Hi all, I work for a large training college in Melbourne, Australia and two weeks ago they "upgraded" our network. Which is what they called it for all intents and purposes to us plebs. Since then, most of the functions normally controlled by the network like email, printing etc has fallen over. A senior person in our MIS department says it is the bug. They have been working 24 hours around the clock to get things right again. Seems they turned the clock forward, after adding patches etc. Everyone's computer is going haywire. Fonts are being lost, all sorts of things. I'll try and get some more information from our MIS guys explained in terms that I can't.

-- pauline jansen (paulinej@angliss.vic.edu.au), November 10, 1999

Answers

Really? pauline

Don't say it too loud in here. Y2K Pro and his idolt brother Mr. Decker wll come in schreming, that it's a fraud! That the Grinch did it! That "It's all a doomer trick".

Seriously, I am sorry to hear of the problem, but there are others having net working probs. also. Though in their case it has usually been putting in Saps and turning the software loose (with out testing).

There is goig to be a lot more net works crashing from here on out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Shakey~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-- Shakey (in_a_bunker@forty.feet), November 10, 1999.

But... but... the pollies told us it's only a "people panic" problem. Are you sure your facts are straight? Are you really sure the computers are going bonkers?

-- Larry (cobol.programmer@usa.net), November 10, 1999.

Absolutely sure. I run the production/desktop publishing/editorial area of the college. I've got work banking up, people screaming for it and people standing around doing nothing, computers that could access printers that now can't, email where we can't include acrobat attachments (or any for that matter), application direct files like Pagemaker or Photoshop that can't be opened from within Explorer, fonts that are installed on the systems and visible through Fonts in the Control Panel that are now defaulting to Courier typeface. Yesterday I passed a number of people walking around the campus and many are complaining about network problems. The admin network crashed and now so has the student network which is equally as serious. MIS have no time to attend to everyone whingeing about their problems. I'm no doomer, just trying to do a job. It's going to be another of those days! Just hope Netscape doesn't go downnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn.

-- pauline jansen (paulinej@angliss.vic.edu.au), November 10, 1999.

Can you get the roster of all installed network software that went awry?

For example, Novell or NT? MsMail, Outlook, etc?

Thanks in advance.

-- lisa (lisa@work.now), November 10, 1999.

FWIW,

Networked systems have problems all the time. Have for years. I wonder if the implication is "ITS A Y2K PROBLEM...SEE!!!!!". I suspect so. And I did notice among all the noise of your post you worked in that little bit about "they rolled the date forward". Sadly, you will probably dupe a lot of technically ignorant people on this rant board with that tactic. Give them a little wiff...and they will "complete the picture" with what they WANT TO BELIEVE. I just shake my head at you people here. I predict lots of morons will shout Y2K PROBLEM!!! every time any computer has any type of glitch...regardless of if it's Y2K related or not. Hey, mister....there are untold numbers of computer networks. Goofs during upgrades happen all the time. They get fixed, too. And few companies go out of business over them.

Sadly, due to lack of REAL Y2K NEWS THAT IS NEGATIVE...doomers here are clawing frantically for whatever they can fan into a "SEE! Y2K IS TOO A PROBLEM!!" spaz attack/rant..and help to keep the "faith" and the "faithful in line" here at STINKBOMB 2000.

Hey, what I'm saying is this: Whatever Y2K brings, face the facts and reality. Admit you were wrong or take pleasure in that you were right...whatever the facts and reality dictate. But don't try to "spin" whatever you can grab into "proof" that your concern or lack of concern is "correct". This is patently dishonest and the sign of a very weak ego and sense of self. That means don't procaim or even imply that what is not caused by Y2K is a Y2K problem or indicative of what Y2K will bring. Be intellectually honest and truthful.

How about it? (I doubt it here at STINKBOMB 2000)

-- Genius (codeslinger@work.now), November 10, 1999.

Genius....A ledgend in his own Mind. Always quick with a "the doomers will desperately grab at any thing" gambit. Yet never ever coming up with a "well it's possible!"

