Showing posts with label new building. Show all posts
Showing posts with label new building. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
08/17/2010
8a-4p - More moving, more network patching, more general helping out. The air conditioning guys came down to look at one of the systems. Turns out is had bad wiring. I really can't remember what all happened on Tuesday. I do know that at 3pm, I headed up to a school that was having problems with connecting to distance learning provider. As it turns out, the school could connect to three other providers. I recommended the school contact the one provider that wasn't able to connect and have them troubleshoot their issue(s).
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
08/16/2010
8a - 430p
Mainly spent the day patching phones from the phone system to their assigned ports. Er, that was the plan anyway. Spent much of the morning over at the old building picking out things that still needed to be moved. After lunch, I went back to the patching. According to the folks that ran the wiring, there is a scheme they followed: From the first jack on the lft, go around the room in sequential order (so, if room 115 has three jacks, the first on left is 115/1, then 115/2, and 115/3. I should be able to look at the phone jacked into the wall, determine the jack number based on room and location and plug in the patch wire in the wiring closet. As it turns out, however, not every room follows the pattern. Add to that, some rooms are even labeled incorrectly (one jack in room 224 actually terminates as 113/2). AUGH! I spent a lot of time using the FOX and HOUND to find which wires went where.
By using the device (FOX shown above), I can plug a wire from the wall into the FOX then use the HOUND (which generates a high-pitched tone) to figure out where the cable lands in the closet. Best invention EVER!
Of course, LOTS of other things came up during the day as we are still moving things in, trying to get things organized, etc. I am putting myself under a lot of pressure to get things done quickly. My boss is pretty laid back about it.
Mainly spent the day patching phones from the phone system to their assigned ports. Er, that was the plan anyway. Spent much of the morning over at the old building picking out things that still needed to be moved. After lunch, I went back to the patching. According to the folks that ran the wiring, there is a scheme they followed: From the first jack on the lft, go around the room in sequential order (so, if room 115 has three jacks, the first on left is 115/1, then 115/2, and 115/3. I should be able to look at the phone jacked into the wall, determine the jack number based on room and location and plug in the patch wire in the wiring closet. As it turns out, however, not every room follows the pattern. Add to that, some rooms are even labeled incorrectly (one jack in room 224 actually terminates as 113/2). AUGH! I spent a lot of time using the FOX and HOUND to find which wires went where.
By using the device (FOX shown above), I can plug a wire from the wall into the FOX then use the HOUND (which generates a high-pitched tone) to figure out where the cable lands in the closet. Best invention EVER!
Of course, LOTS of other things came up during the day as we are still moving things in, trying to get things organized, etc. I am putting myself under a lot of pressure to get things done quickly. My boss is pretty laid back about it.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
08/14/2010
7a-7p - Moved items from old location to new.
On Saturday, the 14th, a TON of folks showed up at the co-op (both sites) to help get things moved. We started at 7am and worked all day with a pizza break for lunch (Thank you, Lindy and Phoebe!) and then at 3pm, everyone was released to head for the house. I stayed on in order to work with BCS (phones). Though my plan was to patch in phone and data, things took a little longer than I had anticipated, so by 7pm, I simply ran out of steam.
By far and away, the hardest part of Saturday (for me) was dismantling the equipment in the old Conference Room. We have an original Smart Sympodium cart. It has been around so long, I can't even find an accurate picture of one online! I need to take picture for posterity. It is big and bulky and weighs a TON! Okay, maybe not a ton, but a good could hundred pounds. Good thing it is on casters. The cabinet not only houses the electronics for the Sympodium (a Smart Board in a lectern, basically) but it also houses the distance learning equipment for the conference room. The weight of the thing doesn't compare to the sheer number and bulk of the wiring attached to it. And all those wires (cameras, power, video, sound, data, etc) ran through the ceiling grid. Over the years, other wires had also been strung up there, so everything was "a hot mess," as some folks say. With my assistant's help, though, we eventually got everything we needed (for the most part. I plan to have our Smart rep move some of the other equipment).
There is still lots to do, but I cannot believe how quickly the majority of the equipment, furniture, and "stuff" got moved. Amazing.
