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Troubleshooting

The following is a list of questions that are being asked about administrating SunNET. It is a growing list and your questions will help flesh it out over time.

Q1. Why does a newly created link connect then immediately disconnect? Why does a newly created link not connect at all?
A1. $sunnet_utils.log contains a list of failed REGISTER commands. This property is planned to be used for other features at some point (such as link creation/destruction). If a link does not stay connected look here to see if there is an error message. If there is a message, check the password for the link (you can follow the procedure for creating a link above to also change the password. If there are no error messages, ensure that the $login:REGISTER is callable (+x) on both sides of the link. If this is not the problem, check $sunnet.ansi_compatible and be sure it is set correctly (see customization above).

Q2. Why does a link connect and then disconnect a few minutes later?
A2. This could happen if an alternate copy of a MOO’s database is brought up. Changing the password should cure this, or deleting the link on the alternate copy of the database. This generally happens with outbound links.
A link may also be timeing out on the remote side. See Q1 for a possible solution.

Q3. Why does the number of outbound messages increase to very high numbers?
A3. I don’t know. Speculation is that one site has a slow outgoing net, creating a sort of packet trap. Another possibility is that $sunnet.ansi_compatible has been changed to 1 when $ansi_utils does not exist. If the number of messages does not decrease, set $sunnet.outbound_messages to {} and see if that stops the messages from building up.

Q4. Why does $sunnet_scheduler spawn tasks continually, and what to do about it?
A4. At least two things can be going wrong here. The first is that your site is so lagged that the scheduler tasks can not be executed in a timely manner. You could kill the tasks which are waiting to run, but this may cause some unexpected results, such as causing outgoing packets to not time out and keep them from being removed from the outbound messages queue. The second is that a task has been entered into the scheduler with :schedule_every with a small number of seconds between calls. If you look at the scheduler, you should see an asterisk (*) beside tasks which repeat forever. Killing these may stop the task from respawning indefinitely.

Q5. When would I want to turn off SunNET and how?
A5. There are times when lag on the system rises due to activities by SunNET, other moo programs, and possibly tasks on the underlying operating system of the MOO. In times like this, it may be beneficial to turn SunNET off until the system cools down some. To do this, call $sunnet:shutdown(). This takes care of closing all connections and refusing to accept new connections. Sometimes, however, this is not sufficient to shut things down, especially in times of very high lag. A symptom of failure will be an out of seconds/ticks traceback resulting from the call. To shutdown SunNET in this case, set $sunnet.outbound_messages to {} and try again. If that fails, set $sunnet.active to 0 and manually boot all players whose name is of the form SunNET_XXXX.

Q6. What if I call $sunnet:init_for_core by accident? Why will a node not respond to other nodes (but the links do connect)?
A6. This resets $sunnet to installation state. This means that all options will need to be modified as appropriate for you needs. Also, all protocols have been wiped out. Call $sunnet_protocols:init_for_core and $sunnet_fo:init_for_core to reset the base protocols. Non-standard protocols will also need to be readded using $sunnet:add_protocol. Once the protocols are setup, the connection information tables need to be rebuilt. This is done by using $sunnet:create_connection with the original link mode (IN or OUT) and parameters. The password can be retrieved by using $sunnet_link.net_password.

Q7. How can I ask questions or contribute to discussions about SunNET?
A7. Subscribe to the SunNET listserve by sending an email message with the word SUBSCRIBE in the body of the message to sunnet-request@rupert.memphis.edu and then sending subsequent messages to sunnet@rupert.memphis.edu.

Q8. How do I find out what the latest updates to SunNET are?
A8. Read *sunnet on Rupert for the latest changes to SunNET.
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