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Re: Maintenance modems and power failures
by Austin Schutz 11 Feb '99

11 Feb '99

>Most network providers are aware of the secret hiding in most of our >POPs. Those little sporters and courier modems stuffed into a rack >somewhere plugged into the nearest available outlet, as the only >out-of-band access. Has anyone come up with a solution for powering >these forgotten pieces of equipment, which doesn't cost more than >the modem itself? > >At first you might think it makes sense to power them off the UPS >which is powering the rest of your equipment. The only problem is >if you are using the maintenance modem to monitor your UPS. This >is just one of those things which has bugged me for a few years, but >I still haven't come up with a solution I really like. > Get two modems. POTS ---- Modem 0 ---- Modem 1 | | UPS AC Utility AC This only really makes sense if you have your terminal server w/ redundant power, one utility AC and the other UPS AC. Austin

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Re: Maintenance modems and power failures
by Sean Donelan 11 Feb '99

11 Feb '99

tex(a)shrubbery.NET (Austin Schutz) writes: > Get two modems. > >POTS ---- Modem 0 ---- Modem 1 > | | > UPS AC Utility AC > > This only really makes sense if you have your terminal server >w/ redundant power, one utility AC and the other UPS AC. I've had troubles with two auto-answer modems daisy chained off the same pots line, but a good solution for some cases. A few people asked how I currently solved the problem. I'm using three different methods depending on the importance of the facility. 1) Nothing, and praying the modem answers Obvious problems - You name them 2) A Digital POWERswitch, which is a cool box containing essentially an automatic transfer switch with two AC power cords for a piece of equipment with one AC power cord (e.g. modem, switch, hub, etc) Obvious problems - Trying to find a Compaq salesperson who will let you order one - A big bundle of wire stuffed into the corner of the rack - People get confused, and unplug the equipment from the POWERswitch, and plug it directly into the wall outlet. I don't know why, but for some reason people look at it and think "That can't be right," and zap, there goes my modem. 3) "Network monitoring systems," which is a self-built Alpha unix box, with internal 14.4 modem (I've found them more reliable, under more conditions than 28.8 or 33.6. I don't need speed, I need a connection.), 8 serial ports to connect to the equipment consoles, and DC power supplies connected to the dual A&B battery supply. Unlike AC power cords which people unplug at will, DC power scares enough people so they don't touch it. Obvious problems - Not labeled by UL, FCC, or NEBS; some building engineers object to anything without approved labels - DC powered, Ok for telco, but a problem other places - Vendor field maintenance not available, self-built - More complicated systems fail more often None are perfect, and each can fail in different interesting ways. Now, back to your regular network operations discussions. -- Sean Donelan, Data Research Associates, Inc, St. Louis, MO Affiliation given for identification not representation

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Re: Huh? Too early for this.
by Tony Li 11 Feb '99

11 Feb '99

alex(a)nac.net writes: > Network Next Hop Metric LocPrf Weight Path > *>i2.52.228.144/32 209.83.160.97 100 0 6347 1239 i > > Wait. Looking at 2.52.228.144 in the mirror = 144.228.52.2 > > [root@netflow /root]# whois -h rs.arin.net 144.228 > Sprint (NET-SPRINT-INNET5) > Government Systems Division > 13221 Woodland Park Road > Herndon, VA 22071 > > Netname: SPRINTLINK > Netnumber: 144.228.0.0 > > > What the hell is this? Perhaps a BGP implementation with an endianness problem. Folks should recall that with the hordes of new high-end router vendors coming to market (or trying to anyways ;-), there will be a variety of interesting behaviors (again ;-). Tony

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RE: Multiple BGP sessions between the same router pairs at IXPs
by Chad Skidmore 11 Feb '99

11 Feb '99

Yes, you are correct. In a NAP configuration that is changing this probably would be difficult to avoid. -----Original Message----- From: Alex Bligh To: nanog(a)merit.edu Cc: amb(a)gxn.net Sent: 2/10/99 12:37 AM Subject: Multiple BGP sessions between the same router pairs at IXPs Anyone feel like sanity checking this for me: As far as I know, if you have this config RTRA BGP ID 4.4.4.4 ASN 4 2.2.2.4 / \ 3.3.3.4 2.2.2.0/24 | | 3.3.3.0/24 2.2.2.5 \ / 3.3.3.5 RTRB BGP ID 5.5.5.5 ASN 5 and you configure on router A router bgp 4 neighbor 2.2.2.5 remote-as 5 nieghbor 3.3.3.5 remote-as 5 and on router B router bgp 5 neighbor 2.2.2.4 remote-as 4 nieghbor 3.3.3.4 remote-as 4 then only one peering session will come up, as routers only support one BGP session with any given router ID. We hit this problem when renumbering the LINX, I think, in that you have to make sure you take down old sessions to get new sessions to work. This would also affect people who set up new peerings over the ATM MAE's, who also have existing peerings on the FDDI fabric between the same routers, right? -- Alex Bligh GX Networks (formerly Xara Networks)

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Re: Maintenance modems and power failures
by Jeff Weisberg 10 Feb '99