On Saturday, the 14th, a TON of folks showed up at the co-op (both sites) to help get things moved. We started at 7am and worked all day with a pizza break for lunch (Thank you, Lindy and Phoebe!) and then at 3pm, everyone was released to head for the house. I stayed on in order to work with BCS (phones). Though my plan was to patch in phone and data, things took a little longer than I had anticipated, so by 7pm, I simply ran out of steam.
By far and away, the hardest part of Saturday (for me) was dismantling the equipment in the old Conference Room. We have an original Smart Sympodium cart. It has been around so long, I can't even find an accurate picture of one online! I need to take picture for posterity. It is big and bulky and weighs a TON! Okay, maybe not a ton, but a good could hundred pounds. Good thing it is on casters. The cabinet not only houses the electronics for the Sympodium (a Smart Board in a lectern, basically) but it also houses the distance learning equipment for the conference room. The weight of the thing doesn't compare to the sheer number and bulk of the wiring attached to it. And all those wires (cameras, power, video, sound, data, etc) ran through the ceiling grid. Over the years, other wires had also been strung up there, so everything was "a hot mess," as some folks say. With my assistant's help, though, we eventually got everything we needed (for the most part. I plan to have our Smart rep move some of the other equipment).
There is still lots to do, but I cannot believe how quickly the majority of the equipment, furniture, and "stuff" got moved. Amazing.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
08/13/2010
8am - 5pm = Moved equipment from old location to new.
Connected T1's to switch and turned on all servers. The power outlet installed does not accommodate the UPS we have, so the electrician will have that fixed on Monday. The servers are operating on single PSU's for now, which is fine. The mail server had a small issue, but I believe that was related to the SQL server not being fully booted when the mail server came online. Once necessary services were started, we were golden!
Work starts on Saturday at 7am!
Connected T1's to switch and turned on all servers. The power outlet installed does not accommodate the UPS we have, so the electrician will have that fixed on Monday. The servers are operating on single PSU's for now, which is fine. The mail server had a small issue, but I believe that was related to the SQL server not being fully booted when the mail server came online. Once necessary services were started, we were golden!
Work starts on Saturday at 7am!
Thursday, August 12, 2010
08/12/2010
8a- 930a - Helped a school district set up a redirect from their old website to their new one. Also helped the tech get ConsoleOne and NWADMIN32 running on his workstation. We also looked at a connectivity issue in the computer lab and got it resolved.
10a - 4pm - Drove back to co-op and spent the day breaking down a couple labs, moving and packing, etc.
4p-5:30p - Shut down servers and router, loaded up the equipment and moved it to the new building. We had a bit of a scare during the move. Friday will tell us if everything still works the way it should.
10a - 4pm - Drove back to co-op and spent the day breaking down a couple labs, moving and packing, etc.
4p-5:30p - Shut down servers and router, loaded up the equipment and moved it to the new building. We had a bit of a scare during the move. Friday will tell us if everything still works the way it should.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
08/11/2010
8a-915a - Went to one of our early childhood sites to set up the computer, smartboard, sound etc.
915a-930a - Met with Health Liaison regarding a workshop. Presenter needed a speaker system. Met with presenter (tech from one of our area schools) about their upcoming switch to Exchange Server. I am hoping to be able to get down there for "hand-holding" if possible.
While I was at the early childhood site, there was a staff meeting at the main office. We begin moving this weekend.
950a - Helped get the presenters hooked up with their presentation and on the wireless mic system.
10:00a-1030a - Email & co-worker discussions
1030a - Met with Director and Assistant Director then went to new building to check status of T1 Demarc placement. At some point yesterday, I talked with our phone installer and let them know that they should be able to come out on Friday to install our upgraded phone system. I forgot to document that yesterday.
Network Demarc looks good, though I now have a concern that we will not have enough facilities for our phone services. This should be interesting come Friday. Have I said that already?
11:30-Noon - Continued cleaning/packing the office for the big move.
1:00p-2:00p - Continued to pack and clean office.
2p-330p - Email, phone support, spam filter configuration/quarantined message cleanup
3:30-4:45p - Met with Director, Assistant Director and other personnel regarding packing and prepping for the move! Wahoo!!
