I haven't posted here in quite a while. I have been running around, helping schools, working on co-op related items, and generally keeping VERY busy. I am going to start recording here again, though I have been keeping up with my daily visits etc in my co-op calendar.
I appreciate anyone who is still following along, or may start now that this site will pick back up again.
Most recently, I was at Blevins to help set up student logins. There will be some growing pains, I'm sure! But, we were able to get the students set up, put into appropriate groups, and assign permissions.
Just prior to that, I was at Bradley to help set up new computers in their distance learning labs and troubleshoot various issues around the district.
In-house, I have been working on a couple projects that will come to light around Christmas break. I am pretty excited about them!
More to come as I get back into the swing of posting my daily log here again.
Showing posts with label bradley. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bradley. Show all posts
Friday, November 9, 2012
Monday, July 23, 2012
July 23-27
Monday - posted ESEA content to our web site, helped presenters with workshops, tested breakers for issue with accessible door mechanism. Working with Fortinet regarding our firewall. Other issues as they arise. Working with Bradley schools regarding a bad desktop they have.
Tuesday - Teaching iPods and iPads in the Classroom
Wednesday - Will be in office.
Thursday - Will be in office.
Friday - Office Closed
Tuesday - Teaching iPods and iPads in the Classroom
Wednesday - Will be in office.
Thursday - Will be in office.
Friday - Office Closed
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Catching my breath!
Wow! I can certainly tell summer has arrived! I have been running all over the place for the last week and a half, not even taking time to make notes here. I have a few moments, so I thought I would catch everyone up.
March 28 - Memorial Day, Office Closed
March 29 - Drove to Bradley to help with moving user home folders. That was not good. For some reason, changes to the active directory are not getting rolled out to the users. I am still trying to figure that one out. I had to change everyone's home folder redirection back to the old server and set their home folders back in the profiles. What's weird is that the profiles connected their home folder and mapped it. But, Windows would never update the group policy to the location for My Documents. I thought I had conflicting policies somewhere, but everything I did checked out. And, *NEW* users would get the redirect. I understand I may have to delete local profiles, and I am not looking forward to that at all.
March 30 - Apple Products Demo - Looked at iTunesU, iBooks, iBooks Author, MDM, Lion, and other Apple offerings. In the afternoon, participants looked at Casper for MDM and talked about tablet rollouts, summer projects, etc.
March 31 - Began updating iMacs in lab to Snow Leopard 6.8 in preparation for Lion/Mtn Lion rollout. Hit major bandwidth snags. Performed other duties as well - helping out with tech in other workshops, etc.
June 1 - Office closed, but I came in to check on iMac update progress. Not good. So, I got a few started instead of doing whole lab.
June 4 - Came back into office early, started updates again. Also changed firewall to allow al traffic to Apple without scanning. That helped immensely and immediately. By day's end, most Macs were well on way to updating. Left it run over night. During the day, I helped get workshops going, found a problem with an AeroHive device and got it back up and going again. Other tech duties kept me running all day long.
June 5 - Tuesday all Macs were updated. One had the "infinite login loop." So, after I helped get workshops started, I concentrated on getting that Mac up and going. None of the tips I found online worked. I left the day trying to reinstall OS X. I copied Windows XP from one Parallels to external drive, which I then transferred to a "spare" machine.
June 6 - Came in to find the reinstall did not fix the issue. Evidently, it just tried to "fix" what was broken and missed. So, I put the "spare" in its place and moved the non-working machine to another location to work on it. In the meantime, I got workshops going then used an external hard drive to make a Time Machine backup. When that was done, I used that backup to restore the errant iMac. That worked perfectly (after some minor reconfiguration to prevent duplicate names, etc, on the network). For the record, the Mac that went bad after the update was the only Mac in the lab that actually required a login. All the other Macs were set to auto login. Also - I have *NOT* restarted the other Macs because we have APSCN training all week in that lab. if ain't broke, I ain't fixing it until I need to!
June 7 - I will help get workshops going and then we have the retirement program for Lindy and Nell. I will take care of other issues as needed during the day, as usual.
June 8 - Our offices are closed on Fridays in the summer.
March 28 - Memorial Day, Office Closed
March 29 - Drove to Bradley to help with moving user home folders. That was not good. For some reason, changes to the active directory are not getting rolled out to the users. I am still trying to figure that one out. I had to change everyone's home folder redirection back to the old server and set their home folders back in the profiles. What's weird is that the profiles connected their home folder and mapped it. But, Windows would never update the group policy to the location for My Documents. I thought I had conflicting policies somewhere, but everything I did checked out. And, *NEW* users would get the redirect. I understand I may have to delete local profiles, and I am not looking forward to that at all.
March 30 - Apple Products Demo - Looked at iTunesU, iBooks, iBooks Author, MDM, Lion, and other Apple offerings. In the afternoon, participants looked at Casper for MDM and talked about tablet rollouts, summer projects, etc.
March 31 - Began updating iMacs in lab to Snow Leopard 6.8 in preparation for Lion/Mtn Lion rollout. Hit major bandwidth snags. Performed other duties as well - helping out with tech in other workshops, etc.
June 1 - Office closed, but I came in to check on iMac update progress. Not good. So, I got a few started instead of doing whole lab.
June 4 - Came back into office early, started updates again. Also changed firewall to allow al traffic to Apple without scanning. That helped immensely and immediately. By day's end, most Macs were well on way to updating. Left it run over night. During the day, I helped get workshops going, found a problem with an AeroHive device and got it back up and going again. Other tech duties kept me running all day long.
June 5 - Tuesday all Macs were updated. One had the "infinite login loop." So, after I helped get workshops started, I concentrated on getting that Mac up and going. None of the tips I found online worked. I left the day trying to reinstall OS X. I copied Windows XP from one Parallels to external drive, which I then transferred to a "spare" machine.
