The network at Unite House went down this morning at around 10:10, this is due to a power failure at Unite House.  We’re keeping an eye on it, and when the power comes back up we’ll check to make sure the network comes back up with it.

Update 17th Feb, 12:50: Everything is back up, and appears to be stable.

New ResNet widget to check your usage

Are you a heavy ResNet user? You may know you can monitor your usage in MyResNet. Today we’re launching a new ResNet usage gadget for Windows, Mac, iPhone/Android, or any RSS reader. We’ve also released the source code so if you’re a programmer you could even develop your own for other platforms. Go to https://manage.resnet.bristol.ac.uk/toys to try it out.

Access the university on your mobile

Do you have an iPhone, Android device or other mobile phone with Internet access?

The university has developed a pilot Mobile Campus Assistant – go to http://mca.ilrt.bris.ac.uk on your mobile to try it out. It includes useful information when you are on the move, such as events, weather, and how many PCs are free. If your phone has GPS then you can see live bus times linked to the campus map.

Please try this pilot out, and if you can please give your thoughts via the online survey. If you’d like to see this developed further your feedback may help in moving this pilot to a service.

Free antivirus software

Has your antivirus software run out? It’s essential to have anti-virus to protect your computer, but normally when you buy antivirus software it expires and stops updating after 12 months.

Luckily there is no need to pay for antivirus software. Microsoft Security Essentials is a good anti-virus package, and even better it’s free! Download a copy from http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/

Regards,

Nick Skelton, ResNet Manager, and the ResNet team.

We will be doing some essential network maintenance on Wednesday January 6th 2010.  The nature of the work is quite involved, and it effects different types of ResNet Customer differently.  Please read the following sections to determine how you will be effected.

Customers on the main ResNet Network
This accounts for the vast majority of the people currently using ResNet.

Your connection should be considered “at risk” of interruption from 8am-10am although we anticipate the actual outage to account for about 30 minutes of this time.  During this time you will be unable to connect to university services on campus, and unable to connect to the internet.

Customers on the Restricted Bandwidth Network
At the time of writing, this includes about 14 people who have either been suspended for copyright infringement, or who have gone over their weekly bandwidth allowance.

Your connection should be considered at risk of interruption from 8am-6pm.  The networking for these customers is a lot more complex than for the majority of ResNet and while we anticipate an interruption of about 30 minutes at some point during the day, it’s possible that there may be multiple interruptions.

ResNet Wireless
If you live in a residence which offers the ResNet Wireless service, your wireless connection should be considered at risk of interruption from 8am-6pm.  The networking for ResNet Wireless is a lot more complex than for the majority of ResNet and while we anticipate an interruption of about 30 minutes at some point during the day, it’s possible that there may be multiple interruptions.

If you find your ResNet Wireless connection becomes unusable, please fall back to using your wired socket and then retry the Wireless later.

All Customers
Due to the nature of this work, it’s possible that there may be a few wrinkles for us to iron out.  So if you notice something which has stopped working (and you’re not within the “at risk” period described above) please let us know so that we can investigate it!

Updates and progress reports
We will update this section of this post as and when we have progress to report.

Updated 2009-01-06 09:34: Due to snow (staff availability), this work is proceeding slightly slower than expected. Therefore your connection might be out of action for a bit longer than stated above. We appreciate that more people than usual may be inside their residences today because of the snow, so we are working as fast as possible to get the work done.

Updated 2009-01-06 11:19: Most of the work has been completed, but we are still experiencing problems in some residences, including Deans Court. We are sorry for the continued problems, and will post more information when available.

Updated 2009-01-06 11:32:We think Wired ResNet connections are now working, but there is still a problem with Wireless ResNet in some areas, and we’re working on fixing that.

Updated 2009-01-06 12:04:Contrary to previous update, wired ResNet connections still aren’t working in all areas. Typically people affected will find that they can access internal university websites (eg www.bristol.ac.uk) but not external websites (eg www.bbc.co.uk). Problems appear to be worst in Deans Court/Chantry Court/Unite House/Winkworth House. We’re still working on fixing the problem.

Updated 2009-01-06 12:27:Work is still in progress, but some users who experienced problems earlier are now reporting that their connection has started working, and they can access websites as normal.

Updated 2009-01-06 13:10:We’ve now completed our testing, and phoned back a number of people who reported problems earlier. To the best of our knowledge ResNet is now working fully in all areas. We’re very sorry again for the extended interruption.

If you are still experiencing problems please call the Help Desk (7870 internal, or 0117 928 7870 external) to let us know as soon as possible, and we’ll help you out on an individual basis.

