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Preparing Computer and Cellular Networks For a Hurricane
CWmike writes "As Hurricane Gustav approaches the US Gulf Coast, IT lessons learned from the devastating Hurricanes Katrina and Rita that smashed New Orleans and other areas in 2005 are on the minds of many worried IT managers. David Avgikos, president of Digimation Inc., a 3-D digital animation software company in St. Rose, Louisiana, said, 'We don't have to be told twice.' Meanwhile, the nation's major cellular network providers say that they too are prepared, having learned from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Still, they offer some helpful tips for dealing with what is expected to be a category-three hurricane when it hits: use text vs. calling on your cell phone, and if you use a cordless for your landline, ditch it for a corded model so that it will still work if there are power outages."
if (hurricane && phone =='busy'){ sendtext("GTFO GUSTAV IS COMING!"); }
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... I use an above-sea-level datacenter, conspicuously located at a comfortable distance from major tornado, earthquake, forst fire, and locust infestation corridors. That whole "above sea level" part is particularly helpful.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
1. 3-M Blackwatch tape Fed Ex'd to some safe place north.
Other than that, unless your facility is 100ft underground, resistant to groundwater, and with lots of fuel for the generator, I don't think you can do much in the midst of a really big hurricane. Doesn't sound like this one is going to be the biggest of types though.
> One tip: Use text instead of voice
Wait a minute, did I just hear the cellular providers admit that text uses less resources than voice? When is that insight going to make it to the pricing on my calling plan?
Do you have an example of a cordless phone that works when the power is out? I've never seen one. Keep in mind it's all well and good to have a battery in the phone, but the base station needs power to be able to transmit too.
Random and weird software I've written.
Sometimes you have to flush a toilet twice to clear the bowl.
The most important thing you can do in preparation for a hurricane is pick the paint out of the screws holding your doors on.
Been there, cursed while the screwdriver spun uselessly, and never painted over a screw since.
A learning experience is one of those things that say, 'You know that thing you just did? Don't do that.' - D. Adams
If Atlanta was hit by a hurricane, and you were in Nebraska at the time, wouldn't you want your 404 area code cell phone to still work?
Yeah, but it would probably not be found.
---- "XML is like violence. If it doesn't fix the problem, you aren't using enough."
With messages costing as much as they do? Maybe if there is a hurricane discount, but AFAIK that only applies for category 4 and higher.
Wait, surely they aren't saying that the cost to the network of providing SMS services is lower than voice? Because the way they price it, it's cheaper to get data from the Hubble Space Telescope.
Strange that texting is a more efficient way to use the capacity of a cellular system, yet they charge more for texting. hmmmm....
Do not put the generator in the damn basement.
after 2 hurricanes and one big ice storm: 1. ALWAYS have a landline phone. it's bomb-proof. even dialup for email is better than 8 days without. 2. Cell towers/service go down second. 3. Cable goes out first. there's other stuff to consider, but this is a tech site.
In the 1970's the Council of Oxford, England built a nuclear bomb shelter beneath one of the buildings they owned.
During a briefing to the towns various community leaders they explained that they would have no problems with water supply because the shelter had a water tank, situated on the roof of the building which housed the shelter.
I know this because my uncle was one of those community leaders. He tried to question this somewhat bizarre design decision, but apparently the representative making the presentation failed to understand the problem.
A learning experience is one of those things that say, 'You know that thing you just did? Don't do that.' - D. Adams
The thing about cordless vs. wired telephones really won't matter much if you really get hit by a hurricane. Simply put there is no one to call at all. Police, fire and rescue serves are all unavailable for quite some time both during and after a hurricane. Until crews get the roads cleared and that is after the roads are no longer rivers, then and only then can emergency responders get through to aid you. As far as cell phones go the cell towers go out of whack as soon as the storm starts. The same is true of cable systems.
The best way to ride out storms is elsewhere.Evacuate and go to Vegas and gamble or something. And as far as IT functions it would be great to have a second central hub that could take over for any site under the wrath of a hurricane.
You see, people incorrectly assume that prices are tied to costs, and that when costs go down, prices go down. That's a lie that businesses have been foisting on the populace for decades because they aren't telling you the whole truth. Economics shows us different.
