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 certain things. No problem. I have that. Or at least I thought I did...
When I went to my site to grab the privacy policy link, it returned with some strange error I had never seen before. It was like 1003 or something like that. Complete and utter failure. Shocked, I reached for sentry (which I had been leaning on, of course) free tier used up. No more uptime monitoring enabled. I got too cozy. I go to the server, it's on and running, and appears functional. After some quick digging, I discovered it was wifi. The server was still running on wifi. I knew that, but I never experienced a disaster like this first hand.
Why is it on wifi, you ask? The original intention was for poking around, learning, and other activities not intended for a production server. 😂 it has snowballed into something with a tiny heartbeat. ****
Back to the why: it's sitting next to the switch that I have yet to configure. 2 switches actually. A juniper and a cisco. I am at a crossroads. The juniper would be free, but I was studying cisco. I started studying networking stuff but I've been very busy. And im not putting my desktop on wifi.
Want some sprinkles? The server is on the opposite side of the house, on a different floor, with lots of structure in between. I have 2 cat6a cables running down. We have about 25+ things that need internet, in that room alone. Have fun thinking about that.
Damnit! 😂 I wasn't ready yet! My plans have now changed. Tomorrow I attempt a network configuration. No one to hold my hand and walk me through the process here. Certain panic. Wish me luck.
My server that I have been working so hard on had an unplanned 2 hour outage while I updated it in a panic. This must be what it feels like to work in cybersecurity. Panic panic everywhere.
I have an actual big server (its old) but I haven't got it fully configured, and also I wanted my switch up. Its a big fat cycle of excuses. I can't continue like this. 😂😂😂
I guess I have to be a baby system admin now. This was not a part of my original plan. I swear I spend more time fixing problems (that I created) than anything else.
I fully updated my tiny server since it was already down, and turned off power saving. Its not enough, but if I'm lucky, I'll get a switch working tomorrow... maybe?
I also learned I need a redirect page for when my server is down for maintenence. Basic stuff if you think about it. I am but a single junior dev, don't shoot. XD
Side note: As I was explaining this to my significant other, first, his jaw dropped. Then, he busted out laughing because he said he was planning on "play with the wifi tomorrow." Then my jaw dropped.
Disasters.
Undoubtedly this should make for an interesting story, if nothing else.
Top comments (34)
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!
Hahaha, well we must have quite a bit in common then. Thank you so much for the kind words about my bakery! That challenge was so much fun. I gave you a follow back!
"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!
A simple ping really does go a long way! Hope the network config went smoothly.
Relatively speaking, yes. Ha ha, thanks!
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.
Discovering the Sentry free quota had run out right when the server dropped connection over WiFi is a rite of passage for homelab projects. Running production services across floors on wireless always invites silent signal degradation. Did you end up going with the Juniper switch or did you stick with Cisco for your networking study track?
Haha, Juniper. (It was free! 😂)
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 'dev box snowballed into something with a heartbeat' arc is painfully relatable — the same scope creep happens when a local dev server quietly becomes the integration point other people depend on. The sharper lesson is the monitoring gap: once Sentry's free tier ran out, uptime visibility silently disappeared, and 'I got too cozy' is exactly how outages get discovered by customers instead of by dashboards. Running production-adjacent traffic over wifi is a fine reminder that the network path is infrastructure too — worth treating like code: named, reviewed, and not dependent on one flaky hop.
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! 😂✨️
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