Generator kept Net provider on line

By KARENA WALTER
Standard Staff

Precautions taken a few years ago in anticipation of Y2K helped some businesses get through last weeks power blackout with their computer systems intact. But customers of one St. Catharines Internet Service Provider were helped by a previous blackout.

About three years ago, Dave McCarthy was one of those St. Catharines businessmen whose business was brought to a halt for three hours by a relatively small power outage.

While the power was out, McCarthy, the president of Vaxxine Computer Systems Inc., picked up some literature about generators and decided to buy one for his company.

That generator not only meant Vaxxine's building didn't lose any power during the blackout last week, it was able to continue running as an Internet Service Provider.

"The whole area was black and we were this little pocket of life," McCarthy said Tuesday. Clients, such as a floral shop which has customers all over the world placing orders, were surprised and ecstatic, he said. "You lose 18 hours of business and it hurts."

The company has been doing "shameless self-promotion" this week on its Web site about its ability to provide service during the blackout when many other ISPs could not.

But it wasn't cheap. The $35,000 generating system automatically kicks in if the power goes out for three seconds. Once power comes back on, the generator shuts down.

If a generator seems too expensive, another option for individual businesses is an Uninterrupted Power Supply or UPS for their computers. Networking companies say having UPS is essential.

Bob Pitt, service manager for Hamilton-based Binatech, said his company and clients weren't as adversely affected as most people because they had UPS. The system, basically a big battery, gives computer users 15 minutes of additional power after hydro goes off unexpectedly so they have time to save files and shut their machines down properly.

"You don't want them to crash," Pitt said. "Then you have corrupted data and everything else."

Pitt said the system comes in handy any time there's an unexpected shutdown, such as a localized one-second power interruption in an office.

Costs vary for a UPS, up to $2,000 for a business and from $60-$500 for a home server, he said.

"It's highly recommended people have ... uninterruptible power supplies, UPS and surge suppressors on their work stations," said John D'Amico, manager of technology services for Plexis Ltd.

The St. Catharines networking company brought in extra staff to handle client problems Monday, but found businesses were pretty well prepared.

"It wasn't as bad as we thought", D'Amico said, adding good housekeeping done ahead of time was reaffirmed after the outage. "Generally speaking, it wasn't as dramatic as expected.