As the temperature reaches 90 degrees, we can count on at least one power outage and numerous surges and spikes throughout the summer. Certain buildings and geographic areas also seem prone to summer hazards. Until you lose power, you generally don’t focus on how reliant we’ve become on electronic devices to run our businesses and homes.
The best protection for computers and peripheral devices such as the network switch, DSL or cable modem, firewall, etc. is to invest in an uninterrupted power supply (UPS) for each computer and device. Those in smaller offices can connect some of the ancillary devices to the same power supply as the nearby computers.
While a UPS costs more than a surge protector, it provides greater protection. A surge protector or power strip protects only against surges and will simply shut off if a surge reaches the strip. A UPS contains a battery and essentially serves as a temporary power source if electrical power if intermittent or turned off. Most UPS devices also do power conditioning — they even out spikes and surges, and prevent them from damaging the fragile components of your electronics. Typically, a UPS is connected by a cable to the computer and includes software to set options for shutting down. Windows XP and Vista computers, as well as recent server operating systems, will automatically recognize a UPS connected to it. You can use the built-in power settings from the operating system to manage UPS settings.
Power management
The power management settings are under the control panel. Under power options, you can choose a preset power management plan or create one. For desk-top computers, the monitor should be set to turn off after 20 minutes of inactivity. The option for the hard drive depends in part on the type of programs. If you run databases such as billing systems or practice management programs, it is highly recommended to change the power setting so it doesn’t turn off after a set time of use. There also is a power setting for the computer’s network card.
Again, most database vendors recommend disabling the power-saving option that lets the network card turn off the computer. Databases rely on a steady connection between the server and workstation. When that is interrupted, there’s the risk of data corruption. Laptops need different power-saving options from desktops. When a laptop is plugged in, you needn’t worry about extending the battery life. When operating on battery, you want to preserve the battery by choosing settings to reduce screen brightness and have the laptop enter the power-save mode after an hour or less of inactivity.
Windows computers before Vista often were pre-set to go into hibernation when the off-button is pressed. Hibernation shuts down, but saves work to the hard drive so you can shut off the computer. Prior to Vista, Windows also offered a standby mode to save work in memory and shut down quickly. While you can dig deep into Vista to reach the hibernation settings, Vista, by default, combines standby and hibernation, calling it sleep mode. This automatically saves all work to the hard drive and lets you quickly resume when the computer is restarted. While these options are fine for documents and e-mail, I would recommend taking the precaution to close any database programs before shutting down the computer. I also recommend that desktop computers have these functions disabled, even though they’re very helpful on laptops.
Options to consider
When shopping for a UPS, there are many options in terms of power as well as the number of minutes of battery time before the systems shut down. It’s also important to consider the equipment that will be plugged into a UPS. For example, you don’t need as powerful or as long a battery time for workstations as you would for a server. Similarly, if you include a phone system, you might want even greater protection and longer battery life. Many leading UPS vendors have helpful guides so you can compare different models. There also are trade-ins on older models. Be aware these devices don’t last forever and batteries must be replaced. Depending on the model, you can check how your UPS is holding up. It tracks data like how often it has had to operate on battery.
Sometimes, despite all precautions, equipment will fail. Some failures are obvious; others are sneaky. For the past six months, my oldest workstation occasionally made whirring noises but seemed to work fine. When I first heard the noises, I copied the critical files that would have to be re-installed. After a recent power outage and despite being connected to a UPS, that computer failed to start. Since the workstation was almost five years old and prices of workstations have dropped dramatically (the replacement was around $600 because I already had a monitor and speakers), it made more sense to purchase a replacement than spend time troubleshooting the problem.
Some of my clients have asked me to prepare workstation installation instructions that document how to install their legal-specific software on new or replacement workstations. Depending on the application, you might need to locate a configuration file on the server, clear the old workstation license or do other steps specific to particular programs. Following this checklist, a firm’s network technician can do the reinstallation. You may want to consider a similar document. A small investment can save time and money when upgrading or replacing workstations.
Elusive failures
Other equipment failures can be harder to identify. Several days after the power outage, I was doing a remote session with a client when I lost the connection and a little popup screen on my workstation indicated I was no longer connected to my office network. Since my telephones are voice over internet and they were still functioning, I knew I had not lost access to the internet but instead was unable to see information on my server. My first thought was to shut down everything and see if restarting the system cured the problem. While this works sometimes because it clears files that are locked open, I was not so lucky this time. As I restarted the system, I happened to notice that nearly all the indicator lights on the back of my network switch were dark. Since I had upgraded my system last summer, the switch in question was less than a year old. I spoke with my network tech who suggested I purchase a new switch.
An hour and $150 later, I had reconnected all the network devices to the new server and was back in business. In hindsight, I had had several “connection” types of problems that may have been attributable to the switch beginning to fail. Unless the symptoms are as obvious as they were for me, determining a switch has gone bad can be very tricky. Even though I replaced it, I’m returning the original for a replacement under warranty. Given the recent failure, it makes sense to have a backup in case the new switch fails. Can’t be too careful, can we?
Three strikes
The expression that bad luck comes in threes certainly was true of my office network. The first was the workstation, the second was the switch and the third was a telephone line. One morning recently, one of my telephone lines had no dial tone. Several years ago, I switched from traditional phone lines to voice over internet (VoIP, short for Voice over Internet Protocol). Generally, the cost of these lines is less than POTS (plain old telephone service) and they offer additional and more-useful features.
The two main features I rely on are “simulring” so that phones ring simultaneously in more than one location. This gives us a more virtual company and allows employees to work from home while being responsive to clients. The other useful feature is the option to receive an e-mail of incoming telephone messages. So, when I’m in the field, I can see the telephone numbers for incoming voice messages and respond quickly.
Confronted by no dial tone on the phone line, I shut down my system in hope that resetting the phone modem would restore service. Again, no such luck. I called the company, which did some testing from its end and concluded the problem lay with the wires in my office. I was skeptical of this diagnosis because the wires and hand-sets used for that phone line were the same ones used for the line that was working. The vendor insisted on dispatching a service person at no charge, but I had to wait a few days with no phone service on one of my main outgoing phone lines.
When the repair person arrived, he did additional testing and, like the technician in the office, concluded the modem was working. I told the technician I had had similar issues in the past (guess they don’t make computer parts like they used to) and could he humor me and replace the modem anyway. As soon as he did, I had phone service again.
While each type of outage caused some down time, I was able to continue working around most of the technical problems (other than no power at all) and was able to see how well aspects of my disaster plan worked when put to the test.
