Regional DSL Outage
AT&T tells us that they are having an outage of some kind. Customers have line sync, but are not able to authenticate.
AT&T expects service to be restored by midnight tonight.
Planned Maintenance
AT&T Network Engineers will be performing a planned maintenance on Birmingham-Alabama Gigabit Access Router 3. The work will be performed on 6/18/2010, during the maintenance window of 12:00AM-6:00AM, local time. AT&T's goal is to successfully complete the task and restore service within the stated time frame. We apologize for any inconvenience that you may experience. We expect service to be impacted somewhat during the maintenance window. AT&T Network Engineers will be performing an IOS upgrade.
New Web Page Launched
We launched a new version of our web site! Much of the information and functionality is the same, but we are updating the “look”. Also, the new site is built on WordPress technology, which allows easy and quick updates of the site. We are also tying the site in with Twitter. You can follow us @netsolinc. We will post updates of new products, specials, or events that may affect your service. We hope you enjoy the new look and your feedback is welcomed. If you have any issues with the site, please let us know!
Host Down
We have one host down in our offsite datacenter. It looks like a connectivity problem with the datacenter rather than a host issue. We are working to resolve the issue.
Update 6:48pm – We have confirmed that it is yet another problem with a Cisco switch. Datacenter engineers are working with Cisco now to resolve the issue. Network connectivity has been intermittent since 6:37pm.
Update 8:40pm – Switching has been relatively stable for the last hour or so, but the datacenter engineers are continuing to research and diagnose the issue with Cisco TAC.
Update – Cisco identified a software bug. They have applied updates to the equipment and the network is stable now.
Post Incident Report Date / Time of Incident: 6/1/2010 6:44PM ET Duration of Incident: 1hour 13minutes Scope of Incident: Newark, Delaware Data Center Dedicated, Colocated and Cloud Customers Description of Incident: At 6:44PM ET one of the two redundant Cisco 6509 switches supporting the Dedicated, Colocated and Cloud Customers failed. The second switch failed in the same manner when load from the first switch was re-routed to the second. The end result was loss of connectivity for approximately 40 minutes. As the switches recovered, latency lasted another 33 minutes. Actions During Incident: 6:44 PM - Network Operations and Network Engineering were immediately dispatched to investigate and resolve the issue. A ticket was opened with the vendor of the switches (Cisco) and efforts to restore service were coordinated between the datacenter and Cisco. 6:55 PM - After exhausting normal troubleshooting avenues, the Switch 1 is reloaded at console by Network Engineers 6:58 PM – Switch 2 primary supervisor engine fails to boot, secondary supervisor engine becomes active 7:03 PM – Switch 1 completes rebooting , routing protocols established, datacenter team monitors performance of switch 7:08 PM – Switch 2 Primary supervisor engine is manually reset, secondary supervisor engine becomes fully active 7:12 PM – Switch 1 primary supervisor engine fails, secondary supervisor begins to take over 7:20 PM – Switch 1 secondary supervisor takes over 7:37 PM – Switch 1 Primary supervisor engine pulled, engineers suspect faulty hardware 7:48 PM – Switch 2 Secondary Supervisor engine completes booting, begins forwarding traffic. CPU on both switches remain elevated for 10 minutes while routing protocols are re-established 7:58 PM – Forwarding returns to normal, data delivered to Cisco for further analysis Root Cause of Incident: Cisco has identified a specific bug as the likely root cause that created a memory leak which triggered the event. Still awaiting final confirmation from Cisco on the bug, but initial findings indicate software issues as the root. Further Actions: Based on an expected confirmation from Cisco on the bug, a software patch will be applied in a lab environment. After successful application of the patch, Network Engineers will be applying the patch during a scheduled and announced maintenance window. The datacenter Network Engineering team is looking into other architectural changes to add additional diversity to the customers that are currently supported by the current set of Cisco 6509s to further insolate customers from any future type of single core switching failure.
Phone Line Update Complete
Our phone lines have all been ported over to voice over IP. Preliminary testing looks good. If you are interested in this type of system at your own office, please contact us. It can save you a lot of money on your phone lines.
Phone System Change
This morning, our phone lines are switching from traditional copper to voice over internet protocol (VOIP). We are increasing the number of lines coming into our phone system to decrease busy signals. The system will also allow us more flexibility with our system to allow us to serve you better. During the switch, our office may be unreachable via phone for a short period of time. If you have an issue, our technicians will be closely monitoring our support@internetpro.net email address. The window for this switch is scheduled from 8:30am to 10:30am CDT.
New Twitter Account
We have setup a new Twitter account for Network Solutions, Inc. You can follow it @netsolinc. Following that account will allow you to receive updates about new products and services as well as up to the minute network status updates. These updates will also be tied in to our new website.
Do you give out any of my user information?
At Network Solutions, Inc., customer account security is very important to us. Your personal information is not available on any external machine. If someone contacts us requesting a customer’s email address, we do not give out that information. If we receive an email request concerning one of our customer’s email address, we will forward the request to the customer, but we will not release personal information. We do not sell or give away customer information.
I have XP or I upgraded to Outlook Express 6 and now I can’t receive attachments. What’s up?
Most viruses in the wild today exploit security holes in Microsoft products and most of these viruses come through email. Microsoft has added a new “feature” which basically blocks all attachments so that you can’t get viruses unless you enable attachments. That way, Microsoft has deniability for their security holes. You wouldn’t get the virus if you didn’t enable the product to get attachments. It is a real cop out, because they should design the software right in the first place. Anyway, we virus scan your email before you get it, so you are pretty safe to begin with. For instructions to change Outlook Express so that it will allow you to receive attachments, follow the instructions below. |
 1) In Outlook Express, go to the Tools menu at the top. 2) Click on Options |
 3) A new Window will appear. Click on the Security Tab (screenshot) 4) On the security screen there is check mark by a line that says “Do not allow attachments to be….” This line is about 1/3 of the way down. Remove the check mark. 5) Click OK |
Why does my password keep changing?
It is not actually changing your password. It is just showing more “dots” than your password has characters. In older versions of Windows, if you had a 5 letter password, it would show 5 starts or dots. Since this allows someone to get closer to guessing your password because they know how long it is, they added a new feature to XP so that it just shows a bunch of dots every time. All subsequent versions of Windows also have this feature. That way, it doesn’t give a hint as to how long your password really is.