PEAK Internet

The Anatomy of a data center UPS upgrade

Providing a centralized source for surge filtered and redundant electricity, the Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS) is easily the most critical infrastructure component of a data center. This critical disposition makes an upgrade to a data center a complex and tedious task, especially when maintaining uptime is crucial.

PEAK’s engineers have been planning and evaluating an upgrade to a new UPS to replace the aging unit currently in place. After careful consideration, a unit was selected that will occupy less space in the data center and provide more capacity for equipment. The process to upgrade to this new unit will start early in the morning and be finalized several hours later, as the plan dicatates.

General steps involved with this upgrade include:
• Starting back-up generator and transferring all services from data center to the generator.
• Moving UPS equipment into data center in a staging position.
• Ensuring all phases on current UPS are ready for back feed. Bypass current UPS and shut it down.
• Initialize new equipment and switch power cables from old unit to the new unit.
• Remove the old UPS and position the new UPS into new space.
• Complete start-up procedures on new UPS unit and transfer load from temporary bypass circuit.
• Shut down generator and transfer load from generator to city grid power.

Originally scheduled for late August, an equipment inventory issue caused the upgrade to be delayed until all the various resources could be scheduled again. The next available timeframe is in mid-September. More updates will come as this project timeline solidifies.

PEAK provides Wi-Fi access for da Vinci Days festival

It’s a true indicator of our digital dependence when an outdoor festival has a requirement for Wi-Fi access.  But then again, when you consider the theme for da Vinci Days – “Oregon’s premier Art, Science, and Technology festival,“ it starts to make sense that undertaking an innovative approach to providing Wi-Fi access in a park is a great idea, and also a technological feat worthy of display.

The rooftop of Callahan Hall was used as a transmission point to reach the festival grounds and the main PEAK office

Enter PEAK Internet’s team of industrious and resourceful wireless engineers to answer the call and build a custom network that spans several city blocks to connect the festival grounds with PEAK Internet’s Corvallis office.  Custom is the keyword; this connection is chained together using different radio frequencies and several different pieces of equipment.  In the end, providing a reliable service that hundreds of users can access throughout the festival for productivity or leisure. Here is the summary of the PEAK project provide Wi-Fi service for the da Vinci Days Festival:

• Equipment was staged at four locations to get bandwidth from the PEAK office on Western Blvd. to the festival location adjacent to Oregon State University.
• The bandwidth was backhauled from PEAK over a 3.65 GHz link at 10 Mbps to a broadcast station on the top of Callahan Hall on the Oregon State University Campus.  From that station, the signal was broadcast over 5 GHz to two field units placed on the festival grounds.  Festival users access the service from two omni-directional antenna’s discretely attached to tents.
• Over the course of the festival, approximately 320 users accessed the service, drawing over 50 GB of data.
• There were no reported outages and average speeds for end-users were between 4-8 Mbps.

This is the second year that PEAK has provided pervasive Wi-Fi to the festival, where attendees and exhibitors use the access for various tasks that enrich the festival.  For example, this year many festival attendees participated in the photo safari and leveraged the Wi-Fi to upload pictures to the online service, Flickr.  This activity was in addition to the annually occurring usage, such as GPS mapping and “Green Town” exhibition.

Approximately 320 users accessed the network over the weekend consuming over 50 GB's of data

This service was done in part as a sponsorship to the festival, but more so to support a local event that has a need for reliable internet access.  PEAK is a proud supporter of the da Vinci Days festival and a technology leader in the community.  This effort was completed in support of this community-driven notion and as a way to display the expertise of PEAK’s engineering staff.

What is Internet Safety Month?

Internet safety should be on our minds at all times. But with so many aspects of our lives now online, it’s very easy to take many of our actions for granted.

The United States Senate has passed a resolution declaring the month of June National Internet Safety Month.  As a local internet provider and provider of customer-centric service, PEAK views it as an important responsibility to educating consumers about potential online identity theft threats.

Internet safety should be on our minds at all times. But with so many aspects of our lives now online, it’s very easy to take many of our actions for granted. This is particularly true if you’ve been one of the lucky few who hasn’t had any issues with compromised passwords or identity theft.

However, it is important that internet safety stay at the forefront of your mind. This is especially true for parents, and we need to be sure our kids are thinking about these issues too. Whether you are banking, booking travel, shopping, downloading music or playing online games, you could potentially be leaving yourself vulnerable to unseen dangers.

The U.S. Senate designated June to be National Internet Safety Month, to serve as a reminder to us all of the importance of smart internet usage. Take some time to think about your day to day internet habits. Are you taking the proper precautions to stay on guard against identity theft? Are your passwords strong? Do you know what sites your kids are visiting regularly, or even how much time they are spending online?

