oh, I thought CW was a one-way trip. thanks Chris!

Thanks Chris. I'll look into smokeping. At this point any data will be useful.

thank you. I'll see what I can uncover with continuous ping, and especially thank you for The Workplace, a new SE site for me. You're correct that the real issue here is politcal/social, not technical. I guess I've been focussing on the technical because I'm good at it, and feel like I've a hope of moving things on that level, whereas the political... well after almost 15 years here there's a reason I'm still not a manager. :)