So a while I replaced the home network. Threw out lots of old cruddy gear which had been super reliable, with brand new super fast gear. It's also been reliable, no issues so far. Well except for two. On the second day of using the new gear, the Internet connection (PPPoE) dropped out (only for 30 seconds) 5 times. So I was sure I'd done something wrong and didn't have a clue what it might be. Turns out on the first of the Month our ISP NowNZ drops PPPoE a few times for billing purposes, it's so quick most people don't notice. But of course I did. So that wasn't my fault, it was just perfect timing to make me think I'd stuffed something up. Great.
Then a couple of weeks ago Sarah mentioned "Do you think some things are a bit slower since you upgraded the network?" This is of course not what I wanted to hear, it was supposed to be quite the opposite, better and faster. Anyway long story short, after a shit tonne of debugging, the problem wasn't me, it was something else out the Internet that had decided to break about a week after I put all the new gear in. One of the CDN networks is having some sort of problem. I verified it by changing the router software I was using (went from pfSense to Vyos, no difference) then even rolling back to the same physical hardware I'd orignally chucked out. No difference. So thankfully not my fault, but again caused me about 4 nights of debugging and looking at packet traces trying to figure out what was broken. I adjusted MTU, MSS, QoS, interface speeds, restarted the ONT, all sorts. The reason none of it did anything was because it wasn't my fault in the first place. Which I'm glad about, because if I can't run a home network I should just give up everything.
Last weekend we drove down to Dannevirke for Jen's 40th birthday. After a nightmare getting everyone and everything packed up in the pouring rain we were on the road about an hour later than we'd wanted to be. We arrived in Dannevirke and dropped Beth and Theo off with Peter, Mary and everyone else. Then we zipped on down to Mangatainoka which is where the famous Tui brewery is. There we caught up with Jen, Cheese, Holly, Age and lots of their friends for an afternoon in the sometimes sun sometimes rain, having a bunch of beers and just generally an enjoyable child free time. Then reality beckoned so we drove back to Dannevirke for Amy's birthday party (well and Sarah's too) at Wendy and Rex's. It was a good party, but I was knackered by about 9pm, I think the ongoing effects of the cold plus having had a bunch of beers at Jen's party. We all went to bed for the most agonising sleep ever, both kids were on their airbeds and Beth tossed and turned all night and man are those things noisy. Theo also woke up a bunch of times unhappy about various things. Basically every half hour a child would malfunction. Made for a really rough night, but we eventually made it through. Had a nice breakfast, had a little Birthday singsong for Sarah because it was actually her Birthday (I got her a new iPad, not a very exciting present sorry my dear). I had made her the World Famous Guinness cake so we all had a slice of that before packing up the car and heading back home. All children were put to bed for a sleep which they both needed, then the adults had a sleep too cause man what a rough night!
Not a very exciting week, can't think of much to report. It rained a lot. Yesterday I took Theo swimming, while Sarah took Beth to Charlie (Boy's) Birthday party at Inflatable World Napier. It was stonking hot yesterday and Sarah said the shed was unbearable. All the kids loved it, though they were all apparently bright red from being so hot and bouncing around heaps. After swimming Theo and I slowly made our way over to Mitre10 for a look around, a few items to be purchased and a little snack at the Cafe (plus of course the mandatory play on the playground)
Saturday afternoon while Theo had a sleep Beth jumped in and out of the pool by herself, she's getting really confident in the water which is great. As long as she's got her little life jacket on she's happy enough (after building up the courage which can take 15 minutes) to do that. Actually on Friday at her swimming lesson Sarah said that she swum all by herself (no buoyancy device) from the mat to the landing bit, which is amazing! Well done Beth. Once Theo woke up they just played out the back for a while, then Beth went to bed totally knackered and Theo helped me get some dinner for Sarah and I.
Today we went out to Havelock North, first we stumbled across one of those places that makes Icecream before your eyes on a super cold plate. That was pretty neat, the kids LOVED it. Theo even ran up to give the lady who made it a hug, it was pretty cute. Then we went to Keirunga Park Railway for the morning, meeting Joseph, Isla, Holly and Age, Maisy and Wal. Had a great time there, the kids went on 3 or 4 train rides which they of course loved. Theo was so excited, as expected, I bet it'll get mentioned about 50 times this week. Often when he goes to sleep at night he says to us "See the World?" which means "Will you take me Train World tomorrow"? He's only been 4 times, but he loves Train World. There is also of course the even popular "See the fains?" which means can we please see the Trains tomorrow.
So here we are, I'm catching up on my diary while the kids sleep, after that Mooney Gang is going to come over for a swim because it's a stinking hot day today. Jeremy's stopping in for a visit with his girlfriend Nicole on Tuesday night, I just spoke to Dad too and he's got a busy week getting his Gallstones removed on Tuesday. Mum and Bill are arriving I think end of the week or early next week. And so's Cyclone Gita which is just great!
Tim
Other things I remembered from last week:
The hot water has been so slow of late. I was sure for a while it was the bath taps at fault, so I spent an hour a few months ago swapping the hot/cold pipes over. Only to find it made no difference! Bugger. Eventually last week I realised hang on, hot water all over the house is really slow flowing. I rang Gemco who did the original install when we got the new kitchen. They came and said actually there were rocks/fine particles stuck in it. They cleaned it and boom, back to super fast hot water again. Have to get a filter fitted to the house ingress though.
And huge thanks Adrian, he mounted the kitchen TV on a bracket for us yesterday. Means we can swing it in and out etc and move it around. Very handy. Thanks Uncle Age!
Edit Edit: I found a bunch of other techies disucssing the problem I encountered here.
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