The FTC has outlined seven basic practices to keep in mind as you surf the web that can help you be safer and more secure online. Raising your awareness can go a long way in minimizing your chances of being a target. Here are a few key points to help you be sure you are on the right track.

• Protect your personal information. Whenever you enter details such as address, account numbers, Social Security number, etc., find out how they are being used. Check to see if the page is transmitting your info via a secure connection.
• Know who you are dealing with. “Phishers” send spam and pop up messages making certain claims, and requests for your personal information. But don’t fall for it. Your bank will never ask for your account information by email.
• Beware of file-sharing and peer-to-peer (P2P) applications. These applications can be a great resource, allowing you to share games and music with potentially millions of users online. But these file-sharing programs may also make your computer and possibly your personal documents available to fellow users. Make sure you understand the side effects of these free downloads to ensure you aren’t unwittingly downloading pornography or viruses labeled as something else, or that you aren’t violating copyright laws by downloading protected material.

The internet is a wonderful and powerful tool for people of all ages, but by using the internet you also assume great responsibility. Check out the FTC’s OnGuard Onlinesafety resource for more tips on how you can better safeguard you and your family when going online.

HVAC Project Adds Cooling Capacity to PEAK Data Center

The installation and environmental configuration of two additional Air Conditioning units was completed in June and has provided added cooling capacity to the PEAK data center, ensuring that PEAK’s network infrastructure will stay in operation in the event

The addition of two new AC units adds further redundancy to PEAK's data center cooling infrastructure

of thermal issue.  Cooling and Heating Ventilation Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems are a crucial component in the mix of infrastructure required to keep a data center within constant operation. This post helps illustrate why all the recent emphasis and careful consideration has been dedicated to this area over the last 60 days.

At PEAK, there are hundreds of servers and various other networking devices operating 24-hours a day by 365-days a year, in high-density configurations.  Each of these devices is constantly routing packets, processing email, serving web pages, and as a result churning out the bi-product of this process – which is heat.

Servers and other network devices are very sensitive to heat.  To maintain constant operation, PEAK’s engineering staff must cool the data center and manage airflow to move heat away from the computers (see: hold/cold isles for data center).  This is a critical operation and temperatures are monitored closely by network operation staff.   Accordingly, as a part of PEAK’s ongoing quality infrastructure assessment the previous HVAC was configuration evaluated and it was decided to add additional units to the existing system.

The addition of two additional cooling units provides not only more capacity above what can be provided, but also gives the data center redundancy to operate if any one of the units fails during operation. This situation is technically called, “N+1,” where the system is still available and operating given a failure of one unit and requires that the independent back-up that is actively or passively participating in the system operation.

This upgrade was completed with no down time and will prevent any future outages related to cooling.

A few comments about online privacy for Facebook

social media is about sharing

Facebook Privacy updates

Everywhere you look; there are articles about people making poor decisions about information people are sharing on sites like Facebook. The Internet is no longer a place where you can hide out easily—friends, family, and employers are present, reading your status updates and viewing pictures from last week. That’s just the beginning—the world of social networking can be a feeding ground for identity thieves and stalkers. Steer clear of these inherent dangers associated with social networking (Facebook in particular)by reviewing a few of the guides we have listed in this blog article.

Facebook

http://www.allfacebook.com/2009/02/facebook-privacy/

http://www.wracassociation.co.uk/Files/facebook-privacy.pdf

In a general sense, there are several top-level ideas that you can apply across social media channels to keep the information you want private, segmented to your network.  First, keep in mind that the information you share on social sites is in the public to some varying degree.  The whole point of social media is about sharing and it is designed to disseminate information across the web.  Even though you have some privacy settings, other people are viewing the content you upload.

Keeping that concept in mind, you need to determine what you are comfortable sharing and others that shouldn’t be shared via the social networks.  Here are a few other concepts to keep in mind (from Consumer Reports, via Read Write Web: link)

1. Using a weak password
2. Listing a full birth date
3. Overlooking privacy controls
4. Posting a child’s name in a caption
5. Mentioning being away from home
6. Letting yourself be found by a search engine
7. Permitting youngsters to use Facebook unsupervised

ESPN 360 upgrades video player and features, becomes ESPN3

Good news sports fans, ESPN 360 has updated its video platform and has officially rebranded. Now known as ESPN 3, the service still delivers more than 3,500 live online events a year, but now with a different name and a bundle of new features.

ESPN3 takes flight with improved user interface and higher quality video

There’s a host of different advancements to be mentioned, but what I noticed right away was the increased video quality and changed interface. Video quality is certainly better and can be manually increased to HD levels depending on your broadband connection.

