Searching for a Satellite Pager? 243
mcolgin asks: "I need a satellite pager! Why? I own a dot-com and as the only technical person responsible for the 7 servers needed to run the site and it's automated delivery systems, I've got to find out about any problems, before my customers/suppliers do; no matter where I am, especially when I'm: camping in Eastern-Washington; back-country skiing in Whistler; or driving down to Oregon for Mother's Day. I've tried every type of cellphone and pager I can find, but nothing gets a message to me once I get out of populated areas and away from freeways. So, I started looking into Satellite pagers; but I swear, I can't find anything in the local Seattle, WA area and only a couple listings online from Google searches. This has got to be a problem that the Slashdot community has run into, before. Any suggestions?"
There are many options (Score:5, Informative)
Re:There are many options (Score:3, Insightful)
The one thing I did notice with the Iridium phones is that while they work EVERYWHERE on the globe (including in the middle of the Pacific on a cruise ship, great reception despite the latency), they don't perform as well as most modern phones in steel buildings (again, cruise ship). On the deck they were great. In the large open air suites they were great. In th
Re:There are many options (Score:5, Funny)
Oooo I can see it now. Jack is out ona hike and the site goes down.
*beep* *beep*
Boss via text messaging: "Jack, the site is down."
Jack via text messaging: "WTF!"
Boss: "Can you help out?"
Jack: "kybord no good 4 typng! LOLz. cya l8r"
Good thing he's not in Oz (Score:2)
The residents reckoned that it was all of the iron ore playing si
or he can... (Score:2, Funny)
I'll run your servers! I don't eat much and I won't take up much space...
Re:or he can... (Score:2)
Re:or he can... (Score:5, Insightful)
I fail to see how, while hiking in the back country, finding out via a pager that there is an issue will help. Not be able to 'call out' with solutions....hey, he's not asking for Satellite phone info.....but Satellite pager info. Knowing that somethings is amiss leads to two results.
1), Hurredly unhiking out of the back country until you reach a location where you can 'call out' and/or solve the issue.
2), Stressing about what the outcome of the issue is while you continue to enjoy your hike.
Neither seem worthwhile to me unless you are the "only person" who can do this job and you trust no one else in your company or employ to handle the task. You really should have someone who can.
Re:or he can... (Score:4, Insightful)
Woe to the company that hires a single-man operation to maintain mission-critical systems.
If he's the only person who can manage these 7 servers, and gets hit by a bus, a whole lot of people are going to be really pissed off.
Re:or he can... (Score:3, Insightful)
"I own a dot-com..."
Presumably if the owner gets hit by a bus, a lot of WTF? is going to go down. I assume he's mission critical because, for all we know, it's him and maybe 2 other people working for the company. I've been there, you really can't have redundancies when it's just less than 10 of you trying to make this company work.
Re:or he can... (Score:2)
Re:or he can... (Score:2)
Re:There are many options (Score:2, Interesting)
As for not being able to do anything, if
Iridium 9501 Satellite Pager by Motorola (Score:5, Informative)
The Motorola 9501 for Iridium is, as I said, essentially the only satellite pager:
http://www.iridium.com/product/iri_product-detail. asp?productid=445 [iridium.com]
http://shop.infosat.com/pagers/ [infosat.com]
http://www.infosat.com/services/iridium/motorola_9 501_pager.htm [infosat.com]
http://www.satwest.com/satellite_pagers_mi9501.htm l [satwest.com]
More... [google.com]
Of course, you may be interested in a satellite handset, not strictly a "pager", than can also get email and numeric messages. Keep in mind, though, that all of these satellite devices are subject to normal satellite requirements, e.g., line of sight to the sky. Yes, sometimes they'll "kind of" work in vehicles, wooded areas, etc., and you will get confirmed delivery of messages once you're again in range, but these things aren't exactly set up to work in houses and buildings. You may have no choice but to have a conventional cell phone/pager AND a satellite device for when you're remote, and have your automated systems and/or people try both devices.
