fluf
byte online
davenet
daynotes
doc searles
the register
.zannah.

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Sunday, 21 October 2001
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No entry.

downloads
free stuf i use
linux mandrake iso
litestep
windowblinds

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Monday, 22 October 2001
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I got that dead server back up, after extensive agony on my part, and much deeper agony on the customer's part. Still needs some configuring, but it's basically healthy now. And we've all learned some valuable lessons:

1) DON'T RUN WITHOUT BACKUP!
2) See rule number one.
3) Have contingency plans available for when Bad Things Happen. For instance, some simple Hotmail (or whatever) accounts would have helped this customer when their email server went south.
4) KEEP TRACK OF ALL THE DISKS, LICENSES, AND MANUALS THAT CAME WITH YOUR SERVER! It's tough to reinstall things with no installation media. And register your important software, in hope that if a Bad Thing Happens, the vendor might work with you on lost or destroyed disks or licenses. If they never heard of you... hey, tough luck, pal.
5) Write down ON PAPER and store in a safe, KNOWN place all the settings relevant to each server (i.e. TCP/IP settings, account names and passwords, etc.)

There are doubtless more lessons to be drawn here, and I'll probably stub my toe on some of them in the next few days. The principles also apply to desktop and home computers, but are even less likely to be adhered to there. *Sigh*

serious stuf
lynne's experience
maranatha
miracles still happen
the dream
the goodbye time

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Tuesday, 23 October 2001
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I spent the whole day out of the office at customer sites. May I mention parenthetically here that Road Runner still has MAJOR problems delivering consistent service. To business customers, this is Not A Trivial Matter. Ack!

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Wednesday, 24 October 2001
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I've said it before, and I'll say it again. It pays to know some smart people. With a few phone calls and some tinkering, I got the Exchange server working optimally today. The mail comes in, the mail goes out. The server serves. So now I'm going to reconfigure every desktop to use offline folders, for extra redundancy. That's a pretty neat Outlook feature that avoids the sometimes-problematic "personal folders" PST file.

I bought a Seagate 12/24 GB DAT drive for the server, but it had a nice, fat SCSI connector in back, totally incompatible with the cute little ultra-SCSI connectors on the cable in the server. Argh! So now I need to see if there's any kind of adapter to make them mate properly. If not, I'll go order the Compaq tape drive. If I'd known then that it was the same price as the Seagate, I'd have ordered it initially. Of course, the Seagate came with Backup Exec software, and the Compaq doesn't, which will make the Compaq more expensive. But hey, it's only money, right?

LATER...

Confused about the multiplicity of different (and mutually incompatible) SCSI connectors? I sure am. Here's a very cool page with photos and descriptions of every SCSI connector in common use today. And for what it's worth, my CDW rep says they have a adapter-thingy-goober (my paraphrase) that will mate the 50-pin connector on the tape drive with the 68-pin connector on the cable. Here's hoping!

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Thursday, 25 October 2001
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No entry.

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Friday, 26 October 2001
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No entry.

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Saturday, 27 October 2001
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No entry.