New features and functionality updates at launch:

• New Viewing Modes – Multiple options to watch live events, including picture-in-picture and split screens;
• New Scoreboard Module – Up-to-the-minute scores from hundreds of sports leagues from around the world;
• Stats – In-depth event stats that allow fans to track the event they’re watching;
• Section 140 Chat – Interact with other fans watching the game;
• Enhanced Schedule – Users will be able to find a specific event via improved navigation;
• Social Networking Tools –Update your Facebook and Twitter status.

PEAK provides this service to all broadband customers and it can be accessed at: http://espn3.com. Remember this service is for broadband customers using speeds above 450 Kbps. To upgrade your video experience, call PEAK today and inquire about service upgrades.

For a refresher about ESPN3, here’s a description:
ESPN3.com is a broadband network for live sports programming that harnesses the quality that ESPN has built through its TV networks. ESPN3.com delivers more than 3,500 live online events a year from your favorite sports through a rich, interactive, and easy-to-use experience. Features of the website include the ability to watch multiple games simultaneously, real-time stats and scoreboards, live chat for interacting with friends and other fans, and much more!

News and updates from DirecTV’s dealer conference

A couple weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend DirecTV’s annual Revolution conference down in Dallas, Texas. Along with me on the trip were PEAK’s President and CEO Rick Peterson and the Marketing Director of PEAK, Michael Laport. While down there we caught a glimpse of several new offerings from DirecTV; all coming out very soon in 2010.

Cinema is a new OnDemand movie streaming offering from DirecTV that allows you to rent and locally store movies, including brand new released titles, the day they come out on DVD at retail. For people who like the idea of Netflix, this is a similar offering and is exclusive to DirecTV customers. Netflix currently doesn’t offer 1080p streaming and usually doesn’t stream the newest movies until they’ve been on DVD at retail for several months or longer. A single movie will cost $4.99 for standard definition and $5.99 for HD (720p or 1080p, depending on the title).

While at Revolution we also got word that Dish Network had just released some fairly ‘fuzzy’ numbers claiming to be the first television provider to have over 200 HD channels. The only problem with this is that 57 of said HD channels are 57 movies that you can’t buy from Dish. Instead those 57 movies come pre-loaded on Dish’s latest SlingLoaded DVR, and are not available anywhere else from Dish. Another 15 of those channels are PPV and 25 more are regional sports networks; regional meaning you only get 1 or 2 of those HD sports channels depending on your geographic location, not all 25. I let you do the math on Dish’s real number of HD channels. DirecTV does not have 200 HD channels either…..yet. In the year 2010 DirecTV is launching several new satellites and is guaranteed to have well over 200 HD channels – legit 24/7 HD content filled HD channels – by the end of the year. No other cable or satellite television provider out there can legitimately match that.

3D appears to be here to stay, both in theaters and now also in our living rooms. Although I’m personally very unimpressed with today’s 3D technology (having to wear glasses is a huge negative for me), I am excited at what this means for the future of home entertainment. DirecTV invested a lot into the idea that 3D would become massively popular in the home in the next couple of years. They are releasing two of their own 3D channels in HD. One is for OnDemand content and the other, called n3D, is their own channel with exclusive content for DirecTV customers. On top of that, DirecTV is planning on rolling out a handful of new 3D HD channels, some exclusive, by the end of 2010. I’ve even heard some widely reported rumors that the 2010 World Cup in South Africa will be available in 3D HD on DirecTV. I’m getting a headache just thinking about it.

Multi-Room viewing. I know, “Finally!”, right? Those were my thoughts when DirecTV announced that this May they are finally coming out with a multi-room setup for their receivers. The Multi-Room feature is only $3.00 per month and requires at least one DVR or HDDVR receiver. With Multi-Room you can pause the show you’re watching on the DVR in the living room and continue where you left off on the standard receiver in the bedroom. Rick, Michael, and I were all able to see the Multi-Room setup first hand and it was quite impressive. The interface was very simple. The parental controls are set per receiver so if you have an R rated movie on the DVR, you can watch it on the bedroom and living room TV’s but little Johnny can’t watch it on the TV in his bedroom. That last part got me pretty excited. I think robust yet friendly parental controls are a big deal in this technology-centered age.

There will be more updates about these features and possibly even more new products from DirecTV before the end of 2010. This is shaping up to be a heck of a year for DirecTV. As a member of the PEAK family, I am very happy that we chose DirecTV as our television partner. I honestly believe that although they may not always be the cheapest choice around, they are definitely the best when it comes to variety and quality. If you currently have DirecTV with PEAK please give us a call and ask about possible upgrades and seasonal sports programming. If you don’t currently have DirecTV, please give us a call. We are local and we are here for you, 24/7.

