Storms with Datastorm.

A weird situation.
Yesterday a long conversation with good friend Jochen and he was asking how the Datastorm Satellite System is working on the Fuso Santek.
Good friend Jochen is considering purchasing the same system to put on his fifth wheeler and is in a stage of collecting as much information as possible.

The experiences with the Datastorm Satellite System are good.
Usually the satellite disk finds the SatMex 5 very quickly and in no time the Internet can be accessed.
Transmission speeds are high which is convenient when downloading or sending large files.
This is often the case when sending photographs to clients.
Even Skype, the VOIP telephone service, can be used because of the new and fast HN 7000S modem.
Frequently telephone calls are made from the Fuso Santek to anywhere in the world and often for free when it is from Skype-user to Skype-user.
All this was reported to Jochen.
That here was a satisfied Datastorm customer !

But today, paradoxically, there were and are serious problems with the Datastorm system.
The whole morning it was impossible to get on the Internet.
As if it had been playing with fire telling yesterday good friend Jochen the Datastorm was working so well, today it broke down.
Impossible to access the Internet…

It seems it has to do with the router.
Expert advice from the installer reached by phone instructed to re-boot the router.
This worked.
Internet could be accessed again.
But later the whole system malfunctioned again.

Now the situation is precarious.
While this posting is being typed, the satellite disk is locked to the Satmex 5 satellite but for over an hour now the TX status is: “Transmitter requesting a transmit pointing test (Txcode 18)”.
A phenomenon experienced before and the strategy is to simply wait.

What is the matter with the system is unknown.
It worked well and suddenly it stopped working well.
At a moment when tomorrow the journey into Mexico is supposed to start.

When things do not work properly, it is unavoidable to feel annoyed.
Resulting in using the F-word, the S-word and the H-word.
Besides the aggravation, these kinds of technical problems are very uninteresting.
They take a lot of time and often it is not simple to fix them.
One can take it as a challenge but in the meantime this attitude of seeing every complication as a challenge is boring in itself.
An artificial construction in the mind.

Of course a serious complication for which one is not responsible is never a challenge.
It is better to decide oneself to make an action as a challenge.
And not to be confronted by useless and annoying technical problems making life miserable and stressful by powers outside oneself.


The important thing though is to stay calm and cool.
After having gone through a period of reciting the F-, S- and H-words with the loudest voice possible.
Maybe even accompanied by kicking some innocent large stones, hurting the foot in the process.
Or smashing a bottle, possibly filled with gasoline, causing a fire spreading around the entire neighbourhood resulting in a mass evacuation of the population of Los Angeles.
After this very understandable release of aggravation the next step is reached and this is one of confidence that it is going to be all right.
Calmed down intelligent approaches to tackle the problem can be cooked up and possibly solutions found.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

We are now the morning after.
Until late last night efforts were made to re-start the Datastorm Satellite System on the Fuso Santek.
While aware that at the very same time two Russian engineers, cosmonauts in the International Space Station circling the Earth, were also trying to re-start vital but malfunctioning computers in their spaceship.

Having calmed down after a cold night of good sleep with sweet dreams, this splendid idea was received to look in the documentation files stored in the Fuso Santek for the manual for the Linksys Router, the machine suspected of causing all the misery.

The good news was that the section about troubleshooting had only nine subjects.
Mike Apache, the installer of the Datastorm Satellite System on the Fuso Santek, had explained yesterday on Father’s Day, that he suspected that the Linksys Router was off and that re-booting it would do the trick.
That worked only once.
But if electronic equipment can work once, it can work twice.

Eventually, when drinking a nice cup of Assam tea, the manual explained that when re-booting, this has to be done in a sequence.
First the modem, next the router and last the Apple MacBook Pro computer.
If this sequence is not followed, it simply doesn’t work.

Carefully the sequence was executed and the publication of this posting proofs it was 100 % successful.
Resulting in loud use of the H-word, the B-word and the F-word.
Hurray!!!
Bravo!!!
Fantastic!!!
Accompanied by fanfare music, fireworks in the sky and a serious medal awarded to the brave and successful trouble-shooter.