Kept Fixing It Til It Stopped Working

Maps from Connecticut are being delivered directly to my studio in just a few seconds.

Spoiler alert: The day was a great success. It was getting there which was no fun.

In order to play TV station my studio has to make some unusual requests of the Internet. This includes opening ports and exposing some of my equipment directly to the outside world.

You’ve heard of a firewall? These are purposely punched holes in that wall!

One hole was needed in order to see the feed being sent from Connecticut. It worked perfectly, but I thought it would work better on another computer.

That’s when all my specially routed ports failed. I fixed it until it stopped working. I’ve committed this sin before.

The file server which sits under my studio desk started rejecting everything sent its way. No maps.

The feed from Connecticut vanished. Not good.

It took hours to get it fixed and I seriously can’t tell you how! I did everything right no less than a dozen times to no avail.

Really. I have no idea.

What was good about the day? Larry Fitzgerald came by. First, he helped set up the lights. We used little lasers pointing toward the ceiling to make sure they’re aimed correctly.

Then he consoled me as we worked our way across India on our way through AT&T tech support hell.

Part of our remote comms with Sam. Most of the screen is from a computer in the WTNH studio.

Larry was happy sitting and watching as Sam Kantrow and I (mostly Sam) converted Channel 8’s maps to my special requirements. Most of the night we were on Skype and Team Viewer simultaneously, often sharing three screens at once. We could see cause and effect instantly though separated by 2,493 miles.

Sam was super helpful as he drove WTNH’s Weather MAX. Each map consists of multiple layers of artwork, animation, navigated borders and weather data. We were assembling frameworks which would later be robotically populated and pushed to me.

One-by-one they zipped to my server. Even for the biggest files Connecticut’s just a few seconds away.

Tomorrow I’ll put together some dummy lineups and run through some shows. That means macro writing. Lots to do.

15 thoughts on “Kept Fixing It Til It Stopped Working”

  1. This is fascinating to me, though I don’t understand it all! Looking forward to seeing you do this magic on Monday!

  2. One hour at a time Geoff… One hour at a time… It all sounds quite challenging !!
    Signed
    the phlebotomist

  3. Firewalls can be challenging at times. I too have issues resolved and wasn’t quite sure what part of the puzzle I resolved to get it working. I am sooo looking forward to seeing you on the air here in CT. Lots of fans here waiting. I’ll have to feed you some weather updates when things are brewing here. We are on FB. Best 73 de WD1M, Bob

  4. Congrats Geoff – I’ll be streaming your reporting. Glad you got it all worked out and you couldn’t have a better assist than from Sam Kantrow! Sounds like this will be a great success

  5. Just love this stuff! ~25 years ago when working at a traffic company in Boston, we struggled to connect individual cameras individually by DSL from various rooftops around town, to our offices in Cambridge. The cost was distance based (not cheap), and the quality was “stuttering” at its best (compression was an afterthought). The fact that you can “simply” punch through and see live streaming of multiple feeds (and one assumes that some feeds are bi-directional, maybe with control signals?), is just amazing. As it is said, “Kids these days just don’t understand what it was like ‘in the old days’.” Looking forward to seeing you, and being amazed at how it will all work flawlessly .

  6. Great job Geoff! It will be so wonderful to see you on channel 8 again! I can’t wait! Welcome back, even though I’m saying it a little early.

  7. I am so very happy to see you back (even for awhile)! Your progress from cancer…to the Channel 8 screen is amazing! All I can say, Geoff, I respect and admire you and always will!

  8. Clearly the State of Connecticut is
    looking forward to tomorrow at 5:00
    to welcome you back. WTNH will
    break viewing records then for sure!!!!!!

  9. Geoff, It sounds like fun (ha ha). We here in Connecticut are looking forward to seeing you on Monday, and we hope every day thereafter . We watched on WNHC and WTNH and even Ch.61.

    See you Monday

  10. Awsome!!!!

    Looking to your first show at 5:00 Monday. Expecting to be a regular watcher.

    All the best….

  11. Well here it is. The great and ever entertaining Geoff Fox returns to WTNH, and as promised back then, “When Geoff returns, I will return as a viewer”…

    I will be recording your return so I may enjoy it – been a long time coming.

  12. Wonderful to watch your tech work so well that you can be on 8 as vacation relief. Nice to seee you again.

  13. I am so happy to see Ct’s good friend, the beloved Geoff Fox, giving us our weather.
    All is right in the world!

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