on a mission part 2: Tech Jargon

Let me start by saying sorry for the tech jargon, but I know there are at least six of you who will be interested.
I arrived at work my first morning and this is what I saw, a pile of wires and components.

This is the rig. It isn't really that complicated. It just looks it.

The list of problems was short, but proved to be difficult. They wanted their internet to work, to change the password to access the internet, and to get some computers working again, also the file server did not serve files anymore. The hospital has no IT staff. That is why they called me. They needed someone that could come in and tell them at least what was broken. I did my best. The back story I got was a local computer guy came and turned it off then on again. It worked for a few minutes then no more. The first several hours I worked on the system I was not sure I could fix it. Everything was password protected and no one knew the passwords. The cables went everywhere and none of them were labeled. It was a bit overwhelming.

This is the complicated part. Lucky for me the phone system was working perfectly. It was really just the top half that I had to work on. The 24 port switch and patch panel are easy to see with all the white wires stick out of them. The satellite modem is standing up in the back behind the switch with a yellow and black wires coming out of it. The wireless router is next to the switch with the green blue green lights on it. Laying next to the router is the VOIP converter box. The VDSL modem is on the half-shelf below and to the left of the patch panel. It is sort of obscured by the long light grey wire that runs across the whole picture. 

I started with figuring out what everything was. There's a Satellite modem connected to a Satellite dish outside. There's a wireless router, A twenty four port Ethernet switch, a 24 port patch panel, a VOIP to Ethernet converter box, a corresponding phone system distribution and fuse cluster, and a VDSL Ethernet extender. I think that is all.  All this was powered with a voltage regulator with a battery backup. The rest of the clinic had wireless internet from three other wireless routers spread throughout the building. Additionally, three other offices on the other side of the complex have an internet connection via some buried Ethernet cables.

I started with unplugging the satellite modem and seeing if it had internet connectivity. It did, so I had google to answer any and all questions I had. I plugged it back into the system and it didn't work. I tried turning it off and then on again. That didn't work. I suspected it had something to do with the router. But since I didn't have the password to the router I could do nothing. So, I left it unplugged from the rest of the system and continued to solve other problems like, why didn't the file server work, or why do these computers continuously BSOD and reboot continuously.

The server turned out to need some new drivers for its network card. Fairly straight forward. When I was working on the server I saw a file called 'network' or something. I opened it and I was excited. It was a document that had the network configurations on it. It had logins and passwords for routers and firewalls and a map that showed where every cable went. Without that document there's no way I could have fixed their internet. With that document I traced an unknown cable that I suspected to be the cause of the network crash. It led me to an office in another part of the hospital. When I got there I knew something was wrong. There were Two routers in the corner. One router had three cables plugged into it, and the other had one cable plugged into. Very odd, why would someone terminate this cable with a router? 

Next was the computers. They had recently gotten a set of four windows 8 laptops from the USA. They were nice, light, powerful machines. (I later found out that they have a one star rating on Toshiba.com) Only they would crash and reboot continuously and or they would not connect to the internet. Normally in these situations I would boot a windows computer to safe mode. Unfortunately I could not figure out how to do that. The computers naturally booted into a recovery screen that asked if you wanted to revert windows to a previous configuration or restore point. Or you could reset it to factory settings or you could just continue. I tried all the options, none of them worked. I was very disappointed in windows. I eventually found a way using a linux boot CD that had a program to watch windows load drivers and see which one makes it crash. It turned out to be the network driver that causes the crashes. Once that driver was disabled, I was able to boot into windows. Windows then asked me if I wanted to send a report and check the internet for a solution. As if. I updated the drivers then re-enabled the network adapter. Instantly the machine crashed and then started the crash reboot cycle. So, I again disabled the network adapter.  I checked the event viewer log and it confirmed the driver I thought was suspect. Microsoft support had a solution through windows updates. I am still wondering how I am going to do windows update on a machine with no working network adapter. I eventually decided to rollback the driver to its first edition(an edition previous to the machine's factory settings) and surprisingly it did not crash. I was then able to windows update and the newest drivers then worked. 

There's a lot more that happened and there is a lot more that needs to be done at that hospital. That whole experience showed me the great need for IT personnel in mission hospitals and in missions in general. The hospital was going through lots of stress because it didn't have communication with the outside world and the tools they use to do their jobs were making their jobs much harder. I was just happy to help in the small way I did. Hopefully I have informed them enough of how the system works so that they can keep it running themselves. 

So, if you are into IT stuff and want to feel like a super hero to people. Come to Africa and volunteer at a hospital that needs help!

Fresh bread! and bags from IKEA! It's almost like I was in Seattle for the week.

Produce

Last night we watched a movie and when the starring couple, in the middle of an argument, walked into the produce section of the grocery store we both  exclaimed "OHHH....look at that!" in awe and longing. You see, fresh fruit and vegetables have been pretty scarce around here lately. In fact, for the past month or so it seems like the only fresh vegetable we could buy in town was onions...and even those were starting to look sad.  One thing we have enjoyed for the past couple months is fresh, delicious mangoes.  Then, two weeks ago, someone said "its getting near the end of mango season."  I haven't seen a mango since that day. They disappeared just like that..sadly before we got a supply into our freezer. So, we haven't really been eating vegetables (unless the tomatoes in pizza sauce count).

Then, today I came home to this!

don't think i've ever been as excited to see a cabbage as i was today.

and this...

oranges...yum

Luke found something to fix that is almost as old as him!

