Tag Archives: network

Private Dancer

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Several days ago, while pondering an issue we’ve had at work an epiphany struck me. The problem we ran into was that our local network is a box of question marks. We don’t really know how it’s assembled or really what the rules are for using it, we just plug cables into wall jacks and if things work, they work. Until they don’t.

Enter NetInstall and NetRestore. These are the two imaging technologies for Macintosh and I’ve assigned my coworker to explore and develop images. Frankly he self-started it and I encouraged his exploration. We tried it first and both actions use a lot of bandwidth on the network and we eventually ran into a lot of problems. Not only did the machine we were working on take forever but it bogged down the server and caused huge headaches for everyone. We came to the conclusion that our local network just isn’t designed to carry any payload of appreciable size. It’s not really a complaint, but more of a characterization. It’s kind of fragile and wimpy.

So, was there a way we could still use ethernet technology without having to depend on our “provided” fragile and weak network? I sat in my chair pondering all of it, knocking some options out of the park instantly because of the machines we have. We can’t really depend on IP-over-Firewire as we have plain-jane MacBooks in the mix, they don’t have FireWire ports, just ethernet ones. As I looked across the way at all the server technology I had in the rack it struck me, each one, including the lowly Drobo had two Ethernet ports. Huh. Two. Only one was really being used to connect each machine to the network so each one had an available secondary port available. I then started to root around in my junk bin and found an old unused Netgear ethernet switch, five ports model, no fuss, no muss. I then grabbed a gaggle of short ethernet cables and started hooking all my servers and such to this little spare switch. Everything worked out magnificently well. In each server I configured these ports to conform to 192.168.0.* and assigned manual IP addresses for each of them. Then I found a unused Apple Express Wifi Access Point, plugged it in, set it for bridge mode and now I can extend this custom network into Wifi using 802.11N which is nice and fast. Just like that, cake and eat it too! What’s great about this setup is that my coworker and I can move large batches of data all over between these machines without having to worry about clogging up the network for all the other users who are trying to use these servers for their real work. Their files are small and their use sporadic, our use is large and nearly (sometimes) constant. The parts are just a few more blinking lights in the rack and just a little bit more spaghetti wiring hither and yon, but I don’t care, it works and it was free with the parts I already had on hand. The only part of all of this that upsets me is that I didn’t think to do it sooner. I suppose I should take some solace that it’s better late than never. Having this private access to all the systems makes both of our lives much better. We don’t have to complain to central networking anymore because we’ve abandoned their fragile wimpy thing for a far better solution in-house, and because it’s unroutable, we didn’t break one single rule, mind we don’t know what the rules are, but still. 🙂

It’s a good Friday.

Spinning Governor

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I’ve come up with ways to cope with the network connection throttle that I recently discovered was behind a lot of my network woes here at work. In my regularly scheduled workaday use of the Internet I usually find myself consuming at least 150 connections if not more because everything I use was built with the assumption that establishing multiple connections is free and easy. There is no parsimony when it comes to using the network, and you see this exemplified most of all in the design of browsers like Firefox. When you fetch a page, most modern browsers will attempt to also-fetch possible pages you may want so that they can appear faster. This is fine if you have an unlimited number of connections that you can make to the network. That isn’t the case here.

I can live with the throttle. I understand why it’s in place and knowing that it exists helps in that it keeps me from questioning my sanity when I didn’t know it existed and thought the problem was with me or my computer. It’s neither. So there are some ways to address my problem. Specifically the route to a better life is ironically through the same devices that are at the center of the entire ‘running out of IP space’ problem, iOS devices. My iPhone and iPad have apps that can bring me interfaces to Internet resources that I need to use, and they can free up my computer so that I can help avoid the connection quota throttle. For example, instead of opening up Toodledo in Safari I can open up the Toodledo app on my iPhone. Different device, different connection quota. My iPhone doesn’t make so many connections and if I did need that feature I could very easily drop wifi and use the 3G data circuit. I can do a lot of other things too, like manipulate Asana, run my eMail through my iPad, that sort of thing.

So, in a way, the connection throttle has shifted the load from one device to three. At first this was kind of a pain in the ass, but over time I’ve come to see that this could become more efficient. It frees my computer up for the heavier things, like Google Reader and such. We’ll have to see how it goes.

Can you hear me now?

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When infrastructure fails, it takes an absurd amount of legwork to compensate. This is my story of this absurd compensation. I’m writing this now because I might as well, it’s not like I have anything I can actually do without this particular infrastructure.

My work computer used to be on the internet, now, not so much. No sites are really accessible so now I have to find another way onto the network, as my employer can’t manage. Although to their credit, they are trying to fix it, but this problem has plagued us for months if not years, so I’m not holding out much hope.

So, Ethernet is a complete loss. What else can we use? I have an unused 4G Verizon Pantech USB card here, so I plugged it in. Turns out I need VZAccess Manager to make it work properly. Still can’t access the network however! What is a geek to do? I set up my iPhone for Personal Hotspot and connect that way. It’s slower but I’m actually on the network now downloading VZAccess Manager from Verizon.

Then once that’s downloaded I’ll close my Personal Hotspot connection, install the software, then get the 4G modem up and running. A part of me laughs bitterly that I have to go to these lengths just for the basics of my job, but that’s the nature of this place. I’m not going to cast any aspersions on Western, I’m done with that. You only complain when there is some glimmer of hope that things may get better.

So that got me thinking, if we’re all having these problems and there are 42 of us, and these 4G cards cost 42 dollars a month, that’s $1,764.00 dollars a month for internet services that are more reliable than the local network at this University. So, do we pay a hefty monthly fee to Verizon to replace our network? Of course not! We’ll continue to struggle and make do with the network we have here, as useful or not as it is.

I just find it hilarious how far I have to go to access the network. I would laugh if I wasn’t crying so hard. Oh well.