Jay Gaulard Blog

Power Surge Blocks Access To Server?

Friday, May 23rd, 2008

Last night around 8PM, I heard the surge protectors/battery backups that we have for the computers beep. It’s the first time I heard that since we have been here. I am pretty used to it because they are rather sensitive. Any power fluctuation causes them to beep. It is comforting.

I didn’t think anything of it. Then, a little while later, I tried to access some websites that I have on one of my servers. I couldn’t get on. I tried again a little while later and still couldn’t get on. I asked Laura if she was able to get to the sites and she said no. She told me that she was working on one of them when she couldn’t get to it anymore. I figured the hosting company’s monitoring “red light” would’ve gone off by now and the server would be brought back on line by them. Nothing. I decided to submit a support ticket.

The hosting company responded to the support ticket informing me that they could access the server and all the sites just fine. I then called my sister down in Chapel Hill, NC to see if she could log on to the sites. She could access them just fine too. The strange thing is that I was able to see all the websites on my other server like nothing was wrong.

I responded to the hosting company ticket and let them know that I could not access the servers from only my location, but it seems like the rest of the world was looking at the sites without issue. I felt so left out. They asked me for my IP address so they could check the firewall. That was fine. Then, they asked me to do a traceroute to the server. I did that and the connection timed out at the server. Then, they did a traceroute from the server back to me, and the connection was timing out at my location.

This was all getting kind of odd. They asked that I power cycle the modem. I did and the problem was solved. I was able to access the server again.

What I find puzzling is that I was only blocked from one server in the world…mine. How did this happen. After thinking for a while, I remember right at the moment of the power hiccup, the issue began. Could being on a website at the time of a power surge (or failure) make your modem block you from the website (server) you were looking at?

A New Computer - What Should I Get?

Thursday, May 15th, 2008

This one is for those people out there who know about computers. When people are searching for a new computer, they usually ask me what to get. I say something like, “I design websites, what the heck do I know about computers?” That usually gets some mean look and the person walks away. I haven’t been known for my bright attitude at times.

Well, I usually do ok, but I am getting a little tired of buying computers. I want my next one to last. I bought the one I am working on about 6 months ago. I am going to keep this one for something, but I need a monster. Here is the issue…I work with tons of files. One of my sites has 59,000 image files that I need to copy/paste, delete, move, whatever. That’s just one example. I also have very large files that I need to open/close, etc… My problem isn’t the need for processor power to run huge applications or for gaming, I just need something for big, and lots of files. Uploads and downloads are my middle names. I have been working on getting the fastest servers available and now my bottleneck has become my PC.

Here is what I am thinking:

- Dell Precision T7400 Workstation
- Quad Core Intel® Xeon® Processor E5405 (2.00GHz,2X6M L2,1333) (Do I need a 2nd processor?)
- Genuine Windows Vista® Business, with Media (I’m willing to move on from XP. Plus, Vista actually puts the computer in sleep mode, like I never got XP to do. Big power savings.)
- 3 Year ProSupport for End Users and 3 Year NBD On-site Service (This is important because I want someone in this house if the computer breaks.)
- 256MB PCIe x16 nVidia NVS 290, Dual Monitor DVI Capable ( I know absolutely nothing about video cards.)
- 4GB, DDR2 SDRAM FBD Memory, 667MHz, ECC (4 DIMMS) (I want more.)
- C23 All SAS drives, RAID 5, 3 drive total configuration ( I also know nothing about RAID. I basically want the speed of SAS drives, the speed of two drives working together and the redundancy of a third drive. I don’t know the difference between RAID 0 and RAID 5.)
- Three 146GB SAS Hard Drives, 1 inch (15,000 rpm) (How much faster are SAS drives than SATA drives?)
- PERC6/i SAS/SATA Hardware RAID Card - For Connecting Internal Hard Drives
- Dell 1505 Wireless-N PCIe Card

So there you have it. I already have a monitor, so that’s cool. I think I can save a few bucks by switching out the SAS drives for SATA drives. It depends on what I find out about them. I want more RAM, but didn’t see the option for more. I am wondering about another processor and the video card.

Well, any advice? Am I missing anything?

Upgrading RAM - Kingston

Thursday, April 17th, 2008

Boy, what a past couple of days. I have been getting some additional hardware installed on my servers and it has been keeping me very busy with support tickets and phone calls. Let’s just say that once you make the jump to the real deal, things require more attention. There are some clear benefits that I am going to have to implement soon, such as server clustering. I am just laying the groundwork for them now. Let’s just say it’s been a learning experience.

That’s not what this post is about though…that’s just what keeps me up at night. This post is about the 2GB of Kingston RAM I purchased the other day for my desktop.

I have been doing some reading on Windows Vista lately and the common thread is that you need a mainframe to run it. Not really, but you get the picture. The good ol’ days of thinking you were king with 2GB of RAM are over. Now, 4GB is more like the norm.

Since my machine came with 2GB already installed and 4 slots to put RAM in, I decided to get 2 more. I got them from Circuit City and popped them in. I started the computer up and really didn’t notice all that much of a difference. Some things are faster and some things (like Outlook) were much faster. Outlook now flies for some reason. The RAM I got is the Kingston 1GB, DDR2, PC2-5300, 667MHz. This RAM is backwards compatible with the 533MHz already installed. After I restarted the computer again, things seemed to pick up some so now the computer runs more like my old XP machine did.

My Apologies - The Blog Moved

Wednesday, October 31st, 2007

I moved the Gaulard site over to a new server last night. Before the DNS change took place, I saw a few comments come through. If your comment has not been approved, please comment again and I will approve it.

Love, peace and hair grease.