June 6 - Came in to find the reinstall did not fix the issue. Evidently, it just tried to "fix" what was broken and missed. So, I put the "spare" in its place and moved the non-working machine to another location to work on it. In the meantime, I got workshops going then used an external hard drive to make a Time Machine backup. When that was done, I used that backup to restore the errant iMac. That worked perfectly (after some minor reconfiguration to prevent duplicate names, etc, on the network). For the record, the Mac that went bad after the update was the only Mac in the lab that actually required a login. All the other Macs were set to auto login. Also - I have *NOT* restarted the other Macs because we have APSCN training all week in that lab. if ain't broke, I ain't fixing it until I need to!
June 7 - I will help get workshops going and then we have the retirement program for Lindy and Nell. I will take care of other issues as needed during the day, as usual.
June 8 - Our offices are closed on Fridays in the summer.
Monday, March 5, 2012
2/29-3/2 2012
Wednesday, worked at the office. Mainly worked on converting TIE modules to Moodle. Answered several phone calls and emails regarding the Tech Plan.
Thursday - Took Etherscope to Lafayette. They had same IPX printer issues everyone else has had. Nothing else jumped out.
Friday - Took Etherscope to Bradley. We had a known streaming issue, but the Etherscope did not seem to pick it up. I am going to need some more traniing in "reading" the device to pick those kinds of things out. While at Bradley, i also helped troubleshoot various computer issues.
Thursday - Took Etherscope to Lafayette. They had same IPX printer issues everyone else has had. Nothing else jumped out.
Friday - Took Etherscope to Bradley. We had a known streaming issue, but the Etherscope did not seem to pick it up. I am going to need some more traniing in "reading" the device to pick those kinds of things out. While at Bradley, i also helped troubleshoot various computer issues.
Monday, January 30, 2012
January 30 - February 3, 2012
Monday - Office
Tuesday - Office
Wednesday - Saturday - TIE Conference - Technology professional development
Monday's notes:
Monday, Monday, Monday...
Man, the advantage to focusing most of my attention on one project is that I got a bunch of it knocked out. Still a long way to go and a short time to do it (oh, I know what you THOUGHT I was gonna say). Converting revamped technology training modules into our new Moodle format. Whew!
Looks like overtime will be calling my name tomorrow evening! At least I should be able to finish things up from the house.
Why "most of my attention?" Spent the day swapping emails and phone calls with Sharon and Cari on various tech issues. CRAZY DAY! Despite it all, I am very glad to be employed! Oh yeah, and Verizon's area-wide blackout didn't help. Haha!
I helped Sharon at Blevins with various Tech Plan questions, E-Rate questions, and a few other technical issues.
I helped Cari with Exchange issues - her server ran out of drive space, so we freed up space and remounted the Exchange Store. We also worked thorough some Active Directory problems as well. We also covered E-Rate bids, RFP's, and other technical issues.
Verizon had a major network issue with their wireless network in our area this morning, so I spent some time on the phone with their support folks.
I am working on the Co-op's Tech Plan and the State Tech Coordinator Grant Proposal as well.
So, what'd YOU do today?!
Tuesday - Office
Wednesday - Saturday - TIE Conference - Technology professional development
Monday's notes:
Monday, Monday, Monday...
Man, the advantage to focusing most of my attention on one project is that I got a bunch of it knocked out. Still a long way to go and a short time to do it (oh, I know what you THOUGHT I was gonna say). Converting revamped technology training modules into our new Moodle format. Whew!
Looks like overtime will be calling my name tomorrow evening! At least I should be able to finish things up from the house.
Why "most of my attention?" Spent the day swapping emails and phone calls with Sharon and Cari on various tech issues. CRAZY DAY! Despite it all, I am very glad to be employed! Oh yeah, and Verizon's area-wide blackout didn't help. Haha!
I helped Sharon at Blevins with various Tech Plan questions, E-Rate questions, and a few other technical issues.
I helped Cari with Exchange issues - her server ran out of drive space, so we freed up space and remounted the Exchange Store. We also worked thorough some Active Directory problems as well. We also covered E-Rate bids, RFP's, and other technical issues.
Verizon had a major network issue with their wireless network in our area this morning, so I spent some time on the phone with their support folks.
I am working on the Co-op's Tech Plan and the State Tech Coordinator Grant Proposal as well.
So, what'd YOU do today?!
Friday, January 27, 2012
Week of January 27 UPDATE
Wednesday - Traveled to Bradley to help troubleshoot several issues and run a cable in one of their labs. We had to install DyKnow monitoring software, which turned out to be much more involved than we had anticipated. In fact, we ended up removing the installation at least once (I think maybe twice) before we got it right. Let me just say that I miss the days when thousand-dollar software came with a PRINTED manual. We had to locate and replace a wire that was causing a video issue in the distance learning lab. We also looked at several other technical issues as well.
Thursday - I drove to Fouke to help troubleshoot network issues. The tech and I looked at their backup configuration and made sure that it was backing up everything it was supposed to be. We went through the Middle School trying to find a possible network loopback, but did not find one. There is something going on, and I let the tech know that the co-op would be getting an Etherscope soon and that I would bring it to troubleshoot as soon as it arrived. in the meantime, I offered suggestions for manually hunting down the problem. The "old school" method is to unplug cables one at a time until things settle down. If EVERYTHING is unplugged before the network settles, then plug things back in one at a time and monitor the situation. It is long, tedious work with a lot of network connections to go through.
They have Xirrus wireless and one array keeps rebooting itself, but does not log the boot loop in its diagnostics. I can only assume that the system is rebooting before the diags can be recorded.
The tech asked me to research the following: 1) Cloud-based backup for Netware, 2) Multi-sheet document scanner for record keeping, 3) Info regarding migration from Groupwise to Google Apps for Education. I will have those to them next week.
