[SECC] KS4Q Cluster Update

[Ernie Zingleman]

All,

Today after 93 days of uptime,around 3PM EDT or so, the machine on which the
cluster runs crashed.

More than likely it was not the AR-Cluster program that did it.  It appears
that some amount of Cluster configuration data was lost but I think
everything is now back to normal.  If your cluster output seems different,
please check your configuration settings.

I'm quite pleased with this amount of uptime though there were periodic
outages due to a lightning storm, brief DSL outages and router problems.
For a brief period of time, I was solving router problems.  The  previous
uptime record was 57 days.  I'm running Windows 2000 on this PC.

A couple of months ago I added a DSL line surge suppressor at the phone
demarc.  I built it.  It is based on the design of a commercial DSL line
suppressors that I've seen on the web:
http://www.hyperlinktech.com/web/hgln_dsl.php

I also added an AC isolation transformer between the AC power and the wall
wart that powers the DSL modem.  Lastly, I added a commercial CAT 5 surge
suppressor between the DSL modem and the Router.  Hopefully with all this,
I've achieved a fair amount of immunity to near by lightning strikes.

Since I've last written the cluster users, I've also tried two different
software based router solutions.  I've now settled on a package called
monowall which is built using  FreeBSD (essentially UNIX).  It runs on an
older PC that has had its hard drive, CD drive, and floppy drive removed;
this because they are not needed and will only increase the power
consumption.  The program and its site specific configuration runs on a
Compact Flash card which, through an adaptor, interfaces like a hard drive.
Except for the CPU fan and power supply fan, there are no moving parts!
Power consumption is comparatively low and the machine runs very cool.

This week I made changes to the DNS settings for the dx.ks4q.net domain
name.  For some reason, a few were having trouble reaching the cluster.   I
changed from a CNAME to an Alias setting and things seem to be working
better.  Please continue to use telnet://dx.ks4q.net

On the RF front, Sawnee continues to function well.  Jasper may have some
issues but I'm looking into that.

Let me know if anyone is having any difficulty.  If you need help with
configuring the cluster output to fit your likes & dislikes, just email me.
I can easily make changes on this end.

If you want to get on the email list for the Cluster, send an email to
ks4q-cluster at zingleman.com with 'subscribe' as the subject line.

Thanks & 73,

Ernie KS4Q