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Network Services Team (NST)

Meeting Minutes - 1/27/98

Last meeting:                           Next meeting:  TBA

 

1. "Debriefing" on NST during "Ice Storm '98"

• What went right?
  • beepers worked well (see Justin's comments below)
  • cellular phone system was overloaded (800,000 min of activity vs. usual 100,000min)

    Brenda pointed out that a number of cell phones were purchased and used during the Ice-Storm crisis. She anticipates a significant phone bill as a result, though she also expects it to be covered under disaster relief.

  • Bell-Atlantic was very good about helping us during the crisis.

   

• What didn't?
  • The generator (Carm thinks it is rated at 12Kw) broke down even though it had been tested as recently as the Sunday before the storm. Do we need a backup to this?

   

• What would we like to do differently in the future?
  • Need to determine what to do with electronic equipment if we go to a building generator for Kellas (turn it off? unplug it?)
  • We need a current copy of the college's campus disaster plan
  • we need a portable computer for Carm to hold his network cable-plant data so that he is not dependent upon his desktop computer when there is no power to the building.
  • We need an updated copy of our DC/TM list of NST members with beeper #'s, cellular phone #'s and home phone #'s

2. Power-failure phones (Public Safety; Maxcy confusion when switch was up but Maxcy was down)

• We need to ask the college if they want a different power-failure phone backup system. That is, should we return to the 10 red-phone system which is a Centrex-based system, but the phones would always be available.
• Bill Fisher wants to have 3 power-failure phones relocated to Maxcy Hall since it is the designated county disaster center; 2 should go to Public Safety as well.

3. Justin reported on a service Applied Theory is offering (out-of-band access for diagnosing problems with the router, etc.). He will look into it in more detail to determine the cost, etc.

4. Justin questioned whether we should upgrade some of our pagers to include coverage area beyond our local 315 area. He suggested we may want to look at alpha-numeric pagers. He will talk to those who are using pagers regularly and offer a recommendation.

5. Power-outage update. Most of the problems in the electrical plant were taken care of during the storm when the power was out and now it looks like there will be minimal scheduled outages to fix the remaining electrical plant.

 
 
 
Next meeting:  Tuesday, 10:30am, 2/24/98
 

References:

• NST response to network/communications problems; backup procedures
• Residential Wiring Project Web page
• Notes from meeting w/ Russ Nelson (TCP/IP services) - 3/18/96
• Voice services plan.