Friday - Went to Blevins to help troubleshoot network issues and other problems. They had a lightning strike take out one of their T1s. The telco replaced the line, but the internet connection was no where near up to speed (running about 26k/sec). We had DIS on the line and Warren helped us narrow down a couple issues. One issue surfaced in the form of the video LAN and the Data LAN being on the same physical network. After a LOT of sneakernet, we found the problem (a wire plugged into the wrong place) and fixed that. As for internet connectivity, it turns out the line was not provisioned correctly on the telco end. Aonce both of those were resolved, the district was running at near 3-meg capacity.
Additionally, I had a list of things the techs wanted me to look over, so I did. A MacBook had a CD stuck in the drive and it would not eject. The system was "hosed" and would not boot beyond the spinning grey circle. Holding the EJECT button whole booting did not work. Holding COMMAND-OPTION-F-O never put me in Firmware Mode, so that was no good. I finally took a stiff piece of cardboard and stuck it in the drive. When the system tried to boot, the CD was held in place by the cardboard. The system tried to read the disc 3-4 times. After that, the CD eventually ejected from the system.
I helped set the password expiration period to 90 days (it had been set to 42 days).
I helped set up two printers as DHCP reservations.
I showed the tech how to DENY requests for IP addresses in the DHCP server module. I love that feature of Server 2008 R2! Wahoo! They had a LOT of iPhone, iPod, Android, etc users snagging up IP addresses.
We worked on a couple other issues, then I headed to the office.
At the office, I worked on updating the Operations Guide for the Conference Room - added a cheat sheet for multiple screen scenarios. I posted the 2012-2013 DL Calendar to the ARDL portal, answered phone calls, emails, voicemails, etc.
Thursday - I drove to Fouke to help troubleshoot network issues. The tech and I looked at their backup configuration and made sure that it was backing up everything it was supposed to be. We went through the Middle School trying to find a possible network loopback, but did not find one. There is something going on, and I let the tech know that the co-op would be getting an Etherscope soon and that I would bring it to troubleshoot as soon as it arrived. in the meantime, I offered suggestions for manually hunting down the problem. The "old school" method is to unplug cables one at a time until things settle down. If EVERYTHING is unplugged before the network settles, then plug things back in one at a time and monitor the situation. It is long, tedious work with a lot of network connections to go through.
They have Xirrus wireless and one array keeps rebooting itself, but does not log the boot loop in its diagnostics. I can only assume that the system is rebooting before the diags can be recorded.
The tech asked me to research the following: 1) Cloud-based backup for Netware, 2) Multi-sheet document scanner for record keeping, 3) Info regarding migration from Groupwise to Google Apps for Education. I will have those to them next week.
Friday - Went to Blevins to help troubleshoot network issues and other problems. They had a lightning strike take out one of their T1s. The telco replaced the line, but the internet connection was no where near up to speed (running about 26k/sec). We had DIS on the line and Warren helped us narrow down a couple issues. One issue surfaced in the form of the video LAN and the Data LAN being on the same physical network. After a LOT of sneakernet, we found the problem (a wire plugged into the wrong place) and fixed that. As for internet connectivity, it turns out the line was not provisioned correctly on the telco end. Aonce both of those were resolved, the district was running at near 3-meg capacity.
Additionally, I had a list of things the techs wanted me to look over, so I did. A MacBook had a CD stuck in the drive and it would not eject. The system was "hosed" and would not boot beyond the spinning grey circle. Holding the EJECT button whole booting did not work. Holding COMMAND-OPTION-F-O never put me in Firmware Mode, so that was no good. I finally took a stiff piece of cardboard and stuck it in the drive. When the system tried to boot, the CD was held in place by the cardboard. The system tried to read the disc 3-4 times. After that, the CD eventually ejected from the system.
I helped set the password expiration period to 90 days (it had been set to 42 days).
I helped set up two printers as DHCP reservations.
I showed the tech how to DENY requests for IP addresses in the DHCP server module. I love that feature of Server 2008 R2! Wahoo! They had a LOT of iPhone, iPod, Android, etc users snagging up IP addresses.
We worked on a couple other issues, then I headed to the office.
At the office, I worked on updating the Operations Guide for the Conference Room - added a cheat sheet for multiple screen scenarios. I posted the 2012-2013 DL Calendar to the ARDL portal, answered phone calls, emails, voicemails, etc.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
January 16-20, 2012
Monday - CLOSED
Tuesday - AM - Office (Meetings), PM - Bradley
Wednesday - Office (Meetings)
Thursday - Office (TIE projects)
Thursday - Office (TIE projects)
Friday - AM - Office (Conv w/ Debbie Coffman), PM - Moodle (Facilitator Training)
Tuesday - Meet with USAble, TIE Meeting, then Bradley in the afternoon
Wednesday - Work on TIE Projects, E-Rate, etc in AM then travel inservice at 3pm
Thursday - Work on TIE projects, then other projects as time allows
Friday - 9-12 Conversations with Debbie Coffman, then Facilitator Training (Moodle Course) and other projects in afternoon
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Days go by
Tuesday - Traveled to Arch Ford Co-op for the monthly Specialists/Tech meetings and mini training sessions. Bob Cochenour and I did a session on things you can do in Google Mail. I had WAY too many things on the agenda, so we hit about half of those. We may do another session down the road some time.
Wednesday - The techs had a work day to figure out our grant proposals and the state tech plan. The meeting was held back at Arch Ford, but I attended over videoconference and Jana from Camden joined me here rather than drive all the way to Plumerville (2.5 hours+ drive each way).
Thursday - I've been working on my ISA server and looking at which servers can finally be put to rest. So far, I shut down two. I will move some resources from one of the servers and then either shut it down or consolidate resources from other servers onto it. I have spent any time not working on my servers helping Bradley with theirs. They have some weird email issue going on and I have been troubleshooting it remotely. I was supposed to go there today, but with my server acting a little off, I needed to kill two birds from one pond - or something like that.
There appears to be some kind of email spamming/blacklist issue, but they do not actually appear on any public blacklists. It's a mystery.
