January 17th, 2012 admin
Are you trying to decide between fiber optic and copper cabling for your computer networking application? If the not-so-mere fact that fiber optics have completely revolutionized communications over the past couple of decades isn’t enough for you, CableOrganizer.com would like to share a few more reasons why you should definitely consider fiber optic cable:
- Fiber optic is so much more efficient…and secure. Compared to copper cabling, fiber optic cables can transmit far more information, with a greater degree of fidelity. Fiber optic cabling also offers extra security for the data being transmitted, since it is much harder to tap than copper cable.
- Only fiber optics can go the distance. Not only is fiber optic cable capable of carrying far more data than copper, it also has the ability to carry that information for much longer distances.
- Fiber optics can’t be interfered with! Because fiber optic cables are glass-based, they don’t conduct electricity. This eliminates the need for grounding, and makes them immune to any type of electrical interference, even lightning. Since fiber optic cabling is so resistant to interference and atmospheric conditions, it can be used outdoors — and in close proximity to electrical cables –without concern.
- Fiber optic cables don’t mind roughing it. Glass fibers don’t only escape interference…they are virtually free from the threat of corrosion, too! While copper cabling is sensitive to water and chemicals, fiber optic cabling runs almost no risk of being damaged by harsher elements. As a result, fiber optic cable can easily endure “living conditions” that coaxial cable just can’t, such as being put in direct contact with soil, or in close proximity to chemicals.
- You may be surprised by fiber optics, but you won’t be shocked. A major benefit of fiber optic cable is that it doesn’t pose a threat of physical injury to the user if it breaks. Since fiber optic cabling transmits light and not electricity, the people handling it run no risk of injury from fire, sparking or electrocution.
Let fiber optics take your telecommunications or datacom network to a whole new level.
Posted in Hardware | Comments Off on The Top 5 Reasons to Use Fiber Optic Cables
November 9th, 2011 admin
I have a running instance (virutal server) with an additional attached volume (virtual hard disk) on Amazon AWS and I need to make a snapshot (back it up) regularly. So I can restore it quickly if need be.
For this purpose the following steps are taken:
- Setup another machine either inside or outside of AWS with the EC tools (http://aws.amazon.com/developertools/351). I chose one of the preconfigured Amazon images with EC2 tools already installed and spun up a micro instance in the same region as my servers, that then controls all the backing up of all my instances. It does not matter in which region the backup server controller is spun up, but it will only make snapshots in the region the backed up volume or instance resides.
- It is vital to have a valid X509 certificate with the private key. Create it in the Security Essentials section of AWS.
- Next you will need to know the volume IDs you want to back up. They are found in the Amazon AWS Management Console under EC2 / Elastic Block Store / Volumes
- The command to use to create a snapshot is:
ec2-create-snapshot -C cert-YOURCERT.pem -K pk-YOURPK.pem VOLUME-ID -d “An optional description (I also use the $(date +%C%g%m%d%H%M%S%N) to timestamp my snapshot”This will make the snapshot appear in the Amazon AWS Management Console under EC2 / Elastic Block Store / SnapshotsYou could automate this with cron.
- From within the Amazon AWS Management Console under EC2 / Elastic Block Store / Snapshots you can create an Image from your snapshot (which then appears in EC2 / Images /AMIs) or a create a volume (which then appears in EC2 / Elastic Block Store / Volumes)
- The resulting AMI can be spun up as a new instance or the volume can be attached to a running instance and appears as an additional disk.
Steps 1 to 4 describe Backup.
Steps 5 and 6 describe Restore.
Note: I have not tested this with running databases (MySQL or PostgreSQL). If in doubt shutdown databases first then create the snapshot. Then start the databases up again.
Posted in Hardware | Comments Off on Amazon AWS: Backing up running instances with additional volumes
March 25th, 2011 admin
A list of most common issues that you will encounter and how to fix them:
The internet on your PC is not working:
Restart your PC.
Everybodies internet is not working:
Restart the data/internet router.
The buttons on your phone have turned orange:
Power cycle the phone.
The buttons on everybodies phones have turned orange:
Restart the VoIP router (usually labled V) and power cycle all the phones.
Phone is displaying “Checking DNS”:
Restart the VoIP router (usually labled V).
Microphone button on the phone has turned red:
Check the network cable at the back of the phone(the one with the square tip). Unplug it and plug it back in.
Posted in Hardware | Comments Off on Troubleshooting Common Internet and VoIP Problems