915a-930a - Met with Health Liaison regarding a workshop. Presenter needed a speaker system. Met with presenter (tech from one of our area schools) about their upcoming switch to Exchange Server. I am hoping to be able to get down there for "hand-holding" if possible.
While I was at the early childhood site, there was a staff meeting at the main office. We begin moving this weekend.
950a - Helped get the presenters hooked up with their presentation and on the wireless mic system.
10:00a-1030a - Email & co-worker discussions
1030a - Met with Director and Assistant Director then went to new building to check status of T1 Demarc placement. At some point yesterday, I talked with our phone installer and let them know that they should be able to come out on Friday to install our upgraded phone system. I forgot to document that yesterday.
Network Demarc looks good, though I now have a concern that we will not have enough facilities for our phone services. This should be interesting come Friday. Have I said that already?
11:30-Noon - Continued cleaning/packing the office for the big move.
1:00p-2:00p - Continued to pack and clean office.
2p-330p - Email, phone support, spam filter configuration/quarantined message cleanup
3:30-4:45p - Met with Director, Assistant Director and other personnel regarding packing and prepping for the move! Wahoo!!
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
08/10/2010
8:30a - 9:45a - Worked with Prescott schools during their Pinnacle software update. The update was performed via remote desktop session from tech support with Pinnacle. Ran into a couple snags during the configuration phase, but between the three of us, figured everything out and the software is ready for the 2010 school year rollover!
10:00a-12noon - Taught teachers how to access their new classroom portals, including posting announcement, events, photos, etc. Also discussed adding students and creating groups based on class periods, dropping students into those groups, then setting permissions so students could only participate in their assigned period discussions, etc.
12:00-12:15p - Talked to AT&T about moving the T1 connections. He had mistakenly been told to move the lines TODAY! Whoa! I am glad he called me! He said he would put everything in place and then we would be able to "flip the switch" on Friday to get connectivity to our new building.
1:00p-2:00p - Helped user recover distribution list that had been mistakenly deleted. Talked with Phoebe about the upcoming move, the convo with AT&T, and other issues related to the new building.
2:00p-2:20p - Talked with Bradley administrative assistant regarding her limited access to perform certain functions on her computer. Walked her through the process of adding her to the local admins group. Once done, she had access to all the software she needed to run (signage, Office, etc).
2:40-3:45p - Worked with Bob Cochenour at Western Co-op regarding a business-facing Facebook page. We set up the page then spent a considerable amount of time trying to lock down the page to meet their needs. Evidently, there is some 'super-secret' to getting Facebook to "let" you do that. Apparently, there is a "whitelisting" process that can provide this. Of course, actually getting support from facebook is impossible to find. It amazes me that we, as a society, allow ourselves to post and host personal information on a site that provides no easy means for contacting the people that run the show. There is something not right about that, I think.
During this process, I also helped one of our users with her login and password. I anticipate several folks needing that help as they return to schools after being off in the summer (and not checking email).
3:45p-4:00p - Called Bradley schools to talk with HS Principal regarding the IP addresses for their video systems. Apparently, DLC had to cancel a few of their classes at the last minute. Luckily, ASMSA stepped in and will provide the needed classes. I also gave her the phone number to ArkansasIDEAS because she has a teacher that could not log in. I tried to locate the teacher with the STIN lookup tool that state techs have access to, but she did not appear in the database.
10:00a-12noon - Taught teachers how to access their new classroom portals, including posting announcement, events, photos, etc. Also discussed adding students and creating groups based on class periods, dropping students into those groups, then setting permissions so students could only participate in their assigned period discussions, etc.
12:00-12:15p - Talked to AT&T about moving the T1 connections. He had mistakenly been told to move the lines TODAY! Whoa! I am glad he called me! He said he would put everything in place and then we would be able to "flip the switch" on Friday to get connectivity to our new building.
1:00p-2:00p - Helped user recover distribution list that had been mistakenly deleted. Talked with Phoebe about the upcoming move, the convo with AT&T, and other issues related to the new building.
2:00p-2:20p - Talked with Bradley administrative assistant regarding her limited access to perform certain functions on her computer. Walked her through the process of adding her to the local admins group. Once done, she had access to all the software she needed to run (signage, Office, etc).