For others in a similar boat, but not quite as remote as the submitter, you may also consider a conventional 2-way or 1.5-way nationwide pager, which provides delivery confirmation and re-attempts if you're temporarily out of range. But if you know you're going to be out of range for a while, you pretty much restricted to something like one of the satellite solutions. Consider a mobile phone. Most providers' digital networks offer email service, numeric "paging", and even true TAP/IXO paging. Just look into a provider that covers your area(s).
A bit of history on Iridium: Iridium was the satellite phone service launched by Motorola on Sept 23, 1998, when the last satellite of its global constellation was in place. Handset prices (over $3000) and airtime fees (several dollars per minute), as well as attempting to market to ordinary folks doomed the service from the beginning. Motorola decided to end the Iridium service on March 17, 2000, at 11:59pm. After billions were spent on the 66 satellites, and the $1 million per month that it cost Motorola for Boeing operate the satellites, Motorola initiated plans to deorbit and destroy the constellation. Various investor groups attempted to save Iridium, and the Defense Department even provided $72 million to keep the satellites operational (in the face of concerns of debris from the deorbited satellites actually hitting someone on earth, which NASA pinned at 1 in 250). In any event, Iridium Satellite LLC successfully purchased the assets of the $7 billion Motorola Iridium program in November 2000 for a mere $25 million:
http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0011/16iridium/ [spaceflightnow.com]
http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/29iridium/ [spaceflightnow.com]
The new Iridium, launched in March 2001, attempts to fix the shortcomings of the original by expanding beyond satellite voice telephone service, into data, video, realtime monitoring, and special applications in markets such as mining, oil/gas, m
Are the sats about to be replaced ? (Score:2, Interesting)
A total of 88 satellites were launched beginning in May 1997, but several malfunctioned after arriving in orbit.
Lockheed Martin Missiles & Space built the satellite platforms and said the craft would operate up to eight years. The Iridium constellation is divided into six groups of satellites circling 421 miles above Earth.
So... 1997 + 8 years = 2005.
Are they replacing satellites that have reached EOL ?
Re:Are the sats about to be replaced ? (Score:2)
I imagine they can be pushed into 2010 if they've survived so far. Coverage will slowly recede during that time, but since its not 100% coverage to begin with, they can still sell 'global' phones and pagers.
Re:Are the sats about to be replaced ? (Score:2, Informative)
Are they replacing satellites that have reached EOL ?
Iridium currently has about a dozen spare satellites in orbit, in addition to the 66 operational spacecraft. While the earliest spacecraft have reached their originally-estimated EOL, the satellite constellation remains quite healthy, and company officials have indicated (based on independent studies) that the existing constellation should remain fully functional until around 2014 [iridium.com]. This gives the company plenty of time to plan launching replacement
Re:Are the sats about to be replaced ? (Score:2)
Iridium is not global (Score:3, Informative)
The polar regions are also barely covered; that was the reason I was looking for a pager in the first place.
Re:Iridium is not global (Score:3, Informative)
The exceptions for Iridium seems to be: "The four Restricted Countries where the Iridium phone will not complete a call to the local phone system are: N. Korea, Poland, & Hungary. " (yes, there is only three, but see for yourselves at wwwg.lobalcomsatphone.com)
Re:Iridium is not global (Score:3, Informative)
Ahem. Inmarsat [inmarsat.com] has been around for decades and covers all of Africa. There are local agents who can hook you up with rental Inmarsat briefcase-sized communications units. Inmarsat has also had fax, store-and-forward, as well as packet data for a long time and have in recent years been providing high-speed data, too.
I have one (Score:5, Funny)
Yea, sleep in the server room.
Re:I have one (Score:3, Funny)
Re:I have one (Score:2)
Re:I have one (Score:3, Funny)
Personally I use the "Red Alert" sounder from Star Trek TNG -- works rather nice for the purpose, and even if I am nowhere near the server room someone runs over to find me in panic. Something about that sound that makes people freak out, especially non-geeks.
-Em
OT: star trek sounds, and computer voice (Score:2)
I used to run misterhouse [misterhouse.net] at my old dwelling, I had it set up to do basic alarm functions based on a door switch, and an ibutton for authentication. I had it play clips in the ST computer voice as prompts. "Please enter security authorization", "authorization accepted" etc. I always wanted to find a voice synth that I could just plug in to misterhouse. A man can dream.