10 Feb '99

Sean Donelan <SEAN(a)SDG.DRA.COM> asks: | | Most network providers are aware of the secret hiding in most of our | POPs. Those little sporters and courier modems stuffed into a rack | somewhere plugged into the nearest available outlet, as the only | out-of-band access. Has anyone come up with a solution for powering | these forgotten pieces of equipment, which doesn't cost more than | the modem itself? in our machine room, the maintenance modem is a dual powered, 9v battery and AC wall wart, "2400 bps Mini-Modem". I got in years ago, and have no idea if they are still available. Other than "2400 bps Mini Modem" and "Made in Tiawan" neither the modem nor manual have any markings suggesting a manufacturer. --jeff

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Maintenance modems and power failures
by Sean Donelan 10 Feb '99

10 Feb '99

Hopefully some people will find this related to the operations of their network. Ah, maintenance modems. Why do they always seem not to work just at the moment you need them. PG&E released their report on the San Francisco power outage in December. Most of it was the information previously reported. One interesting thing was PG&E lost access to three of their SCADA remote monitoring units because the modems were plugged into utility power instead of a UPS. Most network providers are aware of the secret hiding in most of our POPs. Those little sporters and courier modems stuffed into a rack somewhere plugged into the nearest available outlet, as the only out-of-band access. Has anyone come up with a solution for powering these forgotten pieces of equipment, which doesn't cost more than the modem itself? At first you might think it makes sense to power them off the UPS which is powering the rest of your equipment. The only problem is if you are using the maintenance modem to monitor your UPS. This is just one of those things which has bugged me for a few years, but I still haven't come up with a solution I really like. -- Sean Donelan, Data Research Associates, Inc, St. Louis, MO Affiliation given for identification not representation

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ping plot tool
by Vadim Antonov 10 Feb '99

10 Feb '99

Hi, for some reason i needed a prettily plotted PostScript output for the all-too-familiar ping, so i spent a few hours yesterday to write a filter. If you need one too, here it is: http://www.civd.com/~avg/ping.tar.gz (it was tested only under RedHat Linux, but there's no reason why it shouldn't work everywhere). I think Sprint folks will find the kludge's output to be quite familiar :) Cheers, --vadim

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"How to assess your ISP's security policy" article
by Martin Cooper 10 Feb '99

10 Feb '99

For those of you that have not already seen it, I thought you might be interested to read my article published in Network Week (UK) today, "How to assess your ISP's security policy". You can find it in the RTFM section. Flames etc. to /dev/null please - I realise this article may not go down well with all service providers if their security needs some work - a possibility for which I make no apologies! Regards, Martin -- Martin Cooper <m.j.cooper(a)ucs.cam.ac.uk> /* Statements made above are my Network Systems Group, Network Division own and not those of the University Computing Service, Cambridge University Computing Service */

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Multiple BGP sessions between the same router pairs at IXPs
by Alex Bligh 10 Feb '99

10 Feb '99

Anyone feel like sanity checking this for me: As far as I know, if you have this config RTRA BGP ID 4.4.4.4 ASN 4 2.2.2.4 / \ 3.3.3.4 2.2.2.0/24 | | 3.3.3.0/24 2.2.2.5 \ / 3.3.3.5 RTRB BGP ID 5.5.5.5 ASN 5 and you configure on router A router bgp 4 neighbor 2.2.2.5 remote-as 5 nieghbor 3.3.3.5 remote-as 5 and on router B router bgp 5 neighbor 2.2.2.4 remote-as 4 nieghbor 3.3.3.4 remote-as 4 then only one peering session will come up, as routers only support one BGP session with any given router ID. We hit this problem when renumbering the LINX, I think, in that you have to make sure you take down old sessions to get new sessions to work. This would also affect people who set up new peerings over the ATM MAE's, who also have existing peerings on the FDDI fabric between the same routers, right? -- Alex Bligh GX Networks (formerly Xara Networks)

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Huh? Too early for this.
by alex＠nac.net 10 Feb '99

10 Feb '99

Network Next Hop Metric LocPrf Weight Path *>i2.52.228.144/32 209.83.160.97 100 0 6347 1239 i [root@netflow /root]# whois -h rs.arin.net 2.0 Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) (RESERVED) (NET-RESERVED-2) 10 sl-bb2-chi-4-0-0.sprintlink.net (144.232.0.142) 38.508 ms 48.093 ms 42.923 ms 11 144.228.252.11 (144.228.252.11) 93.257 ms 42.579 ms 95.072 ms 12 sl-paterno-2-0-128k.sprintlink.net (144.228.52.2) 99.467 ms 105.426 ms 115.518 ms 13 sl-gw11-chi-9-1-TS5-128k.sprintlink.net (144.228.52.1) 50.118 ms 41.066 ms 41.413 ms I'd be curious to know if this is the source of any spam. Hrm. Wait. Looking at 2.52.228.144 in the mirror = 144.228.52.2 [root@netflow /root]# whois -h rs.arin.net 144.228 Sprint (NET-SPRINT-INNET5) Government Systems Division 13221 Woodland Park Road Herndon, VA 22071 Netname: SPRINTLINK Netnumber: 144.228.0.0 What the hell is this? -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Atheism is a non-prophet organization. I route, therefore I am. Alex Rubenstein, alex(a)nac.net, KC2BUO, ISP/C Charter Member Father of the Network and Head Bottle-Washer Net Access Corporation, 9 Mt. Pleasant Tpk., Denville, NJ 07834 Don't choose a spineless ISP; we have more backbone! http://www.nac.net -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

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