Something never seizes to amaze me when it comes to IT, especially networking........

Hello everyone,

It’s been a while now and nice getting back to you guys. Something never seizes to amaze me when it comes to IT, especially networking. One of our clients, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has relocated from its UN Drive, Mamba Point office to the Pan African Plaza building, formal United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) Headquarters in Sinkor, Tubman Boulevard. Our task was to create a new Local Area Network (LAN) and terminate all ends in a mounted rack in the server room, transfer and setup all IT equipment including security cameras to function.

The client already had an initial internet service provider therefore, connecting all devices back to same network would have a plug and play setup. Instead, they decided to get connected to another UN agency. Out of 15 LAN ports the new provider offered to connect 6 users which include a network printer and a file sharing server. I entered the server room of their provider and saw a lots of huge Cisco devices; I mean latest Core routers, switches HP & DELL blade servers all mounted in a freezing environment. This was so amazing, getting a glance at them. I have always wished to work in an environment and on live devices as well and that’s going to be soon. The customer provided us with a 24 - port Net-Gear switch which was being used at their old office to connect to their provider, the UN agency, but they condemned the equipment that it was far way below the UN standards. They preferred a Cisco Meraki MS 225-24P HW (PoE Managed Switch) which cannot be found locally and would take up to a week to be delivered if ordered. We left with the option of connecting to the 6 available ports given.

All four users were connected to a real-time high speed internet connection via a Cisco Meraki MS 225-24P HW switch except for the network printer and the file sharing server. To connect the printer and server, I had to get a static IP from the IT officers. All the printers are on a different Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) therefore an IP must be given from the VLAN range. It took us nearly a week from one floor to another in getting the information from these guys until finally that morning they were able to generate two static IPs addresses for our client, JICA. I started by configuring the addresses into the printer. After several re boots, the printer could not be accessible on the network. Than I compared the subnet mask given to me by the IT officer with that of the one I gathered via windows command interface, I noticed the guy had made a mistake by giving me a slash /24 small network eg (255.255.255.0) network instead of slash /27 eg 255.255.254.0 medium and large networks. Rectifying this issue had the printer hooked up to the network as well as the mini server. As of now, our client has upgraded to a more big and high-speed internet. I am glad to have a hand on these equipment as I am also preparing for my Official CISCO Certifications Exams (CCNA) coming up soon!

Daniel Collins

October blog post 📝

Hello everyone,

As an IT technician, there’s a lot of amazing small and complex issues I encounter on a daily basis and I embrace them with interest as technology is improving every passing day.

On Friday evening we got call from one of our clients in Buchanan which we have a 3-day monthly ICT maintenance contract with.

They informed us that their network had been down for a day. We advised the client to informing the Internet Service Provider (ISP) as they have no IT person on site to be sure before taking an action. The ISP than confirmed that they could ping the network from their server so there was no problem from their end.

I quickly arranged the next morning with all necessary equipment (RB 951 MikroTik router, RJ 45 connectors, Crimper and pitched network cable in case there was any power failure of the core router.

I got to the customer’s Head Office at about 9:30 am. They quickly arranged a vehicle to take me to the effected site, about 1-hr drive.

They were quite happy when I arrived and welcomed me by saying ‘’NATC’’ is here.   Well, this is how most of our client/staff called me even though they know my full name but some prefer calling me that way.

I opened the server rack and found the main Juniper router on with all status led(s) linking green. That was good enough to know that internet was reaching the device but not being distributed. I started by pinging the switches IP addresses and surprisingly the main Cisco switch could not be reached, but the power adaptor led of the switch was blinking. Immediately I replaced the adaptor with a new one, I could ping the switch, desktops and laptops were connected, and network printers automatically started printing out stored job and so on. All the departments I checked were working okay accept for the Field Department. The switch was on but there were no sign of signal.

By using my cable tester found out that one of the RJ 45 connecters was damaged. I replaced both ends using my crimping tool to restore network for that department.

I informed the Site Manager and Head Office on progress made.

When heading to have my lunch, an accountant staff complained that any Microsoft Excel email attachment received in her inbox opens blank and really don’t know what could be the issue. I told her, me take a look. She turned on her computer and displayed the problem to me.

I have seen this issue several times before. So, I knew exactly how to figure it out in less than a minute. The lady insisted that I show her how to resolve this issue in case it happen and I’m not around. Though we have an ICT contract with them and wouldn’t be an issue even if she complains hundreds times. As a technician, I’m there to resolve problem. For me, she sounded very smart. I told her yes we can do it together.

Here are the few steps to go on resolving issue like this for any Microsoft version. Now, open the Excel again that opens blank.

Open Microsoft Excel.

Click the File tab and select Options from the drop-down menu.

Click Advanced, then locate the ‘’General’’ section.

Uncheck the box next to Ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE).

Click OK and restart the Excel.

In a joking and friendly manner I asked her. ‘’Now everything works fine. Anything else I could help you with? Can I get back at the canteen and have lunch now’’?

After a heavy lunch, I drove back to Monrovia the same day and resumed work at my office the next day.

Reach out for NATC, the one stop IT Solution Company!

Prepared by: Daniel W. Collins (Senior IT Technician) New Africa Technology Company (NATC)