<hr>
For those interested, here are the rough notes of the Google Mail session:
Google Mail Tips and Tricks
Priority Messaging - Mail Settings > Inbox > Inbox Type (Classic, Important, Priority, etc)
Importance Markers - Mail Settings > Inbox > Show/Hide markers
Chat (Hide the Chat box) - Mail Settings > Chat > Chat: On or Chat: Off
Conversation View - Mail Settings > General > Conversation View: On or Conversation View: Off
Labels - Organize your email, can apply multiple labels to same message
Filters - Apply labels and perform other actions based on content, sender, etc (creating rules)
Use Labels, Filters and Archiving to organize your mail:
Create a label (Ex: Director)
Create a filter (Ex: Label all mail from boss as "Director" - from the previous step)
Skip Inbox (Do not show this message in the Inbox, but apply the label to show in labels list)
Archiving is *NOT* deleting! Archiving just 'hides' the message from your Inbox. Archived messages will still show up in searches and in labels.
Google Labs
Bob demonstrated/discussed several handy Google Labs items for mail:
The following items were *NOT* covered in the session due to time, but were on the agenda:
Advanced mail searching:
Use quotation marks- "meeting agenda" will return mail with those exact words in that exact order
Subject
- subject:Google Calendar *or* subject:"Google Calendar"
-- The first will retrieve subjects with "Google" or "Calendar"
-- the second will retrieve subjects that contain "Google Calendar" together
From (To: works the same way)
- From:<name> or From:<email@address.com> (Can also use quotes!)
-- From:David Henderson (All messages from any "David" or "Henderson"
-- From:"David Henderson" (All messages from David Henderson)
Find UNREAD messages- is:unread
-- Returns all email that has not been read yet!
Labels (Can use quotes!)
- label:<label name> <keyword(s)>
-- label:0_Lindy "pay raise"
-- label:"Disaster Recovery" approval
Filename
- filename:<filename.extension> *OR* filename:<extension>
-- filename:test.doc (all emails with test.doc attached)
-- filename:pdf (all emails with PDF attachments)
Attachments
- has:attachment (can be used with other search terms)
-- from:cooptc has:attachment
Use "AND," "OR," "-"- label:cooptc -has:attachment (all mail from COOPTC without attachments)
- from:"David Henderson" and filename:pdf (all pdfs from David Henderson)
Use "anywhere" to search ALL mail (including spam, trash, inbox, etc)- in:anywhere
-- in:anywhere from:phoebe (Searches all mail, labels, etc for mail from phoebe)
Specify special folders (inbox, trash, etc)- in:inbox
-- in:inbox subject:meeting (finds messages ONLY in the Inbox with "meeting" in subject)
Combine search areas and terms- label:e-rate OR from:becky.smith@somewhere.gov (All E-rate labeled messages plus all mail from becky)
- subject:e-rate from:becky.smith@somewhere.gov OR belinda.jones@somewhere.gov (Subject is E-rate AND the mail is either from Becky or Belinda)
Wednesday - The techs had a work day to figure out our grant proposals and the state tech plan. The meeting was held back at Arch Ford, but I attended over videoconference and Jana from Camden joined me here rather than drive all the way to Plumerville (2.5 hours+ drive each way).
Thursday - I've been working on my ISA server and looking at which servers can finally be put to rest. So far, I shut down two. I will move some resources from one of the servers and then either shut it down or consolidate resources from other servers onto it. I have spent any time not working on my servers helping Bradley with theirs. They have some weird email issue going on and I have been troubleshooting it remotely. I was supposed to go there today, but with my server acting a little off, I needed to kill two birds from one pond - or something like that.
There appears to be some kind of email spamming/blacklist issue, but they do not actually appear on any public blacklists. It's a mystery.
<hr>
For those interested, here are the rough notes of the Google Mail session:
Google Mail Tips and Tricks
Priority Messaging - Mail Settings > Inbox > Inbox Type (Classic, Important, Priority, etc)
Importance Markers - Mail Settings > Inbox > Show/Hide markers
Chat (Hide the Chat box) - Mail Settings > Chat > Chat: On or Chat: Off
Conversation View - Mail Settings > General > Conversation View: On or Conversation View: Off
Labels - Organize your email, can apply multiple labels to same message
Filters - Apply labels and perform other actions based on content, sender, etc (creating rules)
Use Labels, Filters and Archiving to organize your mail:
Create a label (Ex: Director)
Create a filter (Ex: Label all mail from boss as "Director" - from the previous step)
Skip Inbox (Do not show this message in the Inbox, but apply the label to show in labels list)
Archiving is *NOT* deleting! Archiving just 'hides' the message from your Inbox. Archived messages will still show up in searches and in labels.
Google Labs
Bob demonstrated/discussed several handy Google Labs items for mail:
- Auto-Advance (automatically move to next message)
- Background Send
- Default "Reply to All"
- Multiple Inboxes
- Preview Pane
- Right-side Chat
- Other Labs were covered as well, but time limitations kept me from keeping notes!
The following items were *NOT* covered in the session due to time, but were on the agenda:
Advanced mail searching:
Use quotation marks- "meeting agenda" will return mail with those exact words in that exact order
Subject
- subject:Google Calendar *or* subject:"Google Calendar"
-- The first will retrieve subjects with "Google" or "Calendar"
-- the second will retrieve subjects that contain "Google Calendar" together
From (To: works the same way)
- From:<name> or From:<email@address.com> (Can also use quotes!)
-- From:David Henderson (All messages from any "David" or "Henderson"
-- From:"David Henderson" (All messages from David Henderson)
Find UNREAD messages- is:unread
-- Returns all email that has not been read yet!
Labels (Can use quotes!)
