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 Return to top of page · Post #: 1 · Written at 6:29:14 PM on 31 August 2015.
GTC's avatar
 GTC
 Location: Sydney, NSW
 Member since 28 January 2011
 Member #: 823
 Postcount: 6678

I have been unable to access this site for some hours today. Was it down, or does my ISP have a some sort of problem reaching it?


 
 Return to top of page · Post #: 2 · Written at 6:43:43 PM on 31 August 2015.
Brad's avatar
 Administrator
 Location: Naremburn, NSW
 Member since 15 November 2005
 Member #: 1
 Postcount: 7290

Just beat me to the draw.

The connection to the server was indeed down today and pretty much since 02:40 this morning and it went un-noticed until I tried to log in at around 15:30. It's been a long time since something like that has happened so I've morphed out of the habit of daily checks. For the next week or two I will check the connection each morning to make sure we don't get a repeat of this.

The good news is that the server is fine.

My apologies go out to all members and visitors for this, though again, it was somewhat unexpected.


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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...

 
 Return to top of page · Post #: 3 · Written at 6:49:23 PM on 31 August 2015.
GTC's avatar
 GTC
 Location: Sydney, NSW
 Member since 28 January 2011
 Member #: 823
 Postcount: 6678

Make it easy on yourself: a script that automatically pings the server periodically and sends and SMS and/or email if the ping times out.


 
 Return to top of page · Post #: 4 · Written at 6:54:49 PM on 31 August 2015.
Brad's avatar
 Administrator
 Location: Naremburn, NSW
 Member since 15 November 2005
 Member #: 1
 Postcount: 7290

I once used an external service to do this and I forget the name of it. It was a long time ago though.

The problem with it is that I host my mail server on the same connection so e-mail would not have been reachable either. The other issue is that I cannot easily reboot the modem through the day. There's a workaround for that too but it'd run into some serious coin.


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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...

 
 Return to top of page · Post #: 5 · Written at 7:09:30 PM on 31 August 2015.
GTC's avatar
 GTC
 Location: Sydney, NSW
 Member since 28 January 2011
 Member #: 823
 Postcount: 6678

Quite a few services out there, such as Pingability.

I cannot easily reboot the modem through the day

Yeah, not much good knowing it's off the air if you can't readily put it back on again.


 
 Return to top of page · Post #: 6 · Written at 5:43:15 PM on 7 September 2015.
GTC's avatar
 GTC
 Location: Sydney, NSW
 Member since 28 January 2011
 Member #: 823
 Postcount: 6678

Couldn't access this site for most of today.


 
 Return to top of page · Post #: 7 · Written at 6:29:06 PM on 7 September 2015.
Brad's avatar
 Administrator
 Location: Naremburn, NSW
 Member since 15 November 2005
 Member #: 1
 Postcount: 7290

Yep, the connection fell over at 09:25 this morning, again for no apparent reason. By then it was too late for me to react as I start work at 07:00.


‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾
A valve a day keeps the transistor away...

 
 Return to top of page · Post #: 8 · Written at 6:44:23 PM on 7 September 2015.
GTC's avatar
 GTC
 Location: Sydney, NSW
 Member since 28 January 2011
 Member #: 823
 Postcount: 6678

Does a power cycling of the modem restore the service?


 
 Return to top of page · Post #: 9 · Written at 6:46:24 PM on 7 September 2015.
Tallar Carl's avatar
 Location: Latham, ACT
 Member since 21 February 2015
 Member #: 1705
 Postcount: 2149

Gee I thought my life was over lol I nearly had to resort to Facebook . Smile


 
 Return to top of page · Post #: 10 · Written at 9:05:11 PM on 7 September 2015.
Brad's avatar
 Administrator
 Location: Naremburn, NSW
 Member since 15 November 2005
 Member #: 1
 Postcount: 7290

Does a power cycling of the modem restore the service?

On both occasions, yep. The only issue there is that no-one is here through the day and because of the lateness in the morning it flew past my morning inspection.

