If you receive an error in your console window that says something like:

	afs: Lost contact with server 18.72.0.4

it means that some server that is providing AFS service to your workstation is
down or is "off the net" momentarily.  Your workstation has noticed that the
server went down and is informing you of this.

Due to the nature of AFS, this is not usually cause for alarm.  AFS "caches"
files on your workstation's internal hard disk, so that it is not necessary to
retreive them across the network.  After you have read a file once, it may be
cached, so that subsequent reading accesses the locally cached copy instead of
the remote copy.

If, however, you are trying to write out a file (ie. saving a file in emacs),
then it is necessary to actually save the file on the remote server.  In this
case, an AFS server being down might mean that you are temporarily unable to
save your file.  Unless the file you are trying to save is on an AFS "volume"
(directory), you need not worry about it.

When the server comes back, you will receive a message in your console window
that looks like this:

	afs: Server 18.72.0.4 back up