- label:<label name> <keyword(s)>
-- label:0_Lindy "pay raise"
-- label:"Disaster Recovery" approval
Filename
- filename:<filename.extension> *OR* filename:<extension>
-- filename:test.doc (all emails with test.doc attached)
-- filename:pdf (all emails with PDF attachments)
Attachments
- has:attachment (can be used with other search terms)
-- from:cooptc has:attachment
Use "AND," "OR," "-"- label:cooptc -has:attachment (all mail from COOPTC without attachments)
- from:"David Henderson" and filename:pdf (all pdfs from David Henderson)
Use "anywhere" to search ALL mail (including spam, trash, inbox, etc)- in:anywhere
-- in:anywhere from:phoebe (Searches all mail, labels, etc for mail from phoebe)
Specify special folders (inbox, trash, etc)- in:inbox
-- in:inbox subject:meeting (finds messages ONLY in the Inbox with "meeting" in subject)
Combine search areas and terms- label:e-rate OR from:becky.smith@somewhere.gov (All E-rate labeled messages plus all mail from becky)
- subject:e-rate from:becky.smith@somewhere.gov OR belinda.jones@somewhere.gov (Subject is E-rate AND the mail is either from Becky or Belinda)
Friday, December 9, 2011
Updates for the week of December 9, 2011
Monday - Went to Blevins to install a new print server since DIS no longer provides those. The software that HP uses is VERY finicky and we eventually got into the JetDirect through Chrome or Firefox or something non-IE. In the meantime, the Epson 4000EX/FX/whatever has a problem in that the main power connector loses contact as the wide-carriage return jostles the printer all over the place. We think we got it stabilized, but I believe there is a serious manufacturing defect there.
Tuesday - Went to Arch Ford for mini sessions and state tech meeting. I will post those notes from my iPad this weekend.
Wednesday - Spent the day troubleshooting various issues and getting the ball rolling for Apple volume purchasing. What a nightmare THAT is, especially when you are the one person running it all - Apple doesn't like you to be the only one. Evidently, bureaucratic red tape is their comfort zone.
Thursday - Ran between CWT and CCSS for a while there. Helped folks get set up and going in each session then checked with CWT every once i a while since I was attending the common core institute. For the record, the CIV was awful as far as video quality. As for program content, the presenters are so well-versed in CCSS they forget the rest of us are still trying to figure out how to tread in the waters. It moved way too fast and was a bit scattered for some of the participants at our site. Phoebe put together a summary sheet that she mailed to the participants and we are building a 'clearinghouse' page to house the various and sundry sites.
Friday - I drove to Bradley to help with some technical issues. This included:
Tuesday - Went to Arch Ford for mini sessions and state tech meeting. I will post those notes from my iPad this weekend.
Wednesday - Spent the day troubleshooting various issues and getting the ball rolling for Apple volume purchasing. What a nightmare THAT is, especially when you are the one person running it all - Apple doesn't like you to be the only one. Evidently, bureaucratic red tape is their comfort zone.
Thursday - Ran between CWT and CCSS for a while there. Helped folks get set up and going in each session then checked with CWT every once i a while since I was attending the common core institute. For the record, the CIV was awful as far as video quality. As for program content, the presenters are so well-versed in CCSS they forget the rest of us are still trying to figure out how to tread in the waters. It moved way too fast and was a bit scattered for some of the participants at our site. Phoebe put together a summary sheet that she mailed to the participants and we are building a 'clearinghouse' page to house the various and sundry sites.
Friday - I drove to Bradley to help with some technical issues. This included:
- Helping the tech re-establish printer connectivity with several machines. After I had done the first two, I showed her how to do it - teach her to fish, as it were.
- Helping the tech get her firewall rebooted according to an email from the tech support folks she deals with. It is Linux based, so some of the commands were a bit foreign to the tech. We got it going, though.
- Working with the tech and a vendor to purchase SQL Server Standard for a new program the district wants to implement. To say the least, that was the hardest part of the day, only because the vendor could not wrap his brain around what we wanted. Also, it appears the vendor never processed the PO for SQL Server. Yoy.
- Examining the distance learning lab. They have a touch panel that has gone out. I re-routed several cables and connections to get them up and going, but we will need a few more parts to completely disengage the touch panel and the control unit attached to it. As it is, though, the faciliatator can use almost every function.
- Attempting to install Smart Notebook on a computer but it needed XP SP3, so the tech was going to take care of that
- We also talked about 470's, P1, P2, and other E-Rate related items.
Monday, December 5, 2011
This week...
Monday - help install new print server at blevins. Then go to office to write up operations guides for conference areas.
Tuesday - arch ford for monthly state tech meeting.
Wednesday - office. Install additional a/v wiring in conference areas.
Thursday - classroom walkthrough
Friday - bradley
Monday, November 14, 2011
Recapping... 10/19-10/26 and 10/31-11/13
In addition to daily duties, these are the highlights of days gone by:
*Note: At various times during this period, I was out sick. I have emails confirming this, as well as emails detailing some tasks not specifically outlined here. i will happily share any of that information with personnel in authority as needed/requested.
10/19 - Participated in the Prescott Schools Technology Committee Meeting.
10/24 - Worked with Blevins to get printers working at the district. Turned out to be an issue with wireless access points handing out "bad" addresses on the network. Resolved all but one a/p issue, but that a/p could not actually be physically located. Resolved issue in software, rebooted workstations. Set up reservations in dhcp. Then traveled to Fouke to work on various Server 2008 issues, tech plan items, and other issues.
10/31 - out sick
11/02 - Went to Txk ECH to work on laptop. Ended up bringing laptop back for complete factory restore.
11/03 - Lewisville ECH and Bradley Schools - Went to Lewisville to troubleshoot computer problems. Resolved settings in Adobe in order to make SEAS work via web browser. Also installed/set-up SmartBoard. From there, went to Bradley in order to resolve connectivity issues. Like Blevins (above), we found wireless access points handing out "bad" ip addresses. Evidently, a power surge over the previous night had reset the access points to hand out ip addresses. in one case, we resolved an ongoing issue (thought it had been an infected machine, but turned out to be an access point handing out ips). We also looked at other server issues, worked on e-rate (specifically BEAR form info), and took care of local work orders.
11/04 - Returned the Txk ECH laptop to the classroom, reinstalled the printer and tested everything. Looks great.
