So there I was, figuring out how to set up all my social media for branded automated posting. Pinterest requires a privacy policy link to do certai...
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This takes me back to 2015-2016 when I was learning Cisco and taking it very seriously. At one point I even considered becoming a network engineer, but my love for software engineering won out in the end. Still, digging into stuff like this gives you knowledge that maybe 1 or 2 percent of developers have.
Good stuff! 👏
That 1-2% figure is so true. Most devs never touch a switch config, and honestly, that's fine — until something breaks and suddenly you're the only person in the room who knows what a VLAN is.
Unfortunately, I know about vlans! 😂
that's awesome! Ah! Yes I am borderline considering it as well. But idk. I'm getting in it too deep with my tiny shop. We will have to see how this goes. 😂 all the more reason to get it to work! 😂
Oh, I felt this one! Especially the part about spending more time fixing problems you created than anything else. I swear that's half of what being a developer is sometimes.
I also love how something that started as a little learning experiment slowly turned into something you actually depend on. It's funny how our projects have a way of growing well beyond what we originally intended.
But honestly, I think these are some of the best learning experiences, even if they're incredibly frustrating while you're dealing with them. You end up learning things you probably never would have thought to explore otherwise.
And the timing of your significant other planning to "play with the WiFi" is so funny. You really can't make this stuff up! Glad to see in the comments that you got things working.
Thanks for your comment, @sizzlebop !
Scope creep is a real problem for a curious developer. Just in time for Halloween, perhaps? XD I guess we are in the middle of scary season so the timing is on point! And yes, my significant other is also a developer. Makes it both better and worse at the same time. 😂
Oh, I can relate! My husband is a developer too, so I know exactly what you mean about it being both better and worse! Between the two of us, there's always something being built, experimented with, or occasionally broken. At least we can usually figure out how to fix whatever mess we've created!
haha I love that. Yes, a second brain to help you figure out a mess! Excellent.
What I find annoying sometimes is when I have been working on something for a long time and start to get frustrated. Then he's like "oh, you just, blah blah blah to fix it," and then I say: "I tried that." And whenever I tried it, it didn't work. Then he tries it and it works. I watch it happen, in slow motion, right in front of me.
The sweet revenge of balance always come back when the roles are reversed, which also happens! (which is my favorite, of course!) 😆
Hahaha YES! The absolute worst is when you've already tried something a dozen times, it didn't work, and then he comes along, does the EXACT same thing, and suddenly everything works perfectly. At least, like you said, we occasionally get our turn to be the one with the magic touch!
a-hah! You are the CSS food challenge winner. Your bakery was adorable, btw. You gave everyone a run for their money! 😂
Also, you oddly remind me of myself. Gave you a follow!
"I got too cozy" is the most honest line I've ever read in a postmortem 😂 If that error was Cloudflare's 1033, that's the tunnel connector losing its link, which fits a server dropping off wifi. One cheap win while the switches wait: a free external uptime check (UptimeRobot and Better Stack both have free tiers) that's completely separate from your Sentry quota, so the next outage pings you before Pinterest does. Good luck with the network config. Juniper vs Cisco is a tough one, but free usually wins!
Yes! I'm going to look into some other uptime monitoring solutions. A simple ping would go a long way! Added to the list!
The line that hit me: "I swear I spend more time fixing problems (that I created) than anything else."
This is the most honest sentence ever written by a developer. The "temporary learning server" that accidentally gets a tiny heartbeat and becomes a production e-commerce store is a rite of passage.
I'm 43 days into learning Python and writing tutorials, and I already do this. I'll write a "quick script" to automate one thing, and suddenly my entire workflow depends on it.
The fact that you have to configure a Juniper and a Cisco switch just to fix a Wi-Fi bottleneck gives me anxiety. But the absolute best part of this post is your partner saying they were planning to "play with the Wi-Fi tomorrow." That is comedic gold.
Good luck with the network configuration tomorrow. May the packets flow freely and the uptime be ever in your favor. 🚀
Thanks @sameerqaiser17 ! I needed a good laugh this morning. It has been a success and I spent the entire day (literally, it was multi-part with distractions XD ) on it. Working on the writeup now!
The best postmortems leave behind a cheaper next failure. I’d capture the recovery path as a tiny runbook: what to check first, what access works without the primary network, and which warning would have caught the issue before it became an outage.
I like that idea of a "playbook", perhaps i'll add this to my techdocs
A small playbook is enough to start: symptom, first safe check, rollback or containment, and the signal that says the incident is actually over. The useful version is the one a tired person can follow at 2 a.m., then improve after each incident.
With the server still appearing healthy locally, I'd make the next check an external one: request a real page from a phone with Wi-Fi disabled, both before and after the switch change. A local health check can miss the exact broken path your visitors use. Since the Sentry free tier stopped monitoring, a small independent uptime check would also distinguish an application failure from loss of reachability. Keep the network change and server update separate so a failed check has fewer possible causes.
The maintenance-page lesson is the one I would keep, but with one adjustment: a maintenance page only helps if it is not served by the same machine that is down. A tiny static page hosted somewhere else, pointed to when you take the server down, is what turns a confusing error into a clear "back soon" message.
The other habit that would have changed this story is deciding, explicitly, when a learning server becomes a real one. Once real visitors can reach it, even through a single link like a privacy policy, it deserves the basics: a wired connection where possible, updates done in a planned window, and a simple external check that tells you it is down before a visitor does. Until then, keeping it clearly experimental is a feature, not a failure — it keeps the blast radius small while you are still learning the network side.
I've found a fast way to serve a simple maintenance page via cloudflare and wrangler. Hopefully you never have to see it! haha. Once I get another server properly ready I'm going to move the entire situation. Then, the microserver can go back into willy-nilly mode for other projects.
I just guess that, I wasn't expecting them to come, even if I built it. And somehow, I'm actually getting visitors. It's just like, what do I do now, this is real? It's alive? Find out things quickly when the traffic starts to exist. 🤣
Definitely set up a maintenance page. Even a simple static HTML file on a separate cheap host is better than a raw error. It makes you look professional even when everything is on fire.
Yes! That's exactly what I realized amid the chaos! 😂✨️
The privacy policy link being the thing that exposed the outage is such a good example of a tiny server quietly becoming important 😅 I’d be tempted to move those small static pages onto hosting that doesn’t depend on the home network, then leave the server experiments free to break while learning. Is the policy page the only outside dependency, or have other integrations started relying on it too?
Hi @emilywoodsnyc !
From a worst-case scenario standpoint I can definitely see the importance of having things hosted other places. when the dust settles I want to create a backup server that goes live when a failure is detected on the other one. It's on the list now! XD
This is a useful warning about a dev server quietly becoming production. One concrete habit that would help next time is to check from outside your own network before you start fixing anything. A quick request from a phone hotspot tells you whether the server is down or only your home wifi is hiding it, and that saves a lot of guessing.
Hi @lilnickyai ,
Yes - that's a good point! Next time I will be better armed for testing it in a pinch. I have definitely learned ( I want to say a few things, but it has been a lot) from this experience.