Re:OT: star trek sounds, and computer voice (Score:2)
there are a ton of audio gems like that out there.
But seriously, misterhouse can use a voice synthesizer (along with speech recognition) to do some really cool stuff. If I could find an approximation of the star trek computer I'd be one happy geek.
Sigh, here we go again... (Score:3, Informative)
First, I googled Satellite Pager [google.com] and found out that Motorola used to make a pager called the 9501 for well known satellite phone company Iridium [iridium.com]. Next, I checked a few of the first links. I found that the Motorola 9501 has been discontinued but originally retailed for $149.95. I also found that the service had a $100 activation fee and was $69 a month, and Iridium still offers it. Ahah! Theres something! So then I clicked on the seventh link down [wcclp.com] and found out that a company called World COmmunications Center sells refurbished ones for $195. You can buy the pager from them and activate it with Iridium's service. There's a link that says How to Buy [wcclp.com] on the WCC page that lists their phone numbers, including one in Portland, OR. Close enough for Seattle for ya?
Now I could probably find more, but I have to be back at work in 20 minutes and don't really feel like more googling. So enjoy, I hope this works for you.
Ask Slashdot: For When You're Just Too LazyTM
And oh yeah...FP!
Re:Sigh, here we go again... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Sigh, here we go again... (Score:3, Insightful)
What would be even better is someone in a similar position who found some solution that's better than a satellite pager, which never occurred to the O.P. Web searches just don't work when you don't understand your problem well enough to reduce it to a few keywords
Re:Sigh, here we go again... (Score:2, Insightful)
um... (Score:3, Insightful)
http://www.wcclp.com/index.php/phpmPage/Services_
if by local to Washington you mean "anywhere on the planet", then this should work.
Sounds like.. (Score:2)
Besides, it's probably cheaper to hire some guy that always knows where you are and will physically come out and find you if something happens.
Grizzly situation (Score:4, Funny)
Yesh, the last time I was in the woods a hundred miles from the nearest road I was amazed what the 802.11 sniffer was pulling in. I guess the grizzly bears use it to track the tastiest hikers or something and get out the word.
You've intruded on a live fire zone (Score:2)
from here [ucdavis.edu]
DARPA funded WolfPack technology is a soda can sized pod, deployed about 1 per sq. km, is designed to replace or supplement similar technologies that currently reside in aircraft. Because of proximity to enemy radios, less power is required to jam signals. Ad-hoc networking and multi-hop routing are used to control and retrieve data from the network, which can also monitor enemy communications in addition to jamming them. The pods are designed to last for about 2 months.
Holy cow. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Holy cow. (Score:2)
The options are: don't have a life or find some other job or career.
If a company can't do without an employee for a weekend, then that company is either in trouble anyway or are inviting trouble.
Re:Holy cow. (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd agree with you, but for an entirely different reason than he "should" for his own good...
This strikes me as a simple matter of practicality. I personally enjoy hiking. I hike places where I can't get a cell signal. In such places, even if I could get a signal, what good would it do me? With up to six hours to get back to town, would knowing my servers just cooked really do me any good if I didn't have someone "back at the ranch" to fix the problem for me in the first place?
Someone either needs near-perfect uptime, or they don't. If "ASAP" means five minutes or less, the job requires a body, not a pager. If it means the company's sole tech can afford a few hours to get back to civilization, then skip the pager and have fun while out, rather than spending the whole time worrying about getting a page.
Re:Holy cow. (Score:2)
It's likely that he's just an ueber-pimp and all his bitches are paging him for business purposes. The servers are probably low-maintenance and it could be a porn business that he's running.