11/08 - Talked with Paul Glen, CEO of LeadingGeeks regarding communication differences between "techies" and "non-techies" for a book he is writing with a partner. The interview/conversation lasted about an hour. I also evaluated Xirrus and AeroHive for enterprise wireless solutions in our main building. Evaluated a couple quotes for Crestron installation of a control panel system for our conference rooms.
11/09 - Met with Lindy and Phoebe regarding several tech issues and topics. Ultimately decided to table the Crestron/automation project and move forward with AeroHive.
11/10 - Monthly Board meeting. Presented "app of the month." Covered FlipBoard and "This Day in History."
11/11 - Met with Lindy, Phoebe and Trish regarding TIE schedules and meeting agendas. Installed CWT on iPad and iPod for workshop. Worked on Operations Guides for various presentation rooms at co-op. Ordered parts to help clean up the wiring in the main conference center.
*Note: At various times during this period, I was out sick. I have emails confirming this, as well as emails detailing some tasks not specifically outlined here. i will happily share any of that information with personnel in authority as needed/requested.
10/19 - Participated in the Prescott Schools Technology Committee Meeting.
10/24 - Worked with Blevins to get printers working at the district. Turned out to be an issue with wireless access points handing out "bad" addresses on the network. Resolved all but one a/p issue, but that a/p could not actually be physically located. Resolved issue in software, rebooted workstations. Set up reservations in dhcp. Then traveled to Fouke to work on various Server 2008 issues, tech plan items, and other issues.
10/31 - out sick
11/02 - Went to Txk ECH to work on laptop. Ended up bringing laptop back for complete factory restore.
11/03 - Lewisville ECH and Bradley Schools - Went to Lewisville to troubleshoot computer problems. Resolved settings in Adobe in order to make SEAS work via web browser. Also installed/set-up SmartBoard. From there, went to Bradley in order to resolve connectivity issues. Like Blevins (above), we found wireless access points handing out "bad" ip addresses. Evidently, a power surge over the previous night had reset the access points to hand out ip addresses. in one case, we resolved an ongoing issue (thought it had been an infected machine, but turned out to be an access point handing out ips). We also looked at other server issues, worked on e-rate (specifically BEAR form info), and took care of local work orders.
11/04 - Returned the Txk ECH laptop to the classroom, reinstalled the printer and tested everything. Looks great.
11/08 - Talked with Paul Glen, CEO of LeadingGeeks regarding communication differences between "techies" and "non-techies" for a book he is writing with a partner. The interview/conversation lasted about an hour. I also evaluated Xirrus and AeroHive for enterprise wireless solutions in our main building. Evaluated a couple quotes for Crestron installation of a control panel system for our conference rooms.
11/09 - Met with Lindy and Phoebe regarding several tech issues and topics. Ultimately decided to table the Crestron/automation project and move forward with AeroHive.
11/10 - Monthly Board meeting. Presented "app of the month." Covered FlipBoard and "This Day in History."
11/11 - Met with Lindy, Phoebe and Trish regarding TIE schedules and meeting agendas. Installed CWT on iPad and iPod for workshop. Worked on Operations Guides for various presentation rooms at co-op. Ordered parts to help clean up the wiring in the main conference center.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
10/07/11 - 10/18/11
10/7 - Had an aerohive demo for possible wireless solution at the co-op main building. Took care of general troubleshooting and other daily tasks.
10/10/11 - Installed new CIV systems at Blevins as part of RUS Grant.
10/11/11 - Installed new CIV systems at Prescott as part of RUS Grant. Also worked with Doug on a couple Sharepoint issues that seem to center on a webpart for slideshows. The java script used evidently clashes in some systems with the code for rich-text editing. Working to find another slideshow solution.
10/12/11 - Met with the Business, Technology, and Education Advisory Council for UACCH. Had a very open, frank conversation regarding skills needed, classes and topics to be taught. Met with Curtis Stout Company to evaluate a possible Crestron solution for the co-ops main conference center.
10/13/11 - Met with various staff and performed daily tech activities, troubleshooting etc.
10/14/11 - Went to Bradley to help with various issues: SmartBoard, graphics issues, wireless, and other areas of needed assistance.
10/17/11 - Performed daily tech activites, upgraded iPad to iOS5, worked on two laptops and replaced a desktop. Checked one of the smartphones for problems. Temporary solution was to disable shortcut keys. Phone is eligible for upgrade/replacement.
10/18/11 - Replaced a bulb in Hope ECH classroom, present to the board the "App of the Month" - AudioNote, examined an older laptop for possible replacement.
10/10/11 - Installed new CIV systems at Blevins as part of RUS Grant.
10/11/11 - Installed new CIV systems at Prescott as part of RUS Grant. Also worked with Doug on a couple Sharepoint issues that seem to center on a webpart for slideshows. The java script used evidently clashes in some systems with the code for rich-text editing. Working to find another slideshow solution.
10/12/11 - Met with the Business, Technology, and Education Advisory Council for UACCH. Had a very open, frank conversation regarding skills needed, classes and topics to be taught. Met with Curtis Stout Company to evaluate a possible Crestron solution for the co-ops main conference center.
10/13/11 - Met with various staff and performed daily tech activities, troubleshooting etc.
10/14/11 - Went to Bradley to help with various issues: SmartBoard, graphics issues, wireless, and other areas of needed assistance.
10/17/11 - Performed daily tech activites, upgraded iPad to iOS5, worked on two laptops and replaced a desktop. Checked one of the smartphones for problems. Temporary solution was to disable shortcut keys. Phone is eligible for upgrade/replacement.
10/18/11 - Replaced a bulb in Hope ECH classroom, present to the board the "App of the Month" - AudioNote, examined an older laptop for possible replacement.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Testing, testing. Is this thing on?
Monday, Trish and I headed to Bradley with various equipment in tow. Our goal: test the local network for video connectivity issues.
