Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2002 18:18:53 -0400 (EDT) From: BCPL.NET SysAdmin To: BCPL.NET News Subject: BCPL.NET NEWS: Storm Interrupts Service ------------------------ STORM INTERRUPTS SERVICE ------------------------ The thunderstorm that swept through Towson shortly after 3:00 PM this afternoon caused only a very brief power outage here, but that power outage caused us a whole bunch of trouble. At 3:15 PM the uninterruptable power supply for our main mail server (mail.bcpl.net) malfunctioned, taking down the mail server until I swapped in another UPS. It was back on line by about 3:20 PM. Then we discovered that the UPS for the WebMail server (webmail.bcpl.net) was running on battery power. Something (not a tripped breaker) had interrupted the electrical circuit it was on. It took only a couple of minutes to switch it to a different circuit, but... When we brought the WebMail server back up it was unable to establish a network connection. Its network interface card had fried, probably due to a power surge. It took a while to chase down and install a replacement, so the WebMail server didn't come back on line until about 4:50 PM. To top things off, something (probably a surge from a lightning strike) blew up some equipment down in a manhole out in front of our building. The manhole cover is too heavy for me to lift, but the explosion blew it right off. The manhole belongs to Verizon, but so far whatever happened down there has not affected our telephone and data lines. As I started writing this at 5:45 PM another thunderstorm was directly overhead. Keep your fingers crossed. Chip -- BCPL.NET INTERNET SERVICES 320 York Road Towson, MD 21204-5179 U.S.A. CONTACTS: -------- Web Site: http://www.bcpl.net Administration & Policy: ispadmin@bcpl.net 410-887-6180 Sales, Renewals, Account Status: accounts@bcpl.net 410-887-4172 Technical Support (Help Desk): help@bcpl.net 410-887-3297 Usenet News Newsgroup Requests news-admin@bcpl.net 410-887-6180 E-Mail & Newsgroup Abuse Reports: abuse@bcpl.net 410-887-6180 Domain Name Service Issues: dnsadmin@bcpl.net 410-887-6180 FAX: 410-887-2091