He simply needs to send a page back that says something like, "000-911" which means "No Bitch, make that fucker pay you more money."; or "111-911" which may translate to "Yeah baby, take that cash and have my money when I get
Re:Holy cow. (Score:2)
You'd ssh to your serial console box from your phone (which you can do on any halfway decent phone these days, at least in GSM-land), and reboot the machines or whatever you need to do. If there is a hardware problem and you have no hot standby you could be out of luck, but otherwise, with a little preparation, a cell signal is enough to handle most problems
Option 1 isn't an option (Score:2)
Re:Option 1 isn't an option (Score:2)
I agree with your post in general, but just a comment on the whole jury duty thing. I've been called a few times to show up for jury selection back when I ran a one man show and, while it would have been interesting, I wrote back explaining that in my business if I'm not there, there is no business. The result? A nice letter stating that I'm exc
Re:Holy cow. (Score:2)
Re:Holy cow. (Score:4, Interesting)
He does run a spamming farm, as far as I can tell. Here's the site in his info:
http://www.digitalcandle.com/ [digitalcandle.com]
So mostly search engine spam.
Re:Holy cow. (Score:4, Informative)
Look a little further about their "Level 2 Marketing services", at:
http://www.digitalcandle.com/marketing_info.html [digitalcandle.com]
Your product's marketing campaign includes:
[...]
* promotion of your product on the DigitalCandle web site and in our targeted, opt-in e-mail marketing programs.
In all fairness, a quick search through my spam archive (which is about a year of spam) doesn't yield any hits on "digitalcandle". And a search of news.admin.net-abuse.sightings [google.com] yields only seven hits.
Another thing that makes ya go hmmm... (Score:2)
From the main page, it seems that one of Digital Candle's products is Go!Zilla [gozilla.com] -an ad blocker and a download manager.
According to the site GoZilla is Ad-Free [gozilla.com].
Which begs the question - why is Go!Zilla offering companies the chance to advertise with GoZilla [gozilla.com]. I mean, if the product isn't adware/spyware, how would you advertise with it?
GoZilla... (Score:2)
Anyway, GoZilla is hooked up to a DSL conx (netcraft says): dsl254-055-066.sea1.dsl.speakeasy.net
Re:Holy cow. (Score:2)
Opt-in e-mail is not spam. Opt-out email is spam.
Real Opt-in email is not spam, but... (Score:2)
I have no idea about this particular company, of course.
Re:Holy cow. (Score:4, Funny)
Why would it have to be local? (Score:2, Interesting)
Priorities (Score:5, Insightful)
give you the free time, or realize you're in a
phase of your life where fun vacations are not an option. Get used to this. Pagers will always fail.
With a human, you can at least use employement
to make sure they're at the keyboard.
I personally recommend you examine your plans
to provide reliable service to your customers,
and critically evaluate whether advice from
slashdot is part of your solution matrix.
Are you a SPAMMER?! (Score:5, Funny)
Is the only one responsible *check*
MUST maintain 7 servers (e-mail servers?) *check*
Talks about clients and his "dot-com business *check*
Question: Are you a SPAMMER?! Cause you sure fit the profile
Re:Are you a SPAMMER?! (Score:5, Insightful)
That would explain the reference to "it's [sic] automated delivery systems" in the question.
Oh the irony, a spammer asking slashdot for help, and getting it before someone spots the obvious.
A more appropriate pager... (Score:3, Funny)
*tries to recover quickly.*
Hey, original poster, if you're out hiking in a stormy region and looking for a great satellite pager, you can't beat the reception on this model [scoop.co.nz].
Why Local Provider? (Score:2)
It's a satellite phone. Order it from anywhere and it should work, right? That's the point. Any one of those Google results would work. Here's one. [infosat.com]
bankruptcy (Score:4, Funny)
Yes. The dot-com boom ended several years ago. Ditch this company and become a waiter, before you go retroactively bankrupt.
Lackey. (Score:5, Interesting)
Sure, he (please substitute she if appropriate) won't know how to fix everything. But he will call your customers to let them know a technical person *is* on site, ring your cell incessantly till you pick up, put your pager on the wardialer.. And for simple stuff, IE, service didn't come up on restart, or UPS warning some of the batteries just went south, you just saved yourself a trip back to Seattle.
Re:Lackey. (Score:3, Funny)
You know, I was just thinking "I am *so* glad I don't work for this guy"
Anyone who did would wind up with no life at all. So the LUG suggestion is a great one.