Prices are tied to supply and demand. When demand goes up, prices go up. When demand goes down, prices go down. Supply is the opposite. Supply is up, prices down, supply down prices up.
The supply for text messages is basically near infinity, and is not changing. Therefore only changes in demand will change prices. Now, have you noticed that prices are going up lately, plans are getting higher, and they are looking at 15c a message rates now? Demand is going up, of course. The cell phone market is saturated, but text messaging is still a growth sub-industry as more teens get phones and more people try texting.
We are willing to pay these rates because the market will bear it. What's worse is that they still easily allow overages. I put a block on my son's cell phone for texting, because the monthly unlimited rate to text on verizon is outrageous and he can't control his texting. We got him a new phone to replace his old one, and we found out he had texting back and had started texting again. He ran up a $64 bill on texting alone! We called Verizon and they found out the block was "accidentally lifted" with the new phone and they refunded us the money. Of course they refunded the money, because they conveniently dropped it "by mistake" and they got caught being sleazy. How many people would just pay the bill? And how many people are willing to pay $20 a month just so they don't have to pay $64 a month? All the major telecoms take advantage of this on purpose, and it goes to their bottom line.
To fix this problem, you need to choke off demand. The market will have to saturate the with texting so that there are no more new customers. Instead of competing to get more new customers, they are competing to get customers away from other companies. That's typically when prices start coming down. Right now Verizon and Sprint offer $100 talk and text all you like plans, and there is a company that just came into the area called MetroPCS which offers the same plan for $40. The cell phone market is saturated, so now you are going to see some price competition. Because texting piggy backs on phone plans, you'll see that begin to drop.
The process would accelerate if we had more competition, and if they would stop allowing phones to be tied to a specific carrier and forced companies to allow us to chose the phone and the plan. The justice department and the SEC need to put some pressure on and stop allowing cell phone company mergers.
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
Technocrat reports:
Ham Radio works because each it's a heterogeneous mesh network of intelligent agents using agile frequency hopping to provide connectionless redundant relay of messages. Yes, we do that!
Leigh/WA5ZNU
I'd rather use a UPS for something useful like light and warmth rather than doing a fucking phone call cordlessly when I could just use a corded phone.
Beyond that, I'd say always have a simple brainless corded phone in the house. Wireless is nice, and battery backup is good if the power's only out for a couple of days -- but if things are bad for a while, or your phone battery just HAPPENS to be almost fully discharged the day the disaster hits (because of a 4 hour support call), it's nice to know that you have something that's guaranteed to work for as long as the telephone system is intact.
I've had days that I've been on the phone so much that I've gone through both the main and the backup battery for my cordless phone. Until then my 'always have a corded phone' rule was considered a 'just in case' rule. It wasn't even a disaster, but I'm glad that I had the rule.
I mean, it's not like a dumb phone is gonna cost you more than a couple of lattes at the local coffee shop.
Sometimes boldness is in fashion. Sometimes only the brave will be bold.
The blogger Interdictor, Michael Barnett, has a detailed blog of what they had to do and deal with to keep their datacenter operational despite being located in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. His blog was a very good read during the hurricane and its aftermath as it happened in August/September 2005.
Blog: http://interdictor.livejournal.com/?skip=300 Start reading from this link and go forward through the posts.
Pictures: http://sigmund.biz/kat/
Except such an emergency communications network already exists, with their own frequencies and emergency communications capability. Activation is automatic, so the government doesn't have to do anything, and testing is done on a regular basis during non-emergencies. And the participants pay for the equipment, testing, etc. themselves.
It's called "amateur radio".
Primary purpose is providing emergency communications. During off times, the equipment is tested by regular communications, contests, and field days (the latter basically practicing "roughing it" - generators, portable antennas, etc).
For local communications, there's the VHF/UHF and other bands, and the HF bands to help pass communications long distances easily. (Only problem with the HF bands is BPL, which disables the receiver from being able to receive and pass on messages...)
Costs the government nothing, and emergency messages passed from surviving families to relatives outside the area are often passed on cost free (absorbed by the message-passer).
In Florida we use cordless phones regularly but when a hurricane is here we switch to an old line powered phone. When I say line powered I don't mean "non-cordless". I mean the telephone line provides all the power the phone needs to operate. These are commonly referred to as Princess Telephones (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_telephone) and can be purchased from your local radio shack for a couple bucks.