Ramblings of a Technology Addict

Friday, April 4, 2003

When is an AirPort not an AirPort?

So this afternoon, I struggled for quite some time with two brand spanking new AirPort Extreme Base Stations (the ones without the modem and extra antenna jack) trying to get them to work. The end result was them finally working, but in a configuration that I considered more than a little bit weird.
Let me preface what follows with some details as to our network. We have a large Asante IntraCore 9000 Switch that does all our switching needs. We have a 5-node Wireless Network made up of Snow and Graphite Base Stations. We are distributing our IP addresses with an older PowerMac running IPNetRouter from Sustainable Softworks.
Now, we bought two AirPort Extreme Base Stations (APEBS) for our Brooklyn Office, but since we had them here for a day or two, we figure we'd test them out with the one 12" Powerbook that had an AirPort Extreme Card (APEC) in it. Why not? Sounds like cake. If only. The first one we pulled out of the box, when it was attached to the network would crash. Nearly instantly. Would lock up with multiple lights on, but would not respond to what Apple called a "hard reset" which is holding the reset button down for 5 seconds. At this point, it's supposed to restart, but it chose not to. Only power-cycling the APEBS woud cause it to restart.
Commence Call #1 to Apple.
The rep walked me through setting up while it was totally unconnected from our network. We set it up to farm out DHCP from the server, not the APEBS, connected it to the network, and Bam. It worked. Briefly.
While I went downstairs and had lunch, thinking I was victorious, it crashed. But let's first get to something the Apple Tech told me to do. He said that for a configuration like ours, what we should do is connect our LAN to the LAN port, not to the WAN port like I figured, and like the manual said. I did this, to no avail.
It was at this point that I figured out that it didn't like something about the network. I was convinced that it was the ethernet to WiFi bridge in the Airport that had eaten the big one. Not so, it turned out later.
Commence Call #2.
The tech informed me that I was setting it up wrong and told me to return the connection to our LAN to the WAN port (ah HA! Sucker.) and try again. No joy. He issued a replacement box, but I told him I had a second base station I wanted to check out.
We pulled it out of its box and set it up. It was doing the very same thing! Oh crap. Not good. Did I fry them both? Fortunately, No. It was at this point we tried to set them up with static IPs. Bingo! The AirPort was bonking on getting an IP address from the DHCP server and as a result, was eventually packing itself up and going on home to mommy, taking the rest of the connections with it.
Interesting things to learn from this:

The new APEBS can no longer be "flashed" from a desktop computer. No longer can firmware be cleared from the memory of the Base Station and be replaced.
The new APEBS will not take a DHCP address from IPNetRouter This is ponderous and I'm not sure why this is happening at all.
Some Apple Techs Are Clueless This is not a total surprise, but it was rather odd to hear that unexpected news from them about the LAN/WAN ports.
When an APEBS is locked up in this fashion, it is still viewable to the network, but not configurable. We're not sure why this is the case either. Viewing the config will either crash AirPort Admin Util or return a "you can't do that, jackass" message.
When more than one of the same thing is having the same problem fresh from the box, the problem is rarely the hardware.

It was a good learning experience, but I remain quasi-confused about the whole thing.
5:25:35 PM  comment []

The Chron on Bill King

The San Francisco Chronicle published an interview with my favorite person in Baseball, Bill King. He's been the voice of the A's just about as long as I've been alive, and has called the game during some of my happiest moments. Full of insight and poetry, Bill and Ray Fosse call the games for the A's now, and nothing gives me more joy than to listen to them. I missed it so much last year that when playoff time came around I shelled out $20 so I could listen to it on the web at MLB.com. "There's no greater satisfaction than at a critical moment . . . you have the right words and you see it right and you call it right, and that's when you walk out of the booth feeling, "Wow, it was a great day to be here."

Bill's "Holy Toledo", immortalized on Diamondvision at the Old Coliseum, was always my favorite. It was Bill and Lon Simmons that would toss it around in the event of a distinctive play.
Bill's been a constant with the A's for 22 years now, and hopefully will be for some time to come. Thanks so much Mr. King, for tirelessly following my baseball team around and telling me what they're up to when I can't be there. You have the one job I would drop everything in this world to pursue.
1:46:52 PM  comment []

HAH!

This is too funny. Tiff and I have been known to do that.
7:38:51 AM  comment []