ubuntu-ngo team mailing list archive

[Brad Crittenden <brad.crittenden@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

Since this list has been quiet for a while I thought I'd start a new thread based on a recent experience.  I'm currently on an extended trip to Viet Nam where I volunteer with a US-based cultural NGO that has a small staff in Hanoi.

One of my goals for this trip was to purchase and install an Ubuntu server for the office to act as a file server for a half dozen Windows clients and to run a MySQL database.  A secondary goal was to provide access to the files and database remotely for our US-based colleagues (including me when I return).  The office has DSL with a dynamic IP address.  When I started talking to the IT guy about setting up dyndns he stated the office got a new IP address every day.  I knew DSL would often churn an IP address but was surprised to find it changed daily.  When I asked about that he said:

	"Yes we get a new IP address every morning when they turn the power to the building back on."

So it turns out the landlord throws the breakers for the building every evening at 5 p.m. and turns them back on again at 8 a.m.  The stated reason is to protect against electrical fires when the building is unoccupied but the actual reason is to save on electricity.  Since Hanoi is 11 or 12 hours different from US/East, the power is off to the server during the work day in the US.  I'm going to schedule a meeting with the landlord but I'm not confident I'll get anything changed.

On the plus side, when the staff saw how easy it was to install Ubuntu and how usable it is they asked to have me put it on their laptops.  That task will have to wait as they currently use Adobe Lightroom for image processing and aren't ready to switch now.

So does anyone else have a story of being similarly blind-sided?

--Brad