Tyler and Emily in PNG

As of Friday at 10:00 am PBT orientation was adjourned. The class of 2011 has graduated from the first official orientation held by PBT-PNG! Well, since there is no IT person currently in country working in the office as soon as I stepped foot in the office last week, I became that guy. Nonetheless, I had to balance both orientation and becoming ‘Jack of All Trades’ as my job description states.

This past week on Wed there was an internet emergency. Around 10 – 11:00 am the internet was lost. Here in PNG, we have a very expensive satellite modem with blazing speeds of 512 KB/s download and 256 KB/s upload. To help the IT challenged, speeds in the USA for broadband now range from 3 MB/s to 15 MB/s. You are anyway from 6 to 30 times faster than us here in PNG. To help divert the high cost of the equipment and service, we have four other clients who share our bandwidth. Bottom line, yes we have internet, yes it is slow, but we are thankful for what we have. Now on Wed I come to the office and hear rumors that the internet is not working. In the IT world users give you very broad analysis of the problems they are having. The internet not working can be numerous things from the personal computer to the internet router to the network cable to the internet modem itself. Since my knowledge of the PBT office network is minimal at this point, I have no other decision but dive head first into the problem. I track the problem down to the other internet router in the Publications office (another building adjacent to the office). The conclusion we come up with is the cable connecting to the two building for internet is not working. Before running a new cable or splicing into an existing cable I research the issue further. Luckily I find an unused cable that runs between the two buildings. I can use this cable to fix the problem. Now the problem is fixed and all missionaries and staff can check email.

The next day, Thursday I get a call stating that one of our clients has no internet access. To make the long story short, the cable we thought was dead was actually the cable leading to the client. We plugged their cable into the switch and their problem was resolved. Now finally all parties are happy. This problem still puzzles me and that my original troubleshooting was wrong. Come to find out, the cable we thought was dead was actually two different cables. One went to the client and the other went to the IT office. If you are not confused by now not worry, I am still trying to figure out the schematics myself.

The final reason for the failure was the cable that connected the switch in the Publications office to the switch in the IT office was unplugged. Either someone disconnected during troubleshooting before I arrived or the cable came loose from the connection port. The staff has mentioned cables do come ajar from the switch thus clients loosing connectivity.

As always, one things leads to another, so my next task will making sure all connections are secure.

Prayer Requests:
Continue to pray for my transition into roll as IT Specialist
Build relationships with missionaries and national staff in office
Safety as I travel to and from work on my bicycle

Praises:
Internet has been fixed
Good Health
Health