A control method and a linear regulator of the type including a power MOS transistor, controlled by a differential amplifier having a first input terminal receiving a reference voltage and a second input terminal receiving, via a switchable resistor circuit, the output voltage of the regulator, a smooth switching of the resistors being provided. A second interconnecting conductor is on a part of a surface of the dielectric support film. A routine is executed at predetermined intervals that sends a message, such as an SNMP message, to each unavailable network device to establish communication with the unavailable network device. These are derived by turning off the retransmission, so that the multipath interference can be estimated from the received signal, and commencing the retransmission again, to determine the transfer function. The management server determines an input throughput data rate between the host and the virtual array based on storage operations between host and virtual array.