[1761] in Hotline Meeting
TDC and our network prolems...
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (cepickel@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Tue Sep 18 12:51:03 1990
From: cepickel@ATHENA.MIT.EDU
To: network@ATHENA.MIT.EDU
Cc: hotline@ATHENA.MIT.EDU
Date: Tue, 18 Sep 90 12:50:32 EDT
Hello!
My name is Chuck Pickelhaupt, and I am the cluster manager at the Theta
Delta Chi fraternity. For the past week or so there have been some
in-house network problems at TDC. Our house is arranged with
approximately 15 sub-loops of thin wire ethernet, routed with two
repeater boxes. I sent a report to hotline about this, but since it has
been about a week since my first report, I thought I should notify
Network Services directly as well.
The situation at hand has rendered about half of our workstations
unusable. When a key is typed at the "Hit any key to start." prompt,
those workstations simply return "No Hesiod information available for
<WorkstationName>." Since over ten machines were obviously not
connected to the network, I made a systematic effort to check all the
subloops in question: from replacing the ethernet cables to checking to
be sure the loops were all capped to examining the repeater boxes.
After doing all this, I noticed that all the unusable loops seemed to
come from the same repeater box. But, one loop on the supposedly bad
repeater box seems to be up one day and down another. That repeater
box's lights do not show any unusual jams or other obvious trouble, but,
as additional evidence, by switching a loop from the "bad" repeater
box to the "good" one, the loop's network connection was regained.
Needless to say, I have put a significant amount of time into doing as
much as I can for our cluster. But also, there is only so much I can
do. Classes have begun and many people need Athena's courseware, word
processing, and mail facilities. It is a shame that we only have
slightly more than half of our 25 machines in full working order.
Almost all of the brothers and new pledges have spoken to me at some
point or other about the state of affairs. Again, I have sent a number
of reports to hotline, but their mail to you may have gotten lost or
other things may be up. I just wanted to tell you directly so that all
information would be clear and well-reported. You can reach me any hour
of any day at 494-8300 (leave a message, if necessary.) Alternatively,
you can send me email or zephyrgrams anytime (I am logged-in 24 hours a
day.) Thank you in advance for any and all help you can offer to us.
Eagerly awaiting your reply,
--Chuck Pickelhaupt
cepickel@athena.mit.edu
Athena Educational Initiatives
Athena Contingent Consultant
TDC Athena Chair
