vacation! http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17038320 Chele : I labeled one of our POPs with a Dymo label maker only to go back a few weeks later and find the writing on the labels had disappeared! I think it was the heat :( Looking for a different method now.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17038320 Fri, 06 Oct 2006 11:56:44 EDT Re: Do not go on vacation! http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17037475 LLigetfa : With my terrible handwriting, I use a Brady printer and labels.
»www.cdwg.com/shop/products/defau···C=303097]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17037475 Fri, 06 Oct 2006 09:04:01 EDT Re: Do not go on vacation! http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17037440 mrbueno : Heh. Funny thing is I just did a 72 room hotel the had no labels and we did almost exactly this. DOH! ]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17037440 Fri, 06 Oct 2006 08:54:49 EDT Re: Do not go on vacation! http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17036402 John Galt : I highly recommend these:

»https://www.tselectronic.com/3m/swd.html···de6ca366

Nothing like moving around some cabling and have a plug pop out.

:huh:

When you have a stable configuration, use these to label what device and what port THAT plug should be connected to. They are "self-laminating"...you write on the label and then wrap it around the cable. The clear tape covers the writing and you cannot smear it after that.

Thanks to Linda the Systems Tech at Lockheed Sunnyvale Building 157, for this one.

;)
--
A is A]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17036402 Fri, 06 Oct 2006 00:21:08 EDT Re: Do not go on vacation! http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17019158 korym : ROFL!!! Thx for sharing, mrbueno! :D I'm thankful that you had a sense of humor during this obviously painful endeavor. If you don't have that, what do you have? :)

Reminds me of one of the old BOFH episodes: »www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/14···sode_23/.

Whenever I'm having a day like that, I simply head there and go through some old episodes. Always puts a smile back on my face. Much like your post did. :)

Thx again!

Regards,
Kory
--
WISP Directory : WISP News : Start a WISP]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17019158 Tue, 03 Oct 2006 09:58:11 EDT Do not go on vacation! http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17018904 mrbueno : In another thread someone asked how to take a vacation as a one-man ISP. I gave some advice, but I feel this advice is better. ;)

While I was gone on a trip to visit Austria and the Czech Republic one of my employees somehow unplugged the ethernet cable from my front desk computer and plugged it back into another ethernet port on that system.

Having done that, the system was using a new IP Address. This caused all my gaming systems to be unable to reach the billing system for the gaming systems which, of course, stops the gaming systems from working. So, the same employee began to think there was a problem with the network. Said employee went to different switches around the office to make sure nothing had somehow become unplugged. During this process she plugged cables into both the uplink and straight through portions of the final port on one switch causing that switch and all others in my office to stop operating all together. Then an hour later she decides to call me while I am enjoying the public transportation of Brno, Czech Republic.

I am informed that the gaming systems cannot reach the front desk computer or the Internet and the front desk computer cannot reach anything as well. My first questions, "Did you check the switches?" and "What did you change?" After 40 minutes of trying to wrestle any sense out of this I asked her to put another employee on the phone. Employee 2 was asked to check out the switches and see if something seemed wrong and then call me back. Employee 2 found the port where uplink and standard ports were being used simultaneously and fixed that part. It took him 15 minutes, but he found it. Then they called me back.

"Everything works but the front desk computer cannot reach the ISP billing server.", says Number 1. Our ISP billing server is firewalled and only 2 IP's can reach it, this means the IP was changed.

"Why was the IP address changed number 1?", I pondered aloud.

"I didn't change it.", she defended

"Number 1, are there two ethernet ports on that system?", I more stated than asked.

"No.", she replied with a sense of cluelessness 15 year old schoolgirls left behind.

"Ok. Give me the new IP address and I will add an allow statement." I was defeated and tired. I didn't want to deal with this anymore.

Finally I got back to the States and other than this one incident things went pretty well. However, when I walked into the office, I noticed that the gaming systems were not connecting to the cafe server. "No other problems, but the cafe software still doesn't work." I walked over to the front desk, looked at the back of the computer and saw... two, COUNT THEM, TWO FREAKING ETHERNET CARDS. I moved the cable to the other card, stood up, then I saw all my gaming systems come to life. I was livid or rather I would have been if Air France hadn't been so rude on our trip back. I just sighed and asked, "What is the first thing I said to you?", directing the question at number 1.

"Do as I say and you'll live!", answered number 2. »www.imdb.com/title/tt0417148/quotes

As any fan of awfully over-hyped films knows, this completely diffused the anger and we all laughed like we were 1 minute away from the credits on an A-Team episode.

Point being, no matter how much you prepare. You can't prepare for everything.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17018904 Tue, 03 Oct 2006 08:59:39 EDT