Nothing lost, nothing gained, as they say!
Re:Lackey. (Score:2)
Microsoft is bemonaning the lack of H1B talent, not talent per se.
Weak Link (Score:4, Insightful)
Good Solution... (Score:2)
I know of a good sat pager solution, but it only works while kicking back with some babes in a cigarette boat off Miami. Funny thing.
Do you believe in backups? (Score:2)
Now you tell me that you are the only person who is looking after seven different servers? And you think the best solution to this is better communication? Umm, no. The best solution to this is to contract somebody else to act as y
Re:Do you believe in backups? (Score:2)
I really hope you don't think this is enough to guarantee uptime. What happens when your first set of machines get hits with a worm that you haven't patched to, yet? Re-imaging won't help you, there--the worm will probably be back on
uh ... (Score:2, Interesting)
What is the real use here? (Score:3, Insightful)
Before you start with the whole "He can tell his IT people to fix the problem," remember that he said he is the only IT person in the company. What's he going to do, call his accountant and talk her through viewing the logs and using vi to edit the config files or something?
Wait! Maybe he plans to mind-meld with the sat-pager and surf the virtual net back to the server and fight the bugs like in Tron! This guy is cooler than I first thought. I'm in awe.
Re:What is the real use here? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:What is the real use here? (Score:2)
Digitalcandle.com (Score:2, Interesting)
Bragging or Complaining? (Score:3, Insightful)
<sarcasm> If you are that important, put in a roll-a-way and stay at work.</sarcasm>
Support Contracts, or simplify (Score:4, Insightful)
1) You need to go and find a consulting firm who, for a fee, is willing to be avaialble when you're not. You probably want somebody who is not too big, and local too, so they'll be flexible. If you can work it right, you might even be able to get it where you just have to call them 30+ days in advance and schedule them for when you'll be out of range.
2) Simplify your operations. Anything that you can't explain in 5 minutes to a reasonably intelligent person is too complex. This will have two benefits. 1- simpler systems will tend not to break as often, as you can see the problems on cursory examination. 2- You can trust somebody who maybe isn't a sysadmin/uebercoder like you, but can handle a bash prompt.
I've adopted #2 now, but in the past had #1. #2 is _by far_ the better long term solution.
SMS on cell phone (Score:2)
Re:SMS on cell phone (Score:2)
Re:SMS on cell phone (Score:2)
RE: Amateur radio. APRS. (Score:3, Interesting)
1. Get your license.
2. Throw up a tower.
3. Get a pII 300 for a packet box. plug it into the network. Run nagios. There's some linux scripts for getting nagios to talk to *nearly_any* software. Such as aprs. using X.25 or similar.
4. Get a laptop for your car and an HF antenna + mobile 100w rig.
5. Have it send out automated heartbeats every ten minutes w/callsign. And warnings when it's worse.
6. Have lappy pump juice into a claxon or similar, mounted on your car under the hood.
Good for a few hundred miles.
Considering my mom talked with people around the world with 100 watrs all the time using PSK31 (about IM chat speed text data transfer.)
You could do better with directional antrenna.
Re: Amateur radio. APRS. (Score:3, Informative)
Re: Amateur radio. APRS.--NOT LEGAL (Score:3, Informative)
One problem....
He's running a business, and well that's not really amateur than is it? What you are proposing is actually illegal.
Please see part 97 of the FCC rules, specifically section 113, 'Prohibited transmissions'
FCC rules 97.113 [gpo.gov]
-Mikey P
Re: Amateur radio. APRS.--NOT LEGAL (Score:2)
You're all bastards (Score:2)
If I knew with 100% certainty that I could be contacted if there was a problem I would be able to enjoy my vacations much more. But since I can't I['m always driving around
Re:You're all bastards (Score:3)
Did you ever consider that that might be/have been part of your problem - that only the people with those traits would deal with the flack?
Re:You're all bastards (Score:2)
Most of the people I deal with can barely read, so no I really don't think I look at most people as incompetent by default... It just seems to work out that way here, but the town where I live is pretty bizare.