I borrowed a fiber/CAT5 tester from the local college's telecommunications department. Once we arrived, we hooked the tester up to one run of fiber. the tester consists of two end pieces - once each end of the cable to be tested is plugged into each end of the fiber, the system runs a variety of tests. the first test checks for the maximum throughput speed (up to 1000Mbps). The next series of tests runs 'dummy data' between the connections in an effort to see what actual traffic the line can handle.
Over the course of several hours (most of the day, actually), we ran tests on each of the four fiber connections (each one for a different video system). Each and every time, the tests came back with flying colors - 1000Mbps and "pass" every other test. We also tested the CAT5 connections to ensure they, too, were operating at maximum ability. They were. Again, 1000Mbps and "pass" all the other tests.
This tells me that the issue is not a local one. However, just to be sure, we also swapped out the core switch that connects the various video systems to the rest of the world. After swapping out the switch, everything ran just as it had before. Again, this indicates to me that the issue is not a local one (or at least not a local one that I can tell).
While there, we also went to each distance learning classroom and configured the laptops for connectivity, printing, etc. We finished in each room except for Lab #3. That will get done next time I am at the school (thinking Wednesday).
Anecdotally, we noticed that the data connectivity seemed to be running pretty slowly (I downloaded required software and it showed to be running at T1 speeds versus the 10Mbps they have added). Something seems amiss on the data side.
the school is set up such that the data traffic and the compressed video traffic are not on the same LAN. once the data hits the router, it is no longer a school-fixable issue - we call in the support from the state folks.
once back at the co-op (about an hour leftof the work day), I kicked out an email to appropriate personnel regarding our findings at Bradley. I also created a quick network map of the video LAN to help with troubleshooting and forwarded that on to DIS personnel.
I borrowed a fiber/CAT5 tester from the local college's telecommunications department. Once we arrived, we hooked the tester up to one run of fiber. the tester consists of two end pieces - once each end of the cable to be tested is plugged into each end of the fiber, the system runs a variety of tests. the first test checks for the maximum throughput speed (up to 1000Mbps). The next series of tests runs 'dummy data' between the connections in an effort to see what actual traffic the line can handle.
Over the course of several hours (most of the day, actually), we ran tests on each of the four fiber connections (each one for a different video system). Each and every time, the tests came back with flying colors - 1000Mbps and "pass" every other test. We also tested the CAT5 connections to ensure they, too, were operating at maximum ability. They were. Again, 1000Mbps and "pass" all the other tests.
This tells me that the issue is not a local one. However, just to be sure, we also swapped out the core switch that connects the various video systems to the rest of the world. After swapping out the switch, everything ran just as it had before. Again, this indicates to me that the issue is not a local one (or at least not a local one that I can tell).
While there, we also went to each distance learning classroom and configured the laptops for connectivity, printing, etc. We finished in each room except for Lab #3. That will get done next time I am at the school (thinking Wednesday).
Anecdotally, we noticed that the data connectivity seemed to be running pretty slowly (I downloaded required software and it showed to be running at T1 speeds versus the 10Mbps they have added). Something seems amiss on the data side.
the school is set up such that the data traffic and the compressed video traffic are not on the same LAN. once the data hits the router, it is no longer a school-fixable issue - we call in the support from the state folks.
once back at the co-op (about an hour leftof the work day), I kicked out an email to appropriate personnel regarding our findings at Bradley. I also created a quick network map of the video LAN to help with troubleshooting and forwarded that on to DIS personnel.
Friday, September 23, 2011
Thursday and Friday
Thursday - Met at Arch Ford Co-op to learn about the online testing component of D2SC's program.
Friday - Headed to Bradley to downgrade the software on the new codec. Still had quality issues, so examined and changed settings on various media converters, switches, etc. The quality improved on the receiving end (that is, what we could see) but was still awful on the transmitting end (what the other sites saw). We've got some kind of issues going on there.
While testing, I ended up contacting ASMSA about a class that was not coming up and after some more troubleshooting, they had to delete the system from their MCU. After that, the MCU found the Bradley equipment again and everything (other than quality) seemed to be working.
I went around and checked various connection settings n the other three systems. I also helped troubleshoot a desktop problem which turned out to be a loose cat5 end at the desktop.
I am borrowing a fiber/copper tester from the local college and will head to Bradley on Monday so that I can run various tests.
Friday - Headed to Bradley to downgrade the software on the new codec. Still had quality issues, so examined and changed settings on various media converters, switches, etc. The quality improved on the receiving end (that is, what we could see) but was still awful on the transmitting end (what the other sites saw). We've got some kind of issues going on there.
While testing, I ended up contacting ASMSA about a class that was not coming up and after some more troubleshooting, they had to delete the system from their MCU. After that, the MCU found the Bradley equipment again and everything (other than quality) seemed to be working.
I went around and checked various connection settings n the other three systems. I also helped troubleshoot a desktop problem which turned out to be a loose cat5 end at the desktop.
I am borrowing a fiber/copper tester from the local college and will head to Bradley on Monday so that I can run various tests.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Mondays are... Mondays
Spent Monday morning working on various issues at the co-op. I created an installation checklist for the CIV systems that some of my area schools are receiving through an RUS grant. Turns out, much of the information I had was incorrect. Lovely.
I had to then battle a firewall issue in which Blackboard chatting is being blocked at the co-op. I have yet to figure out just which rule is preventing the chat. Even disabling most of the rules has not cured the problem. Frankly, after the bottlenecks and other issues, I think it's getting close to time to ditch ISA 2006 for good. The main issue is that it routes the 6 or so web sites we run through one IP. I prefer it that way so that we keep our servers out of the public hacking eye (er, mostly). In any case, it is time to research something else.
I spent the afternoon at Bradley, helping them work on a few issues before their new video system arrived. Once it did, we unboxed it. We waited for the installer to get there, but it was now 2:30 or so, and we decided to put the thing together ourselves. I had to leave just after three to pick up my daughter, so I left the folks working on it. The installer came just before three. I got a call later that night that the system would not register nor connect to the state video network. I will be going back to Bradley within the next day or so to get it working.
