I've got some good news, and some bad news …

Today felt like one of those Bad News/Good News type of jokes. And it all started out because I needed to modify a client's managed firewall (we manage their firewall).

• *Bad News:** I can't log into the firewall.

• *Good News:** It probably just needs rebooting (which involves walking across the parking lot to another building to the client's office, and flipping a power switch).

• *Bad News:** That didn't work. Perhaps it's the router in the building?

• *Good News:** We have extra ports on that router we can try (which involves making yet another trip to the other building).

• *Bad News:** That still didn't work.

• *Good News:** Which means the router isn't probably at fault.

• *Bad News:** Which means it's the cable that runs from the router to the client's office, or the firewall. Since I have no easy way to test the cable, I'll assume (for now) it's the firewall.

• *Good News:** It's probably a simple configuration setting I forgot to save when setting it up.

• *Bad News:** There's no way to actually log into the firewall at the client's office (doing so requires a terminal or a computer with a serial port and … well … it was probably best not to ask about using a computer with a serial port).

• *Good News:** The firewall itself is pretty small and easy to take back to The Office (which means more schlepping between buildings).

• *Bad News:** When powering up the firewall at my desk, it kernel panics (basically: crashes, and crashes hard) when trying to check the disk.

• *Good News:** Maybe it's just a loose connection.

• *Bad News:** Nope. Still crashes.

• *Good News:** Maybe it just needs some more memory. Here, let's install a 512MB (Megabyte) stick of memory.

• *Bad News:** Fails to even do the self test.

• *Good News:** We have plenty of spare Cobalt RaQs (which we use as firewalls) sitting around.

• *Bad News:** Moving the harddrive to another Cobalt RaQ fails to produce any forward results.

• *Good News:** Perhaps if I cannibalize the memory from RaQ I tried to use and put it into the RaQ initially used as the client's firewall.

• *Good News:** There is no more bad news!

Oh wait.

• *Bad News:** Gotta schlep back to the client's office to reinstall the firewall.

• *Good News:** It all now works properly.

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