Re:You're all bastards (Score:2)
I can also keep a network of approximately 120 desktops and 6 or 7 servers up and running. In fact, it's how I worked my way through college (I was the network analyst and lead technician at a fairly large non-profit for four years).
I will concede the point that it's not easy to get good help (in my case it was largely because I didn't have as much of a say in the hiring process as I should have), but it is possible.
If nothing else, try looking to the area universiti
Re:You're all bastards (Score:2)
Re:You're all bastards (Score:2)
Solving the wrong problem the wrong way (Score:2)
Never mind that satelite pager is still not 100% reliable (nothing is)but what the heck are you going to do when you get that page???? Now you need satelite based data service for your laptop. And how much can you get done at 2400 baud(isn't it the bandwidth cap for irridium?) I am not even mentioning insane latency making ssh nearly impossible??? And what happends when its a hardware issue that you need to call someone? So now you need a satelite phone. You can go on
Not to be critical... (Score:2)
You need to invest in a good technical team if
Wrong approach. (Score:2)
The cemeteries are full of people who deem themselves indispensable. If you're not able to leave your pager at home when you're off, you've got the wrong job.
"Simplify, Simplify". H.D. Thoreau had a point, don't you think?
NN
And how do you fix the servers? (Score:2)
It's no good being three hours from civilisation only to find that your servers are down and you can't do anything about it =)
Dude... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
satellite phone! (Score:2)
http://www.gmpcs-us.com/products/globalstar/Gst_s m s.htm [gmpcs-us.com]
http://www.satphonestore.com/sms.htm [satphonestore.com]
http://www.textually.org/textually/archives/2003/0 8/001300.htm [textually.org]
Definately check out http://www.iridium.com/ [iridium.com] and ask how recieving an SMS works - same as normal?
Not Alltel or Suncom (Score:2)
Welcome to South Carolina.
No, you do NOT need a pager... (Score:2)
Where I work, we're always hearing about how we need to be sure to properly document and do knowledge transfers to others on our teams just in case the lead gets hit by a bus. As much as we laugh about it, it couldn't be more true, because after the sad eMails go around the office, people will want to know how what the dead guy was responsible for is gonna be kept going.
What good will it do? (Score:2)
What good is it to get a page when you are back country skiing if you are truly the only tech guy there is? If the servers are all down, you can't very well VPN/telnet in (or choose your remote technology) and fix the problem. Bottom line is you're still stuck away from the machines. I'd have to think it would be more cost effective to have a slightly trained person monitor the status, via a normal phone or pager and then leave you a message at your hotel or whatever. Then you can call this person back
Ultra mission critical and no watchdogged spares? (Score:5, Insightful)
1) You are the only sysop.
2) You've got 7 servers that must be up 24/7.
3) And you haven't even a single backupped spare with a watchdog to switch over when things go haywire?
Sorry, pal, but you're either bullshitting us or you gotta get some basics of your outfit sorted out before thinking of a satellite pager or other exotic stuff - that is not your current problem.
Having dealt with that, I recommend http://www.iridium.com/ [iridium.com] for all your satellite communication needs. They are the satellite phone people. And they have a satellite SMS aswell.
Re:You're a jerk (Score:2)
Of course, if he starts up a small business, he'd like to be in control: it's his money and his idea to start the business. If it fails, the employees just move on to another job, but he is out hundreds of thousands or millions of his own money. Of course, his way is the right way because he has to live with the consequences of his decisions.
And, of course, he hates to have employees, because they are a risk, require a payroll, administration, management, and all sorts
Re:You're a jerk (Score:2)
Well, maybe to you, your job is just a job. To other people, it's a passion.
It's very unhealthy for both IT person and company to rely on single person for carrying out the firm's IT needs, especially when customers are paying.
Or maybe the company delivers such a specialized product or service that the customers are coming specifically to it because of that person.
Maybe there are small businesses in which people are interchangeable like cogs. But
Re:Don't leave. (Score:2)
Re:Here's the solution (Score:2)
Re:In the woods wihen the server goes down (Score:2, Funny)
If a sysadmin shits in the woods and nobody hears him does it make a sound?
I am sure. (Score:2)