I had a jaw-dropping experience on Thursday.
One of the projects that I'd been involved in was installing a wireless network in the Training Center. This building has 3 classrooms that are used for a variety of courses where nationals from across PNG are taught to be better translators, literacy teachers or pastors in their own mother tongue.
The teaching staff are often in this building for a whole week or longer yet need to also keep in touch with the work that they'd otherwise be doing, either through email or accessing data stored on our network. Nationals also bring their laptops and wish to use their email. Hence the goal of letting everyone get on the network wirelessly.
Shortly after Julie and I had started here, I'd helped set up two wireless devices, one at opposite ends of this building for good coverage. Because this is normally a simple task, I thought we were done. Since then, however, we'd been getting reports that people could not connect to the network.
The Training Center is almost on the perimeter of the SIL center and, since I have no car, bike or motorcycle, need to walk there, each time carrying whatever equipment I might need. It also happens to include the laptop I've been assigned, which happens to be a bit on the heavy side.
In short, I've walked there and back at least 4 times this week alone. I've troubleshot and collected information, brought back one of the devices to the office for testing, swapped in new hardware... all with no effect. I've tested the network in both directions, from the Training Center and from the server room.
It finally struck me during my Thursday afternoon trip to the Training Center. Hold it! I'd seen the same symptoms before. I know! It was during my February project in Nairobi (see "Hey, it's not my fault! (or is it?)" - 02/20/2010), Frankly, I was stunned when I realized I knew both the problem and the solution.
I returned to the office and told Richard what I suspected: that the network switch installed in the Training Center (to which everything including the wireless devices was connected) was the problem. This was the first time the IT department in PNG had bought this model because of its lower cost but had no detailed experience with it. He took out a spare unit and Bingo! This switch was the exact same model that I'd run into in Nairobi and which God directed me to find the solution to the same issue.
Richard and I left immediately for the Training Center. We plugged my laptop into the installed switch, made the simple changes within minutes, and had the wireless devices performing perfectly. When Richard saw what had needed to be changed, how to do it, and the results, he said "I wouldn't have found that in 100 years!"
Now the staff and students are getting onto the network, getting at their data or email and getting onto the internet. We got a huge "thank you!" from the teachers of the current Hebrew course. A two month old problem was solved.
I shared this story as a praise with our Bible study group that night. One of our friends said that this was another example of why God had Julie and me come to Ukarumpa. He provided me the solution to a problem in Februrary (for Nairobi) that he knew would face also Ukarumpa in November.
How awesome is that?
One of the projects that I'd been involved in was installing a wireless network in the Training Center. This building has 3 classrooms that are used for a variety of courses where nationals from across PNG are taught to be better translators, literacy teachers or pastors in their own mother tongue.
The teaching staff are often in this building for a whole week or longer yet need to also keep in touch with the work that they'd otherwise be doing, either through email or accessing data stored on our network. Nationals also bring their laptops and wish to use their email. Hence the goal of letting everyone get on the network wirelessly.
Shortly after Julie and I had started here, I'd helped set up two wireless devices, one at opposite ends of this building for good coverage. Because this is normally a simple task, I thought we were done. Since then, however, we'd been getting reports that people could not connect to the network.
The Training Center is almost on the perimeter of the SIL center and, since I have no car, bike or motorcycle, need to walk there, each time carrying whatever equipment I might need. It also happens to include the laptop I've been assigned, which happens to be a bit on the heavy side.
In short, I've walked there and back at least 4 times this week alone. I've troubleshot and collected information, brought back one of the devices to the office for testing, swapped in new hardware... all with no effect. I've tested the network in both directions, from the Training Center and from the server room.
It finally struck me during my Thursday afternoon trip to the Training Center. Hold it! I'd seen the same symptoms before. I know! It was during my February project in Nairobi (see "Hey, it's not my fault! (or is it?)" - 02/20/2010), Frankly, I was stunned when I realized I knew both the problem and the solution.
I returned to the office and told Richard what I suspected: that the network switch installed in the Training Center (to which everything including the wireless devices was connected) was the problem. This was the first time the IT department in PNG had bought this model because of its lower cost but had no detailed experience with it. He took out a spare unit and Bingo! This switch was the exact same model that I'd run into in Nairobi and which God directed me to find the solution to the same issue.
Richard and I left immediately for the Training Center. We plugged my laptop into the installed switch, made the simple changes within minutes, and had the wireless devices performing perfectly. When Richard saw what had needed to be changed, how to do it, and the results, he said "I wouldn't have found that in 100 years!"
Now the staff and students are getting onto the network, getting at their data or email and getting onto the internet. We got a huge "thank you!" from the teachers of the current Hebrew course. A two month old problem was solved.
I shared this story as a praise with our Bible study group that night. One of our friends said that this was another example of why God had Julie and me come to Ukarumpa. He provided me the solution to a problem in Februrary (for Nairobi) that he knew would face also Ukarumpa in November.
How awesome is that?
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