May 31, 2007
Someone did it!
We've always have had to print out things from various databases. When I started with Ma Bell this was done with AT&T 4500 controllers and terminals and huge line printers. From there it went to stand alone terminals and printers on 4-wire data circuits, and finally to "Work Stations" (desktop computers) and printers attached to the LAN. Here is one such printer:
The highlighted spot on the upper left is a 20-button Key Telephone Set. This predates my joining the company 36 years ago. It is still operational, in daily use. Some things are hard to get rid of. Highlighted on the lower right of the Genicom printer is the Microplex print server, with closeups on the right.
The print server is a neat toy, plugs into a standard Centronics parallel printer port to connect any printer to the LAN. All sorts of protocols, which we disable to just a fixed IP address. Since it is a fixed address, when I upgrade the LAN I have to reset the IP address. No problem, just log into the Microplex, change the address, it saves on reset, move the physical connection to the new LAN and you're done.
Except.....
We did the cutover at Hawthorne about a month ago. A couple of days ago one of the above type printers went and set itself back on it's old IP address. HUH? Where did that come from? The stored profile had been changed? It can't do that! Hey, what I like about my job is running into thing that are near impossible. Change it again, reset it, telnet in (which talks at a lower and simplier level than the http interface) and store/save both net and tcpip (redundant commands but I want the old IP to be GONE!)
That took a hour or so this morning, then it was upstairs to rip KTS jumpers. To be interrupted by a page from dispatch. Call in, a trouble ticket has been loaded to me for the Torrance Call Center. Roll. Arrive and look at the ticket.
It is a printer that is not repsonding at it's IP address.
Say what? Flip the swiches, unplug the LAN, reboot to get it to print out it's configuration -- it is at it's OLD Address! Except THIS LAN wasn't cut over last month -- it was cut over last YEAR. This printer had been rebooted several times since then, it couldn't have kept the old address. Yet it did. Don't understand this one.......
Posted by Paladin at May 31, 2007 08:42 PM