WELCOME BACK JD , We Missed You (EOM)

[ViggoG]

[John D.]

Hi Viggo..!


Sorry about that - and I'll post my ADMIN note below that I sent out to my other sites late last night explaining what happened.. On my end - I am still trying to get caught up on e-mail and resetting a lot of web sites that I host for folks... But - it is GREAT to see all of you back..!!!


'Till later!


John D.


As many of you know, Rennlist, Thalist, GAF, Lattice, 40+ PCA Web sites and over 500 other web sites that reside in our systems have been off line for over 24 hours. We are working hard at resolving the problems - but a Central location in NY has gone off-line (see article below), and all are working around the clock to restore the services. For that, Con Edison and Verizon has spent the day working on bring up their lines and location. However - when/if they come up - THEY WILL STILL be on generators.


As well, when Rennlist restarts their servers, we will restart them in a timed sequence over an 8 hour time frame. This is necessary given the longevity of the overall outage. We expect to begin re-initializing our systems at 12 PM EDT, so please be patient. Here is an article covering the devastation at the Verizon NYC location.


"â?¦With heavy hearts, Verizon is trying to move ahead toward fixing its severely damaged West Street central office switch location, which stood adjacent to the Twin Towers Building 7 that collapsed.


Nearly all of Wall Street is completely dependent on this facility, and normal trading cannot resume without it (see: Stock exchanges depend on Verizon for trading to resume).


This site connects 200,000 voice lines and three million specialized private data lines. It is believed to be one of the largest telecom collocation facilities, according to a Verizon spokesman.


Babbio described the scene at the switch facility. "I just came back from the office and it's probably one of the few buildings that's still standing, but it's badly damaged," he said. "When [Building 7] collapsed, steel from that building came through our building."


"There are five lower levels," he continued. "We managed to get to Level A. Water was pouring through the basement. When cables get wet, service gets interrupted."


There is no electricity at the facility, and Verizon plans to bring in generators. That will be their first attempt to get the office back on line. "This could be a very long process," Babbio says. "The building is filled with smoke and dust. It's difficult to breathe and to see."


Because there is no electricity and water is in the building, Verizon is not sure of the integrity of the cables that are in the basement. What Verizon and all network providers do is essentially pump air into the cables to create a pressurized zone that keeps moisture out. Because electricity was down, there was no air pumped into these cables. They could be full of water, which will cause service interruptions even if the switches are working.


"We have to be careful how we do this," he says. "In layman termsâ?¦if you cover your computer at home with dirt and dip it in water and then try to turn it on, it's not going to work very long. We are trying the best we can to provide continuous services."


Verizon also lost voice switches in both of the towers, according to a company spokesman. These switches supported more than 40,000 telephone lines, but those lines are for phones that are no longer in place.


Verizon's Pentagon location continues to operate as close to normal as possible, Babbio says. "There have been some service interruptions as part of the building is very damaged." Verizon's switching equipment is working, but Babbio says it is damaged."


Again, we value your understanding during these trying times.


John D.

[Luke]