Old Fellow...And to be so intelligent (your own opinion of course). You must have piled a heap of years in telling us poor misguided souls how to pour the proverbial wizz out of a boot. My question is, why is it that each time you give such a (verbal) demostration for your audiance. You feet always wind up wet.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Shakey~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-- Shakey (in_a_bunker@forty.feet), November 10, 1999.

Actually, I am usually one to negate these "glitches" as being Y2K bullshit. Seems everyone can't wait to blame Y2K. I am not alarmist just sensible. Better still, I will get a report from our MIS department in boffin technospeak, no doubt, their explanation may throw some light on the subject. We're just plebs trying to do a job. By the way, it may take a couple of days or longer the way they are running around like one legged tapdancers.

-- pauline jansen (paulinej@angliss.vic.edu.au), November 10, 1999.

I'm sure y2k pro, Andy Ray and others like these fine logical professionals could fix this problem in a matter of a few hours so calm down Pauline. I would repost this, asking for their help. Just remember, this is not a technical problem. This is a "people panic" problem. If you simply don't panic, then the problem will mysteriously vanish. Try it, I'm sure it will work.

FYI, this is my style of sarcasm if you don't already know. It's one way of finding some humor out of this mess.

-- Larry (cobol.programmer@usa.net), November 10, 1999.

I run a small school network, and our network was doing exactly the same things yours is. Here's why. This summer we updated our network software, upgraded to Windows 98 and added a bunch of users. We found that our old wiring scheme couldn't support that many users and we had to replace some of it. We didn't know how to administer Windows98 over the network. We had trouble installing software on the new computers. Everything quit working. Instead of a three-week project in July, and magical new stuff for the users, we ended up crippled when school started in August. We are just now back to the level of where we were last spring. As we have learned more, and re-wired, the problems have slowly gone away. We didn't set our clocks ahead, upgrading just got us out of our area of expertise. We think we will be fixed soon. If we aren't by January, and some users blame Y2K instead of us, it will be awful tempting not to set them straight.

Anyway, my point is that my network is doing exactly what yours is, (and worse) not because of rolling ahead the date, but because of upgrading. I'll bet yours is too.

-- walt (walt@lcs.k12.ne.us), November 10, 1999.

Yep... Sounds a whole lot more like a network administrator that totally poked the puppy and finds it convienent to let you (and his boss) believe it happened because they rolled the clocks forward. What is he going to do if he gets it all squared away just before the date change? Then the date change, things get totally hosed again and he says, what?

-- (...@.......), November 10, 1999.

Well, if they turned up the NETWORK clock, they would have expired all email past the 'kill' date, done in the server volume where deleted files are held for X number of days, lost all external clock synchronization (which explains that annoying BEEP every 5 seconds from the server), plus possibly screwing up the web service. AND murdering any and all network software licenses that would have expired prior to the date they rolled it up to.

Hellfire, people call me a cowboy sometimes, but I would never DREAM of doing something like that on any network in actual use.

Time for a full disaster recovery, IMHO.

BTW, none of the above would be related to Y2K. You'd get the same problems in 1995 if you rolled up to 1998.

-- Paul Davis (davisp1953@yahoo.com), November 10, 1999.

After 12 years in digital output. I have seen everything you could imagine go wrong. I would imagine that the people who inplemented the upgrades made a boo-boo and are using Y2K as an excuse, or it's like the Quark 3.32 to 4.0 upgrade that caused otherwise crazy out-put people to go finally insane. I have not heard of any problems nor seen any out of the ones I see everyday that I would consider Y2K related. And believe me, I look. These things happen in digital pre-press departments everytime the latest and greatest new technology comes along and is put into action so to speak. I believe that would be about every two weeks now. If it is Y2K related I most surely would want to know. I have turned the RTC forward on numerous PCs, although Macs are usually the norm in printing,and have never had a problem. And by the way, fonts have always been a problem.

-- drone (digithead@printshop.ps), November 10, 1999.