Recently TPG installed FTTB in the block I live in and normally this wouldn't interfere with my current connection but if a linesman is trying to patch another resident into the FTTB MDF panel then they may put a linesman's phone across connections on the Telstra MDF to track down the line that needs to be repatched. Generally, DSL filters are not connected to linesman's phones and an unfiltered phone will cause a flameout of the DSL connection. Sometimes a modem will react and re-establish the connection but other times they don't.

This brings me to another issue - an upgrade of the connection to allow faster speed. Whilst this would be lovely, TPG and the few providers that resell TPG's FTTB service do not offer static IP addresses and this will unfortunately prohibit me from jumping to an otherwise good service as a dynamic IP address is completely unsuitable for hosting websites.

Gee I thought my life was over lol I nearly had to resort to Facebook

I reckon I'd shoot myself first. Shock


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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...

 
 Return to top of page · Post #: 11 · Written at 9:27:27 PM on 7 September 2015.
GTC's avatar
 GTC
 Location: Sydney, NSW
 Member since 28 January 2011
 Member #: 823
 Postcount: 6678

On both occasions, yep. The only issue there is that no-one is here through the day

In that case, have a look at kit K140 here:

http://www.ozitronics.com/remote.html#k140


 
 Return to top of page · Post #: 12 · Written at 10:30:49 PM on 7 September 2015.
Brad's avatar
 Administrator
 Location: Naremburn, NSW
 Member since 15 November 2005
 Member #: 1
 Postcount: 7290

I certainly will investigate this. It's about the only function I can't yet perform remotely. I can even cold boot any of the three servers by sending a WOL signal to them and they'll automatically power back up after a blackout that lasts long enough to run the UPS out of battery reserves. I also have two telephone lines doing absolutely nothing so there's plenty of scope for a device like this. To make sure that kit doesn't do anything bad I will use those relay outputs as auxiliaries to power a separate relay to control the 240V to the modem.

Kits don't usually conform to ACMA guidelines but the above extra safety considerations should cover things adequately, especially since the 240V being controlled would be in a separate box.

On the downside, it looks like the shop is closed for a month, as per a notice on the front page. This would give me some time to do some planning though. Thanks for the pointer. Smile


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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...

 
 Return to top of page · Post #: 13 · Written at 11:45:41 PM on 7 September 2015.
GTC's avatar
 GTC
 Location: Sydney, NSW
 Member since 28 January 2011
 Member #: 823
 Postcount: 6678

Thanks for the pointer.

You're welcome. I investigated its predecessor (K86) some years ago. It looks to be very well designed as regards phone line isolation and is pretty secure, too, I reckon.

Now, all you need is a device that regularly pings your server and calls you if it detects a problem. There are telephone dialers available as used in the alarm industry. The trick would be to interface one of those to a simple microprocessor that can ping the server and raise a hardware signal to trigger the dialer.

Of course, you do that pretty easily in software with a PC monitoring your server and a dial out modem attached to it.

Depending on your server's modem, and associated management software, there may be a way to ping it, too.


 
 Return to top of page · Post #: 14 · Written at 5:22:38 PM on 30 December 2015.
Brad's avatar
 Administrator
 Location: Naremburn, NSW
 Member since 15 November 2005
 Member #: 1
 Postcount: 7290

After recently replacing connection equipment, yet again, I've found that there's been little improvement to connectivity for the site.

At this time I have arranged for TPG to conduct line tests and monitor all aspects of the connection for the next day or two so that a cause for the dropouts can be found. If the site is not available at any time during the next few days it may be due to this testing. Hopefully the cause can be found and a remedy invoked.

I have given thought t co-locating the host server at a commercial data centre however this is very expensive and I really cannot justify the cost at this stage of the game. I'll have to see how things go with the present setup.


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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...

 
 Return to top of page · Post #: 15 · Written at 4:14:05 PM on 5 February 2017.
GTC's avatar
 GTC
 Location: Sydney, NSW
 Member since 28 January 2011
 Member #: 823
 Postcount: 6678

I have not been able to reach this site for some time this afternoon.


 
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