2:40-3:45p - Worked with Bob Cochenour at Western Co-op regarding a business-facing Facebook page. We set up the page then spent a considerable amount of time trying to lock down the page to meet their needs. Evidently, there is some 'super-secret' to getting Facebook to "let" you do that. Apparently, there is a "whitelisting" process that can provide this. Of course, actually getting support from facebook is impossible to find. It amazes me that we, as a society, allow ourselves to post and host personal information on a site that provides no easy means for contacting the people that run the show. There is something not right about that, I think.
During this process, I also helped one of our users with her login and password. I anticipate several folks needing that help as they return to schools after being off in the summer (and not checking email).
3:45p-4:00p - Called Bradley schools to talk with HS Principal regarding the IP addresses for their video systems. Apparently, DLC had to cancel a few of their classes at the last minute. Luckily, ASMSA stepped in and will provide the needed classes. I also gave her the phone number to ArkansasIDEAS because she has a teacher that could not log in. I tried to locate the teacher with the STIN lookup tool that state techs have access to, but she did not appear in the database.
Monday, August 9, 2010
08/09/2010
8:00am - Helped a couple presenters get set up for presentations. The phone rang, and the tech from one district called to let me know that the power had gone out over the weekend, and now the server had an "IP Conflict" error on the screen. This is never a good sign and usually means a computer on campus is infected with software that makes that computer think *it* is the server.
I was able to remote into their server from my office and I could see the server was trying to acquire an IP address on a secondary network card. That is not normal for a server, as servers should have assigned addresses. I checked the settings and everything seemed okay. The tech unplugged all the wires from the main switch (including the router at one point, which gave us both a chuckle since suddenly my connection dropped!), and then plugged them back in one-by-one until the error message came back up again. Or, that was the plan. The error never came back up.
8:45am - I had to interrupt the phone call in order to help one of the presenters. After that, I met briefly with the Early Childhood Coordinator to talk about our upcoming office move.
8:55am - I called the tech back at the school. Everything looks good, right? Nope. The server still showed it was trying to get an address. I disabled that card, and then PINGed the server's address. BINGO! Another machine was using the same address. One-by-one, I had the tech unplug a connection, then I would PING again. When she unplugged her tech workstation, the PINGs stopped replying. We found the culprit!
I had the tech check the properties and sure enough, under "Alternate Configuration," the workstation had been set to use the server's IP address. I have no idea how or why that was set like that. I had her change the setting back to "Private" and the conflict went away. I re-enabled the network card on the server and everything worked great. Almost.
The tech machine would no longer get an address from the server. When all else fails, reboot. After the computer rebooted, it grabbed a new address and everything worked fine so far as we can tell! Wahoo!
Now, at some point, we need to flush DNS and DHCP so the server can attribute the correct names with the correct addresses, but that's something we can do later. They don't really do anything using DNS internally, so it does not "actually" affect their network. (Yes, I know that's not exactly right, but for the pinch, it works).
*Mental mistake on my part: I did not fully understand that her tech machine (located next to the server) was the one giving the error as well. This would have saved some troubleshooting steps - namely, we would not have had to unplug each of the connections at the switch. Call it a learning experience.
9:30am - Finished the phone conversation with the tech, typed up the summary above, then called Asus because I have yet to receive the shipping instructions to send back the 1201N I worked on last week. I gave the tech my RMA number. he was very friendly and sent a new email out with the information. Now, I just have to wait to see if it gets here. If it is not here by noon, I will call back with my yahoo address.
9:45am - Called AT&T to let them know the address our new building changed - not the physical location, mind you, just the numbers associated with our new building. This may be one of those times where *not* saying anything would have been the right path to take. Guess we'll find out come Friday when the services are scheduled to be moved.
10:00am - Began installation of OpenOffice in the computer lab for a training taking place tomorrow.
10:45am - During install, called to Director's office to meet regarding a spreadsheet to keep track of Medicaid billing forms. The meeting also covered topics related to moving into the new building.
11:00am - Returned to computer lab to finish OpenOffice installation.
11:30am - Returned a phone call to AT&T about the new building address. And, just as I had suspected earlier, I have muddied the waters. There now seems to be confusion about physically moving the wiring that is already in place at our new building. So much for trying to do the right thing....thus far. We'll see how it goes from here. Had to leave a message. Will wait for return call.
