ANNOUNCE: [MAINT] Unplanned network outage for code.gnucash.org

[Derek Atkins]

Hi All,

tl;dr:  Double-whammy of UPS failing and then AT&T Router failing kept me
offline for two days, including code.gnucash.org.  Finally received the
new router around 5pm so the network is back up, but the UPS is still
failing so equipment currently is up but not protected.



Long version:

Around 10:30pm on Sunday night by TV displayed "Network Cable Unplugged". 
I didn't think anything of it until the show I was streaming stopped a few
minutes later.  I went down to the basement to discover that everything
plugged into the UPS was powered off.  After fighting with the UPS (the
'on' button didn't do anything) I figured out how to reset it by
unplugging it and the plugging it in again.  This got everything up and
running, but the AT&T router would not authenticate to the network so I
couldn't get online.  I thought it might've been a result of my ER-4 so I
removed that from the equation, but it didn't help.

After an hour on the phone with a nice AT&T tech in Slovenia I had a new
modem on order and I finally got to bed at 12:30 knowing there wasn't
anything else I could do.  The tech said I should have the modem by
Tuesday, but it was possible I could get it Monday.

Monday morning I called AT&T to try to get tracking info, but my modem
order was still processing.  I called back again Monday afternoon and got
FedEx tracking for the box, which was being sent to me from California.

The modem arrived today around 5pm, and I quickly installed it, only to
find that no, it did not have my static IP config in there.  So I called
back to AT&T and got another tech who was able to get me configured.  I
verified it was working while he was on the phone, and then worked with
him on a few additional configuration changes, and verified my billing
(which of course AT&T screwed up, too, but he claims to have fixed it --
I'll check that tomorrow).

However, during all this, the UPS powered-down my equipment several times
over the past couple days, including at least four times in a 3-hour
spread from 3:20-6pm.  I finally decided that the UPS wasn't helping so I
unplugged all the equipment from the UPS and into my mainline
(unprotected) circuit, while I work on figuring out why the UPS keeps
turning off.

So for now:

1) network is up, but I might be subject to NAT tables filling up until I
can return to using my ER-4 gateway.
2) systems are up, but are not UPS protected
3) code is back up and running.

I'm going to have several maintenance windows going forward to return the
ER-4 into service, and, eventually, once I get the UPS repaired (whatever
that means).  Any network outage due to the former should be relatively
short.  However I will have to take all my hardware down to change where
it's plugged in.

-derek

PS: Yes, I really should look into a backup to my main fiber network,
although that wouldn't have helped with the UPS turning off its outputs!

-- 
       Derek Atkins                 617-623-3745
       derek at ihtfp.com             www.ihtfp.com
       Computer and Internet Security Consultant