Any launch you can walk away from...

(being the completion of Bandwidth Battles in the service of the State)

Last Friday, having determined that bandwidth issues were conflicting our attempts to launch the virtual space mission at school, we scheduled an early test of the full system, before the state-mandated tests would again choke the datastream.

And, that test failed. AAARRRGGGHHH I was losing my mind, again two phones to the head and trying to navigate tests on the system, this time my partner was there to keep hacking on the Skype connection while I started running speedtests-we quickly determined that there was still something severely limiting our upload bandwidth. I dashed up to the headend room and jacked into the first switch out of the server-THEN I got decent download speeds but STILL had next to nothing upload. We called the school's network administrators and, lo and behold, found out we were getting terrible bandwidth on the upload from our ISP-they were already working on it, but our Friday test was dead in the water. We were going to have to go naked into the breach Monday morning.

Monday morning I ran a speed test at 6:40 a.m. and got better-than-nominal down and upload speeds. Things were starting to look better, but we weren't going to be able to really test the connections until 1/2 hour before launch--I had my hands a bit full anyway, since we'd decided to move the whole mission up to the library, closer to the headend room, where we could count on the best connectivity in the building. I still had to create and implement a layout for the 5 flight control teams and assure there would be no issues with that. Got that done and awaited the 10 a.m. test.

As we started the test, got the Skype connection up but immediately started dropping the call again. I got the University tech on the line and we started hacking away again; several tests into the problem-solving we were able to determine a key port was being restricted by the network firewall and filters. Pat got the net admins on the line and got that fixed and voila, I got the student machines onto the website and fully operational. Still having Skype problems, though. And the clock was ticking, ticking, ticking...we finally persuaded the net admin to blow our Skype computer's I.P. past the firewall completely--NOT SOMETHING I WOULD DO OTHERWISE, I ASSURE YOU! but THAT did the trick! We got Mission Control up and linked right as the kids were walking in to start their mission.

And after that, the mission flew smooth as buttermilk. It's a really cool e-mission, taking the kids from launch to docking and then SURPRISE! a solar flare erupts and the lesson starts-you guys have to work the problem and save the ISS crew from deadly radiation from a solar flare! And the kids got right into the spirit of the thing, manning their posts, working the math, working the problem. It was totally cool, totally worth all the effort.

Now, if the next three missions just launch a bit smoother......