11:40 - Began cleaning out SPAM filter. 12:10pm - finished (also had a brief meeting with the Workforce Ed coordinator regarding upcoming move during that time)
Around 1:00pm, I took a package over to the UPS store to have the malfunctioning laptop sent off to ASUS. Turns out the reason I was not getting the RMA information is because the email comes from a .TW domain, and we block those. Good thing I have an alternate offsite address to use.
Around 1:15pm, I headed over to the new building. I spent over two hours working with the alarm guys, elevator guy and meeting with the Director about other issues.
At 3:20pm, I made it back to the co-op to wrap up the day. Whew!
I was able to remote into their server from my office and I could see the server was trying to acquire an IP address on a secondary network card. That is not normal for a server, as servers should have assigned addresses. I checked the settings and everything seemed okay. The tech unplugged all the wires from the main switch (including the router at one point, which gave us both a chuckle since suddenly my connection dropped!), and then plugged them back in one-by-one until the error message came back up again. Or, that was the plan. The error never came back up.
8:45am - I had to interrupt the phone call in order to help one of the presenters. After that, I met briefly with the Early Childhood Coordinator to talk about our upcoming office move.
8:55am - I called the tech back at the school. Everything looks good, right? Nope. The server still showed it was trying to get an address. I disabled that card, and then PINGed the server's address. BINGO! Another machine was using the same address. One-by-one, I had the tech unplug a connection, then I would PING again. When she unplugged her tech workstation, the PINGs stopped replying. We found the culprit!
I had the tech check the properties and sure enough, under "Alternate Configuration," the workstation had been set to use the server's IP address. I have no idea how or why that was set like that. I had her change the setting back to "Private" and the conflict went away. I re-enabled the network card on the server and everything worked great. Almost.
The tech machine would no longer get an address from the server. When all else fails, reboot. After the computer rebooted, it grabbed a new address and everything worked fine so far as we can tell! Wahoo!
Now, at some point, we need to flush DNS and DHCP so the server can attribute the correct names with the correct addresses, but that's something we can do later. They don't really do anything using DNS internally, so it does not "actually" affect their network. (Yes, I know that's not exactly right, but for the pinch, it works).
*Mental mistake on my part: I did not fully understand that her tech machine (located next to the server) was the one giving the error as well. This would have saved some troubleshooting steps - namely, we would not have had to unplug each of the connections at the switch. Call it a learning experience.
9:30am - Finished the phone conversation with the tech, typed up the summary above, then called Asus because I have yet to receive the shipping instructions to send back the 1201N I worked on last week. I gave the tech my RMA number. he was very friendly and sent a new email out with the information. Now, I just have to wait to see if it gets here. If it is not here by noon, I will call back with my yahoo address.
9:45am - Called AT&T to let them know the address our new building changed - not the physical location, mind you, just the numbers associated with our new building. This may be one of those times where *not* saying anything would have been the right path to take. Guess we'll find out come Friday when the services are scheduled to be moved.
10:00am - Began installation of OpenOffice in the computer lab for a training taking place tomorrow.
10:45am - During install, called to Director's office to meet regarding a spreadsheet to keep track of Medicaid billing forms. The meeting also covered topics related to moving into the new building.
11:00am - Returned to computer lab to finish OpenOffice installation.
11:30am - Returned a phone call to AT&T about the new building address. And, just as I had suspected earlier, I have muddied the waters. There now seems to be confusion about physically moving the wiring that is already in place at our new building. So much for trying to do the right thing....thus far. We'll see how it goes from here. Had to leave a message. Will wait for return call.
11:40 - Began cleaning out SPAM filter. 12:10pm - finished (also had a brief meeting with the Workforce Ed coordinator regarding upcoming move during that time)
Around 1:00pm, I took a package over to the UPS store to have the malfunctioning laptop sent off to ASUS. Turns out the reason I was not getting the RMA information is because the email comes from a .TW domain, and we block those. Good thing I have an alternate offsite address to use.
Around 1:15pm, I headed over to the new building. I spent over two hours working with the alarm guys, elevator guy and meeting with the Director about other issues.
At 3:20pm, I made it back to the co-op to wrap up the day. Whew!
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