Network Working
Group
V. Cerf
Request for Comments:
968
MCI
December
1985
'Twas the Night Before Start-up'
STATUS OF THIS
MEMO
This memo discusses problems that arise and debugging
techniques used
in bringing a new network into operation.
Distribution of this memo
is
unlimited.
DISCUSSION
Twas the night before start-up
and all through the net,
not a packet was moving; no
bit nor octet.
The engineers rattled their cards in
despair,
hoping a bad chip would blow with a
flare.
The salesmen were nestled all snug in their
beds,
while visions of data nets danced in their
heads.
And I with my datascope tracings and
dumps
prepared for some pretty bad bruises and
lumps.
When out in the hall there arose such a
clatter,
I sprang from my desk to see what was the
matter.
There stood at the threshold with PC in
tow,
An ARPANET hacker, all ready to
go.
I could see from the creases that covered his
brow,
he'd conquer the crisis confronting him
now.
More rapid than eagles, he checked each
alarm
and scrutinized each for its potential
harm.
On LAPB, on OSI, X.25!
TCP, SNA, V.35!
His eyes were afire with the strength of his
gaze;
no bug could hide long; not for hours or
days.
A wink of his eye and a twitch of his
head,
soon gave me to know I had little to
dread.
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his
work,
fixing a net that had gone plumb
berserk;
And laying a finger on one suspect
line,
he entered a patch and the net came up
fine!
The packets flowed neatly and protocols
matched;
the hosts interfaced and shift-registers
latched.
He tested the system from Gateway to
PAD;
not one bit was dropped; no checksum was
bad.
At last he was finished and wearily
sighed
and turned to explain why the system had
died.
I twisted my fingers and counted to
ten;
an off-by-one index had done it
again...
Vint Cerf
December
1985
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