1985

pointing out the RAM or ROM or something like that...."they just don't make them like they used to"

Our coffee table has become a work bench

On a mission part 1

Let's take a break from the gory pics and sad medical stories with a story about Information Technology! Last week I went on a mini mission trip of sorts. At least that is what it felt like. I packed a small bag with a few clothes, tools, and a laptop and headed for a hospital several hundred kilometers from here. I went alone, on a bus. This left my wife on her own for the week. She's a big girl, though, and managed just fine without me. Lucky for me, I had been there before and I know a few of the people that live and work there. I was looking forward to seeing some friends that I hadn't seen in a few months.

My mission: To fix their internet, to fix some computers, and to hopefully find a way to get the network self sustaining for a while. This post might make it sound like I'm an IT pro. I am not. A real pro would have solved all of these problems in a couple of hours, it took me the better part of a week.

One of the most stressful parts of the whole trip was waiting for the bus to pick me up in my home town. I waited for three hours, each bus that went by was full. Finally, when the last bus of the day arrived and was full, the operator offered me standing room only next to the door for an additional fee. Looking back, this seems sort of sketchy and I would suspect that the fee exactly covers the cost of a fine for having too many people on the bus. After an hour we made it to the next bus station. Here, everyone got off the bus. As soon as they were all off the bus, I found a comfortable seat, put my bag up top, and busted out my mp3s. A few hours later I arrived in the big city where a man came and found me and put me in the back of his SUV and we were off to the hospital. I was traveling through a town that we had lived in for a few months earlier this year. It seemed strange to be back. It seems like a year ago already. It seems like Tab and I have been in this country for years. Really it has only been about seven months. Before we left town I bought some fresh bread, and some apples. I haven't had apples in months. We made it safe to the hospital, and I had the opportunity to greet my friends. They were all very appreciative of my coming. I thought it was nice of them to pick me up from the bus and get me a beautiful room to stay in and everything.

The Beautiful accommodations. Banana trees!

Apple and Mango for lunch. It had been several months since I've had an apple, it was delicious. 

  The hospital is so much smaller than ours. There are significantly fewer patients and only one or two doctors.  There are many more trees and the ground is orange sand instead of clay and volcanic rocks. The weather was amazing. I would guess it was about 85 degrees when I showed up. There were clouds from a storm in the distance. I just wanted to sit outside and enjoy it. It is quite the change from cloudless scorching heat of the past few months.

The whole time I was there I was cared for quite well. They provided fresh fruit for my lunches and great dinners in the evening. I got to spend some good time with friends that I hadn't seen in a while. We had some great talks and when I leftI had fixed many things. I left some work for the next visit.

Worst part of the trip was right after I got off the bus in my home town. I had been listening to my mp3 player most of the way. I had my ear buds in ears as I got off the bus. As the bus was driving away I realized I didn't hear any music. I pulled on the end of the cord and there was nothing there, only the plug. No mp3 player. Well, it's not in my pocket, it must be on the bus, on its way to capital. It wasn't a nice mp3 player but I liked it. I have had it for years. I ran marathons with it, climbed mountains, traveled from coast to coast and around the world. And I lose it on a dusty bus. I was sad to watch that bus drive away. Part of me wanted to call the bus company and ask them to find it for me. But I just let it go.
Now, to amazon.com for a new one!

Did you try turning it off then on?

 We moved into our new home this past week. It is awesome. We got marble counters (bench for those from down under) and a lemon tree in our front yard.We have been warmly welcomed here to our new home, even by the short term people here. We are learning their names and adjusting to the new roles that we have found ourselves. So, the last couple of weeks I have been having fun as the IT person for most of West Africa it seems. I started teaching math at the English elementary school here on monday. Tab started doing all sorts of surgeries that she has never seen before.  It makes us feel good that our three months of Hausa study are paying off. I swell with happiness when someone says to me "Akwai Hausa" emphatically. That means we said something correct.
Also, WE GOT PACKAGES!!!!! They were full of awesome goodness from home. It is funny how things from america taste like america. Thanks Christina and anyone else that was involved!

I love me some american food.

 What is the weather going to be today? Do you think it will rain? What about clouds? Maybe.

Did I mention that it is hot here. 

There is a home in the foreground, a village in the middle distance and another village on the hillside. You might have to click on the image to see. We now live in a river valley in a more rural place. It is so much quieter.

Warning, Geek stuff ahead.  So, I've seen some computer problems that can't really happen anywhere else in the world. Since we live in a very hot, arid, and dusty place there are several computer problems that are very common. One of them is over heating due to dust covered circuits. However some very odd things can happen as well. Below is a picture of the video cable on a laptop.  The engineers had the outer sheath of the cable removed in order to dissipate heat or be narrow enough to fit through a small gap between components.  Whatever the reason it left the metal sheaths on each of the individual wires exposed. This is normally not a problem. However when it is close to a fan that is spinning dry dusty air, static electricity builds up and would discharge through the metal sheaths of these cables. Causing the laptop screen to flicker like a strobe light. What was interesting is that it only happens during the dries and dustiest times of the year. That is how I was finally able to figure out what caused the flickering. I put some packing tape over all of the wires and the problem was solved. In the days previous to this I had set up two wireless networks, cleaned out the dust of two computers, installed a pile of software and was successful in fixing them all except for my own machine.

I find it strange that the manufacturer would not put something like this on the cable in the factory.