Tuesday, May 23, 2006
I Rule
We did end up having to resort to accessing the AS/400 as mentioned below. Once upon a time, this is what ran their network. There’s still a patch panel in a cabinet on the wall, with what’s left of the CAT3 cables that were wired to the terminals. Nobody really remembers so much as how to log onto the system.
When last seen, it was stuck on an odd screen where it could accept no input and would not change, and the keyboard just beeped when pressed.
I figured out how to change modes, get it out of that frozen state to where the Sys Req key would call up a menu and the keys would do things. First thing I did was silence the keyboard. The horrible beep it made with each keypress was a setting! To me a sound like that means keyboard buffer overflow, or some other problem. Well, the first thing after logging on, which was a complete non-issue. I used the name of the former employee whose documents I needed to look through.
Anyway, I gradually figured out how to list directories, list files in a specific one, and view them. It was an easy matter to identify the probable location. Indeed, this brings back memories. When I worked at The Renovator’s Supply, they had terminals that went to a System 360, which IIRC they upgraded to an AS/400 while I was there. Thus when I see Sys Req or Sys Rq as an alternate function on a regular PC keyboard, I know where it came from. I can remember the “Field Exit” key that’s in the Enter key’s normal position. Cmd 7 (F7) to exit, Cmd 3 (F3) to bring up a menu, Cmd 2 (F2 to go back), all seem familiar. Of course, some of this also reminds me of trying to use old Novell Netware without knowing what I was doing, except this is closer to intuitive.
After a while I was flying around the system as if I’d always used it. Sadly, if the document they seek exists, it is not in the logical location, or was deleted or overwritten by modifications. This is bad. I left it running, ready to look around some more tomorrow when I can get more input on logical places to look.
This is one of those prime examples of why and how I am good at what I do. I can almost intuit my way around without having specific knowledge. It’s impossible to describe; sort of like using the Force and being one with the machine.