I ran back to the co-op for a quick stop after Bradley on my way to pick up my daughter from church. I had a switch at the office I wanted to take home to troubleshoot. Turns out, the switch just needs to be "decommissioned." It's loud (fans), has bad ports (at least one set of four) and it keeps rebooting itself. At least now I know!
I had to then battle a firewall issue in which Blackboard chatting is being blocked at the co-op. I have yet to figure out just which rule is preventing the chat. Even disabling most of the rules has not cured the problem. Frankly, after the bottlenecks and other issues, I think it's getting close to time to ditch ISA 2006 for good. The main issue is that it routes the 6 or so web sites we run through one IP. I prefer it that way so that we keep our servers out of the public hacking eye (er, mostly). In any case, it is time to research something else.
I spent the afternoon at Bradley, helping them work on a few issues before their new video system arrived. Once it did, we unboxed it. We waited for the installer to get there, but it was now 2:30 or so, and we decided to put the thing together ourselves. I had to leave just after three to pick up my daughter, so I left the folks working on it. The installer came just before three. I got a call later that night that the system would not register nor connect to the state video network. I will be going back to Bradley within the next day or so to get it working.
I ran back to the co-op for a quick stop after Bradley on my way to pick up my daughter from church. I had a switch at the office I wanted to take home to troubleshoot. Turns out, the switch just needs to be "decommissioned." It's loud (fans), has bad ports (at least one set of four) and it keeps rebooting itself. At least now I know!
Thursday, August 25, 2011
08/25/2011
Went to the office first. Helped set up a CIV with DVD recording. Headed to Bradley.
Dropped off math manipulatives for the high school and a bag of snacks for the ECH program. I am a man of many hats and talents!
In Bradley, talked with various DL personnel regarding connection issues, quality issues, etc. All the issues seem to be outbound-related. That is, the quality and connections are perfectly fine coming INTO the campus, but the other end(s) of the CIV are getting pixellation, stuttering, etc.
The tech and I ran a few local tests - internal network calls only, and everything ran smoothly, looked good, sounded good. The issue appears to be external, but we will see what DIS says after their testing and analysis.
The tech and I worked on several other issues: server backups, network wiring traces, hardware/software troubleshooting, etc.
I left Bradley and headed to the Lewisville ECH. They are having connectivity issues, but the bigger items are related to the computer being put on the school's local domain. That seems to have messed with some of the permissions and settings for the local user (even when not logged into the domain). I am working on those and think i have most of them pinned down and fixed.
After Lewisville, I went back to the office to drop off equipment I picked up and to pick up equipment to take with me to the Prescott schools, which i will be visiting in the morning.
Dropped off math manipulatives for the high school and a bag of snacks for the ECH program. I am a man of many hats and talents!
In Bradley, talked with various DL personnel regarding connection issues, quality issues, etc. All the issues seem to be outbound-related. That is, the quality and connections are perfectly fine coming INTO the campus, but the other end(s) of the CIV are getting pixellation, stuttering, etc.
The tech and I ran a few local tests - internal network calls only, and everything ran smoothly, looked good, sounded good. The issue appears to be external, but we will see what DIS says after their testing and analysis.
The tech and I worked on several other issues: server backups, network wiring traces, hardware/software troubleshooting, etc.
I left Bradley and headed to the Lewisville ECH. They are having connectivity issues, but the bigger items are related to the computer being put on the school's local domain. That seems to have messed with some of the permissions and settings for the local user (even when not logged into the domain). I am working on those and think i have most of them pinned down and fixed.
After Lewisville, I went back to the office to drop off equipment I picked up and to pick up equipment to take with me to the Prescott schools, which i will be visiting in the morning.
Monday, July 25, 2011
07/25/2011
Drove straight to McRae Middle School to deliver several boxes of binders and books for a workshop taking place there today.
At the office, I talked with the presenter for a pocket camera workshop and we needed to update the software on the cameras being used. So, me and the DL coordinator and the presenter fired up Windows in Parallels and installed the correct software.
After that, Trish (DL Coordinator) and I headed to Bradley. in Bradley, we connected a new swicth and media converters to the video network in preparation for new equipment coming through an RUS grant. Once that was done, we went to the closet where the fiber terminated to install another media converter and switch. This allows for the video system to come online and for 24 computers to be installed in the new dl room.
After that, we went to an extsing dl room in order to disassemble a video system in order to reconfigure the hardware arrangement. The remote for the system would not work because the equipment had been installed backward in the podium. We fixed that, ran a couple test calls, and tied up loose wires, etc.
In the next dl room, we tied up loose wires and verified that things were working. The touch panel is having issues and we may need to update the software in both the codec and the touch panel this year.
There were three netbooks giving the local tech fits, so I helped get those situated and joined them to the domain.
I am scheduled to return on Tuesday with a Windows 7 DVD to reinstall software on a laptop and to run cabling for the new dl room.
At the office, I talked with the presenter for a pocket camera workshop and we needed to update the software on the cameras being used. So, me and the DL coordinator and the presenter fired up Windows in Parallels and installed the correct software.
After that, Trish (DL Coordinator) and I headed to Bradley. in Bradley, we connected a new swicth and media converters to the video network in preparation for new equipment coming through an RUS grant. Once that was done, we went to the closet where the fiber terminated to install another media converter and switch. This allows for the video system to come online and for 24 computers to be installed in the new dl room.
After that, we went to an extsing dl room in order to disassemble a video system in order to reconfigure the hardware arrangement. The remote for the system would not work because the equipment had been installed backward in the podium. We fixed that, ran a couple test calls, and tied up loose wires, etc.
In the next dl room, we tied up loose wires and verified that things were working. The touch panel is having issues and we may need to update the software in both the codec and the touch panel this year.
There were three netbooks giving the local tech fits, so I helped get those situated and joined them to the domain.
I am scheduled to return on Tuesday with a Windows 7 DVD to reinstall software on a laptop and to run cabling for the new dl room.
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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