From: Boggess, Cynthia Sent: Wednesday, April 14, 2010 12:24 PM To: Osei-Poku, William Subject: RE: CMS Import Utility Error Sorry William. I emailed Alan Monday at COB to let him know that I had no other problems with the CMS and should have cc'ed you. And so far this week still no problems. So yes I do think this issue has been resolved. -----Original Message----- From: Osei-Poku, William Sent: Wednesday, April 14, 2010 12:03 PM To: Boggess, Cynthia Subject: RE: CMS Import Utility Error Hi Cynthia, I assume this issue is resolved? Thanks, William -----Original Message----- From: Boggess, Cynthia Sent: Friday, April 09, 2010 6:47 PM To: Alan Meyer Cc: Osei-Poku, William Subject: RE: CMS Import Utility Error Hi Alan, Well I think my husband has fixed the problem! He went to the basement and fiddled around with a few things and then came up and told me to restart my computer. I was then able to review citations in the import utility for about 45 minutes with no problems. Previously I was getting those error messages every 15-20 minutes. His technical explanation of the problem was that "our wireless gateway router flaked out". Although he admits that he has no idea what exactly was happening but apparently we were not loosing internet connection (which explains why I was maintaining a vpn connection) but experiencing some other sort of loss. I will not be convinced that this is 100% fixed until I work in the CMS longer. So let's see if this fix holds through Monday's work load. And as for recurrence, if he did in fact fix the problem, he has no idea if it will happen again or not. I'll let you know Monday if I have any other problems. But let's keep our fingers crossed that my husband's tinkerings worked. Cynthia Cynthia Boggess Cancer Information Analysis and Tracking (CIAT) ICF International 1803 Research Blvd, Suite 301 Rockville, MD 20850 678-906-5609 or 770-384-8976 cBoggess@icfi.com -----Original Message----- From: Alan Meyer [mailto:vrmeyer@comcast.net] Sent: Friday, April 09, 2010 5:45 PM To: Boggess, Cynthia Cc: Osei-Poku, William Subject: Re: CMS Import Utility Error Boggess, Cynthia wrote: > Alan, > I did some experimenting today and discovered that I am > experiencing disconnects when connected to the ICF VPN as well. > And even when I am not connected to either VPN. The problem is > intermittent so I am thinking that it must be a routing issue. > Either I am getting interference with my wireless network or > something with the route between Atlanta and Rockville. I > called the NIH help desk and they are checking to see if other > off-site staff are having similar problems. I also called the > ICF help desk and they want me to try using a wire (what's > that?) to test to see if my wireless network is the problem. Your wireless router probably has regular ethernet ports on the back. Assuming that your computer also has an ethernet port (most do), you can connect a wire from the computer to the router, or even disconnect the router altogether and connect the computer directly to the cable modem. Like you, I'd be very surprised if the problem is in your wireless router, but the support people are trying to look for easy fixes first - which we all try to do. It's especially easy for them (and me too :^) of course. On all of my computers there is a visible icon showing 1-4 or 5 vertical bars, like the bars on a cell phone, that show the strength of the connection. On Windows machines, this may appear in the system "tray", the space at the lower right near the clock. If you always see the maximum number of bars, then I would think your connection is solid. If you get a connection error again, check to see how many bars you're seeing. If it's low, the router, or the wireless card in your computer, may not be up to the task. If so, I can make some suggestions. > So my husband is going to do some testing and I'll keep you > posted. But I am now thinking that the errors I am getting from > the CMS are due to whatever is causing the disconnect not with > the system itself. It is still a mystery why I get disconnected > from the CMS/exchange/website and not from the VPN...If > something is interfering with my wireless connection I would > expect to get disconnected from everything. Oh well. Why you're not disconnected from the VPN is a good question. One possibility is that the VPN tolerates communication dropouts and silently re-establishes a connection. But I have no idea whether or not that's true. Another possibility, of course, is that the problem is entirely inside the NIH network. > I'll let you know what I find out or rather my husband finds > out since this issue is now beyond my brain capacity. Networking is such a highly specialized subject that even a lot of professional computer people have only a limited understanding of it. My sense is that you have no problems with brain capacity (your brain bars are registering high :) > Have a nice weekend. Thanks. Likewise. > Cynthia Boggess > > Cynthia Boggess > Cancer Information Analysis and Tracking (CIAT) > ICF International > 1803 Research Blvd, Suite 301 > Rockville, MD 20850 > 678-906-5609 or 770- 384-8976 > cBoggess@icfi.com > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Alan Meyer [mailto:vrmeyer@comcast.net] > Sent: Friday, April 09, 2010 4:49 PM > To: Boggess, Cynthia > Cc: Osei-Poku, William > Subject: Re: CMS Import Utility Error > > Boggess, Cynthia wrote: >> Hi Minaxi, >> >> I just realized that I had been getting another slightly different > error >> message. Same error # but description is different. Maybe this will > help. > > Thanks for forwarding that. > > I've hunted around the net for the error number -2147467259. It's a > decimal representation of hex 80004005, a cleaner looking but still > mysterious number. I've found references to it in quite a few different > > Microsoft documents and error reports from different Microsoft programs, > > but everything I've read concentrates only on the text error message and > > doesn't explain what all these apparently different errors have in > common to be generating the same number. > > But the message: "Communications link failure" certainly looks like a > problem somewhere in the network, not in the import utility program. > > If the problem is only happening when you connect to NIH, then we should > > assume that it's at the NIH end. One thing that I can't help suspecting > > is some interference from the NIH firewall "intrusion detection system". > > It's a heuristic pattern matching program that inspects incoming > packets of information and says, Whoa - that's a hacker! and drops the > packet or cuts the connection. [With security like this, we don't need > hackers to disrupt our operation :)] > > But that is pure speculation based on no evidence other than that we > have had other applications lose connections because of that "security" > software. The security software doesn't send error information back to > the user to let him know what happened. It treats the user as a > miscreant for whom any information is just more fodder for his nasty > activities. > > I'm only at NIH on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I'd like you to determine > your IP address if you can, and keep track of any more errors you > receive, including the date and time you receive them. On Tuesday, if > errors are still occurring, I'll see if our network people can search > the communications logs to see if they have any information about > dropped connections from that IP address or at those times. > > I'm sorry you're having these problems. I know it's a real pain to try > to work and have your tools blow up on you. > > Regards, > -- Alan Meyer AM Systems, Inc. Randallstown, MD USA vrmeyer@comcast.net