Darn router/firewall combo device
I was in Dallas for two weeks exactly this time. It was really nice. I was even able to be home for Thanksgiving. I wasn't planning on it, but it was a nice bonus.
I was supposed to head down to Merida two days ago, but our VOIP provider is making a change to the network that requires changing the IP of the VOIP gateways. This in return required that we make changes in our firewall to allow the new IPs. One bad thing about our setup in the Dallas office is that the router and firewall is one appliance. Definitely not my tool of choice, but here it is for the time being. Normally this change would be a 5 minute operation, but NOOOOOOO, not this time. You see the person that had the position prior to me didn't exactly keep a full record of user names and passwords. Or if he did, he didn't leave it for me. I ended up spending about three days trying different options hoping that I wouldn't have to reset the entire router. I tried the web interface using all of our user/password combinations. I tried the user/password combinations from the VOIP provider company, no luck. It took a day to get connected to the console interface, because the serial to RJ-45 cable that we had ended up being bad. I had to make one myself. Once I got into the console mode I was hoping that it would be smooth sailing, but no. Again more problems. My predecessor had changed the username and/or password for the console admin account. ARG!!! At this point I contacted the provider company again to see if they knew of a method to reset the password without resetting the entire router configuration. They took over a day and came back with the answer of "No, there isn't a way to do that.” Obviously I was VERY happy to hear that news. 
By this time it was 11pm last night and I had to fly to Merida today. I had no other option but to reset the router. I had asked the provider to send me a config file so I could just upload it in case I needed to do the reset, but they never sent one. I went ahead and reset on my own and attempted to rebuild. Let me just tell you that this was not pretty. 
I eventually called the provider back and had them contact their on-call person to walk me through the router configuration procedure. With his help that was very simple and we were back up and running. Now I just had to configure the firewall. I started the config, but somewhere along the way I found a page that dealt with zones. When it warns you that if you make a mistake configuring zone you could lose connectivity it isn't kidding. Well, after about 30 of attempting to unconfigure the mistake I had just made I was about to pull my hair out. Then I realized that I hadn't saved the config to the memory yet. WOOO HOOO Happy Dance right here let me tell you. I copied the configuration to a text file and then rebooted the router. AHHHH back to a blank slate. I used the config information on the text file to reconfigure the router in the same manner that the tech had walked me through and the router was back up and running. At this point I did save the config to memory. I then set about configuring the firewall to open the ports for all of our servers and the phone system. Once I was done with all of that I tested, and tested. It was about 3:00am by the time everything was configured and tested. I was a little more than pooped.
Once I got home, I tested some more, just to make sure that everything that needed to be accessible from outside was. It was now 3:30am and I got to head to bed.
This morning of course the first thing I did was email people to make sure the VOIP phones were working done in Merida. They were!!! 
After that I got to go watch Emily at gymnastics. Boy was she happy that I got to go see her. Of course she did great. I really enjoyed getting to watch her tumble and walk on the balance beam. I am very proud of her.
I am now on the flight to Mexico City. I have to say I LOVE flying Mexicana. First, they ALWAYS feed their passengers. Second, the service really is very nice. Third, today when I boarded the airplane I saw that there was only one person in business class, so I asked if it would be possible to move up there. The stewardess said that normally they weren't supposed to, but she would check for me. I went ahead and sat down and a couple of minutes later she comes back to take me to the front. AHHHHH big seats, leg room, room for my laptop (where I am now writing this). I love business class. Plus the food. Let me share the menu: Butter Lettuce salad with a large portion of lightly smoked salmon, tomato and a nice horseradish dressing. For the entree I choose the beef short rib tortellini with basil sauce and parmesan cheese. Also available was a nice wine selection, but I opted for coffee due to my late night working on the router/firewall. Oh and by the way, the coffee they serve has a great flavor.
We're expecting our new call center hardware either Friday or Monday. I'm really excited to get that in place as the final move of the company revolves around that last step. Once everything is setup we can then bring in the new call center personnel and get them trained and move the rest of our crew from Dallas to Merida.
Well, I think that is about all I am good to write for the time being. I'll write more in a day or two.
Merry Christmas. Make sure you take the time to enjoy this amazing season with your loved ones and friends.