Adams Senior Experiences Loss of Network Connection

An Adams House senior went without Internet access for eight days recently, after network wiring failed in the House basement and Harvard Network Operations Center (NOC) technicians had trouble pinpointing the problem.

David A. Gordon ’02 described his experience with NOC as “nightmarish” and bemoaned he and his suite mates’ loss of Internet access in the midst of studying for midterms on Sunday, Oct. 21.

When his network connection went bad, Gordon said he scheduled an appointment with the computing Help Desk the following morning.

The user assistant (UA) dispatched to the room suggested the source of the problem was a faulty hub, Gordon said, but after replacing the old hub the connection still failed.

After an unsuccessful visit from another UA, Gordon said he sought the help of NOC, the specialists in charge of fixing Harvard’s network problems not caused by mis-configuration or equipment failure on the user’s end.

As Gordon learned, however, students cannot reach NOC directly and are only dispatched at the recommendation of a UA.

“NOC is an elusive organization. They don’t list their number for students to use. I actually had to be sneaky and catch the number the UA dialed one of the many times we had assistance come over,” Gordon said.

The NOC website, however, does have a hotline number for users listed, 496-4736. Eight days and four appointments later—appointments Gordon described as consisting of “UAs struggling over the phone with NOC to convince them to dispatch a technician”—a specialist was assigned to the room.

Soon after, the source of the problem was pinpointed to a faulty switch in the basement of Adams, according to Coordinator of Residential Computing Kevin S. Davis ’98.

Davis said that Gordon’s problem was one of the more difficult problems NOC has seen all year and noted that several complications made the diagnosis difficult.

Davis said other potential causes of the problem could have been an Ethernet cable manufactured with a incorrectly sized plug, a likely faulty hub, old wiring from the basement that connects the user’s computer to the network and the possibility of a bad plug on the power switch itself.

Furthermore, Davis noted that it was hard to separate a network problem from user problems, as several of Gordon’s suite mates’ computers were experiencing problems unrelated to Internet connection at the time.

Gordon said he was particularly annoyed at the fact that the NOC technician said that the A entryway of Adams, and specifically the fourth floor, had been having network problems since the beginning of the year.

Davis, after checking reports from the qweek of Oct. 21, noted that on several occasions throughout the week NOC technicians had checked the Adams House basement. He added that UAs had been dispatched almost immediately, four hours after Gordon made the initial call, and came repeatedly until the problem was fixed.

Davis said he was sympathetic to Gordon’s problem, but said that NOC did the best it possibly could, in light of the complicated nature of the issue.

“It took eight calendar days—five business days—to fix the problem. Five business days is what we have determined as the standard for fixing wiring problems,” Davis said. “Often there are three separate phases involved in the procedure. This is still a longer response time than we’d like, and on average have, but David’s problem had an unusual set of circumstances.”

Gordon complimented the UAs’ willingness to help and Davis’ politeness, but said he remained disgruntled by the difficulties of contacting NOC.

“It’s not so much the fact that there was a problem, because that happens, and ours in particular was complicated,” he said. “The hassle of actually finding the group responsible for fixing it was the major annoyance.”