Bandwidth increase for Petersen’s Butte Fixed Wireless

Great news for customers currently being served from the Petersen’s Butte Fixed Wireless tower.  We upgraded the backhaul wireless radio to a new, more robust technology which provides added fault tolerance and greater bandwidth capacity.  Everybody currently subscribing to services from that tower will benefit with this upgrade.  The bandwidth increased from 8 Mbps

PEAK Wireless Engineers increased Petersens Butte bandwidth capacity by more than five times

download by 6 Mbps upload on average to 60 Mbps by 40 Mbps on average.  You should notice a different when using accessing video or web pages at “peak” usage times, when traffic is most congested.

Over the past few months, we began noticing bandwidth increasingly becoming pegged with traffic during high usage times.  With this new upgrade customer’s latency will have decreased during those “peak” times of traffic flow.  In doing so we had to change our backhaul configuration which not only improved Petersons West backhaul, but also improved the backhaul for Petersons Lebanon tower.  This comes as a result of both towers being shared by a Point to Multi Point backhaul (PTMP).   Petersons Butte Lebanon tower is now on a Point to Point (PTP) backhaul between the two towers and Petersons West tower is on a PTP backhaul link to our Lebanon office.

Our next backhaul upgrade will be Knox Butte – covering the Albany and surround areas – using the same technology and radio equipment as we did on Petersons West tower.  We are planning the upgrade in the coming months.

As always thank you for your understanding and your patronage as we work to improve our network and your internet experience.

Oregon Places Fourth in Study of “Fastest 25” Counties

Last month it was announced that Benton County, Oregon ranked fourth in a study of the “Fastest 25”  Broadband List, conducted by ID Insight.  This study ranked all the counties across the country according to their internet download and upload speeds and used a proprietary BroadBand Scout database that compiled transactional data.  Nassau County, N.Y. ranked first, but Oregon had four on the top 25 list.  Following Benton County in Oregon was Yamhill County at 13th, Multnomah County at 17th, and Washington County at 19th.

Let us know. Are you or do you know of an area that can’t get broadband service?

This is great news for Oregon and specifically Benton County, where PEAK has a large presence and thousands of broadband customers. We are proud to be contributing to this pervasive broadband access and look forward to pushing it even further.  As part of this goal we have identified several under served areas and critical community stakeholders that cannot get adequate bandwidth.   This includes residential areas that don’t have access to broadband and schools that get bandwidth simply capable of supporting current teaching methods.

As Rick (President/CEO, PEAK) mentioned in his President’s Letter last month, we are looking to remedy this situation with a Federal Stimulus proposal (as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) that will provide funding for PEAK to reach these areas with broadband infrastructure.  This proposal was recently submitted and we look forward to hearing the verdict in the coming months.

I was interested in writing this post to simply point out the contribution PEAK and its broadband partners have made to Internet access availability in the areas we serve.  However, it might also be a good opportunity for readers to tell us which areas are under served.  Are you in or do you know of an area that can’t get broadband service?

ClearAccess Managed Wi-Fi & Firewall: My Personal Testimony

How would you like a one device solution for your household or business Wi-Fi service?  How does one-call troubleshooting for all your home wireless networking devices sound? Have you ever thought about ways to reduce the complexity of adding devices to your home or business network?  If you answered yes to any of these questions, then today I’ve got good news.  This concept is a reality when you combine the service and support of PEAK Internet with the functionality of ClearAccess modems.

I’m a computer and technology power user, but when it comes to my home network, simplicity is the key.  That’s why I am a big fan of the Managed Wi-Fi and Firewall service currently available within the ClearAccess modems at PEAK Intnernet.   If there is a disconnection issue among my home devices, I don’t want to spend time checking my devices, then the wireless router, and then possibly the DSL modem – I just want it to work.  Same story goes with setting up a WPA password or adding new internet-enabled devices such as an Xbox 360 or PS3; it is always a hassle to remember my password or figure out how to open device ports for custom configurations.  Thanks to my current managed solution, I’ve called PEAK technical support and had my network up and running with just one quick call.

For these reasons the ClearAccess modem is a great solution for me as a power user, but even better for people that don’t quite have a grasp on home or business technology.  Remember that with all this technology around, simplicity is the key. Leveraging the functionality of ClearAccess modems with the expertise of PEAK Internet creates a valuable Internet provider offering.

Take a closer look at the Managed Wi-Fi service that is currently available for your ClearAccess modem.  Currently a one-time fee of $20 (plus standard modem fee) is all that is required to activate and manage your wireless service.  Take my word for it, give it a try!