HP Printers backorder - closer

A while back I told my HP Printers backorder story. In short, I've been waiting for my HP 2035 since August because it was back ordered.
The good news is that I received a notification email that the printer has been shipped and will be here Monday.
Hooray

BGP router down

We have a Global Crossing line. It is a dual router BGP setup with HSRP between the local routers in my office and BGP fall back on the Global Crossing infrastructure.
This morning, few minutes before the opening bell the primary circuit died. As a result the connection failed over to the backup line, which is what you'd expect. The problem started when the primary line started to bounce. Whenever it came back the connections bounced for a second and the users had to reconnect. Then it failed again and they started to get irritated. They are totally right.
As I called the Global Crossing support I found a very efficient service that was listening to my problem and had the will to help (sound obvious but usually this is not the case with big vendors). They started by checking the logs and found that it is bouncing every few minutes. I asked if they can change the HSRP priority to be higher then the primary router, they had no problem doing the configuration change. Problem resolved!
Now this is how HSRP priority work: the primary router get a higher priority and both get the preempt command which allow change of active state if there is a higher priority router online. By changing the priority on the backup router and changing the preempt to manual we ensured that even when the circuit is fixed and stable online it will not become the primary active line unless we manually change it back. This ensure that users will not get kicked off when the line is fixed or when the telco work on the circuit and bounce it constantly.
The circuit was fixed few hours later and after hours we switched back. It is nice to work with good cooperative service for a change!

Lotus Notes send on behalf of

Today, just as I got ready to leave for the day my CEO popped from nowhere and said "I need your help". Thank you very much!
He walked into his office and asked me to look at his Lotus Notes. One of our sale guys sent an invite to few clients where the CEO was Cc'd but the attachment only showed a pdf icon but had no real file attached to the mail.
Since it was late afternoon in the US and the sales guy leave in London he asked for a solution right here right now and did not want to wait for the next day. My task was simple: Resend those emails from the sales guy's mailbox as if he sent them. Make sure the attachment is there for real.
The reason it the attachment was missing to begin with was the mobile he used to forward it didn't support attachments. Go figure...
Problem with Notes is that you can send on behalf directly from your inbox but to make it look as if the other guy sent it himself, you must have a client configured for him, using his ID file. Since this guy never work in my office I have no such PC.
One way to do it was reconfiguring my own PC to use his ID. I can do it but do not like this path since there is always something with Notes when switching IDs.
Instead, I used the Web Access (I was lucky to have his password). Using Copy\Paste I got the text and addresses to the browser and attached the file too. One important thing to remember is sending with the Send and Save option which save a copy of that mail to his mailbox

DR when it matters

Check this Oct 9th 1:36pm scary message from Omgeo, a financial data service provider:

Due to a fire in a transformer in Boston, our Boston Data Center has been shut down. Additionally, the switch which enables us to migrate direct connect customers from the primary to backup connections has been damaged in the fire.

All leased line client connections via Thomson Reuters Network are currently down. They are invoking disaster recovery procedures but according to early reports it does not appear that they will be back up and running today. Therefore trades cannot currently be processed through Omgeo services. Please plan accordingly and process these transactions outside of Omgeo.

Our technical teams are working diligently to resolve the matter as soon as possible. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. We will continue to keep you informed as more information becomes available.

This follow up came at 9:54pm:

As communicated earlier, we wanted to provide an update on our progress in restoring network access to leased line connections via the Thomson Reuters' network. We have made progress in connecting clients to our back-up data center. In addition, power has been fully restored to our Boston Campus by our local utility provider. We now anticipate that all leased line network connectivity will be re-established during the course of the evening, Eastern Standard Time (EST).

Other then my sympathy to the Omgeo guys who worked hard Friday and over the weekend and even more for their sales department that will have to deal with some angry customers I wonder how can it be that one fire shutdown such a service for so many hours?
As a small shop we try to cover any aspect and make sure we're functional at any scenario. So how come these much bigger shops get themselves to a position that a full site is down and all services are shutdown? How can a switch that direct traffic to a backup location be damaged by the same fire???
My lesson is trust no one and think even harder. You always think you covered all aspects but there is always a new angel to DR. I'm sure those Omgeo guys will rebuild their DR plan...
I know I'm going to spend to coming week looking over my DR plan. Again.

Yahoo! Mail screen resolution

A user called in with a problem: she can't open her Yahoo! Mail account. She does log in and see the main template, it show "3 unread messages" at the screen title but the messages are not loading.
When I stepped to her desk I noticed that her iexplorer.exe process uses 99% of the CPU. I killed it and asked her to try again. Same problem, same solution. I tried a different approach and used my test account on Yahoo! (I never use it but this is why I keep it). Unlike her, I was able to get a message error (is it because my mailbox is empty?) which provided me with the solution as you can see in the picture.
When I changed her screen settings to 1024 x 768 she had no problems loading her mail. Now it is up to her to decide if she want her 15" monitor to show large fonts with the existing 800 x 600 which she like with no personal mail or change it to the smaller font with Yahoo! Mail working...

Cisco IOS 15.0 - released

Cisco released IOS 15.0. This is the next major release after 12.4. It’s been over 4 years since Cisco has delivered a major release of IOS code - 12.4 was released in May of 2005.
Looking at the list of new features there are few interesting items but none of them appeal to the average SMB.
the one feature we might find useful at the SMB level is Cisco DHCP FORCERENEW which enhances security by providing entity authentication and message authentication.
Before you can consider this new software you have to verify that your hardware is compatible and go over the new features to make sure you really need it.
I guess we won't see this new version anywhere near SMB shops because the cost (both for software and training) doesn't make sense (specially these days) while the added value is limited. But it is still good to be aware and as time pass more and more knowledge will spread around the Internet. Use this knowledge to get familiar with the new IOS because at some point it will find it's way to SMB and you want to be ready for that day.

Just Traceroute

Yesterday, just after 3pm our Internet connection had some major problems.
While browsing and most IM clients died, inbound mail still flowed and MSN Messenger was live at all times.
Testing the network I started with the immediate suspect for any Internet failure - the Proxy server. Seconds later, when I realized that Proxy was up and even when I bypass it I can't browse, I started testing my firewall and DMZ environment.
The way we're configured for Internet is a primary dual T1 connection going to Verizon's MFR router and a secondary T1 connection, both connecting to a DMZ switch which is also where my firewall hook in.
Using the trace command I was able to get all the way to the Verizon router beyond the locally installed MFR router. That indicated a Verizon side problem which is good on one side - My part of the network is working, but really frustrating on the other side - the side that need Verizon's help which is always a long process.
While on the phone with Verizon's support I was told it's a general outage and as we all know by now, it was impossible to get an explanation and\or a time frame. Luckily the problem was solved in 30 minutes and we didn't suffer significant damage.
While troubleshooting this situation I came across a cool useful website Just-traceroute that provide a platform to trace an IP from 4 different locations (USA, France, Singapore & Netherlands). This is handy to isolate many of the possible options. It also provide a built-in "send" button which you can use to email the output to yourself or any admin you're working with.