If a network crashes and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?
What do you do when your network is down? How do you notify your users/customers there’s a problem if you can’t send out an email or post something to a website? At my day job, I’m the sysadmin for a medium sized network and I occasionally encounter this problem. Here are a couple solutions I’ve come up with:
- The Web 2.0 Way: I created an IT Twitter account that I post network/server outages to. Of course, if the entire network is down, this doesn’t do much good. However, if the problem is intermittent, or if the outage is scheduled, I can get something posted to the Twitter account quickly. To get the Twitter announcements out, our IT website displays the RSS feed of the IT Twitter account. I also encourage my users to follow the IT Twitter account, if they have their own Twitter accounts.
- Listserv/mailing list: Once again, only works if the network problem is intermittent or scheduled.
- SMS: I haven’t put this one into production yet, but just about everyone in my department has a cell phone capable of receiving text messages. I just need to find a way to create call lists and automate sending out the SMS messages.
- Groove: This is a collaboration suite from Microsoft. Groove has built in IM/Messaging and will keep working on your local subnet, even if your external Internet connection goes down. Groove is a Windows only application, so your Linux and Mac users are out of luck unless they run it in VMWare, Parralels, etc.
- Old School: Posting a note on my office door and changing the voicemail greeting on the IT helpline. Old fashioned and low tech, but it works even when the network is in the toilet.
If there’s anything I’m missing, please let me know.