Updated 2009-01-06 16:17:We’ve identified three users who are still having problems. These are all people in the restricted bandwidth network. We think in total there are about 14 people still affected, and we are working to resolve the problem for them. For everyone else ResNet is working normally.

Updated 2009-01-06 16:26:We’ve now fixed the problems for the people in the restricted bandwidth network. These people, and everyone else on ResNet, can now access internal and external websites.

One of our network devices at Badock Hall failed at 11:40 Wednesday morning. Currently 47 people in Unit 5 are currently without ResNet connections.

At the moment, we’re not sure what’s wrong but we’ve got someone out on site looking at the issue now.  We’ll update this post with more information as and when we have it.

Update: 2009-12-02 16:18 – Service has been restored to Unit 5.

The ResNet Service is currently non-functional at Hillside Woodside.

The outage is due to a failure of the link connecting the main University network to Burwalls (which then feeds Hillside Woodside). A member of the Networks Team is currently working on the problem. The most recent information we have indicates that the problem is either due to power supply failure or hardware failure.

Updated, 2009-11-25 17:06: A replacement power supply should arrive tomorrow morning which will allow further diagnostics to be carried out. If the power supply is the cause of the fault, service should be restored early tomorrow.

Updated, 2009-11-26 14:54: The replacement power supply delivery has been unavoidably delayed until tomorrow. The outage will unfortunately persist until then.

Updated, 2009-11-27 10:14: The broken hardware has been replaced and ResNet at Hillside Woodside is up and running again.

A fault occured at Northwell House on Friday 20th November at around 11:20am which resulted in a loss of ResNet connection to 48 people in the main building.

Unfortunately we were a bit short staffed on Friday (a combination of staff being on holiday or out sick), and were unable to get out to Northwell house to resolve the fault before the weekend.

We’re a bit more comprehensively staffed this morning (Monday 23rd) and restored service in Northwell House at around 10:30am.

This is the second time in a week that we’ve had problems with this device, so we are investigating a bit further to see what steps we can take to prevent it happening again.

Student Laptop Clinic

Got a problem with your computer? Running slow, can’t connect, or got a virus? The laptop clinic is here to help. Bring your laptop along and we’ll try and solve the problem while you wait. Clinics take place in The Hawthorns Student Refectory, and are currently running 2pm-5pm every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday & Friday until Friday 27th November.

See www.bristol.ac.uk/laptopclinic for more info

IT Training Courses for students

A basic level of IT skills is a must these days in most lines of work and study, and increasingly in life in general. Having more than a basic knowledge can transform your work.

To see the courses available to you free of charge visit www.bristol.ac.uk/studentskills

Be aware of Scareware – Fake anti-virus software

While browsing the web a window pops up on your computer. It looks professional and legitimate, and uses scary language claiming that your computer is infected. The message says that you should click here to download an antivirus package to fix the problem. The problem is – this is actually an advert from malicious scareware, not a legitimate warning warning. If you download it the programme can steal your information or do anything it likes on your computer. It will pester you with warnings and tell you to enter your credit card number to ‘buy’ something to fix the problem it created!

To avoid Scareware:

• Make sure your computer is up to date with essential security patches for Windows and other software. Try ’scan your PC’ at www.secunia.com to check for updates.
• Install legitimate free anti-virus software from a trusted source, such as Microsoft Security Essentials.
• Try using the free Firefox web browser from www.getfirefox.com instead of Internet Explorer.

If you get a fake scareware warning:
Don’t click on it, even on something that looks like a close button. Press Alt+F4 together to close the window.

If your computer is infected:
Wipe and reinstall your computer from your original manufacturers CDs, or come to the Laptop Clinic for help. Don’t use online banking or pay for anything online.

For more advice about safety and security online, see http://www.bristol.ac.uk/is/computing/advice/security/

If you’re arriving in Bristol this weekend, welcome! ResNet is live and ready for you to connect.

You can get online with ResNet as soon as you arrive, even if you haven’t paid in advance. You need a cable and connection guide – these are available in your residence (either in your room, or available from your hall office/senior resident). Once connected you get a seven day free trial, and can then pay online or in person at the Computer Centre, Tyndall Avenue.

It is easy to connect, but if you need help please read the Troubleshooting Tips in your connnection guide or phone the ResNet Help Desk on 89001 from your room (0117 928 9001 external). The Help Desk will be open for calls from 8am til 8pm on Monday.

It’s a busy time of year for us here at ResNet with lots of people moving into their accommodation at the same time. To help us to cope with the rush, and to get as many of you up and working as quickly as possible, we’ve set up a dedicated ResNet Helpdesk with its own phone number.

Opening Times
Monday 21st to Friday 25th September, 9am to 5pm
Monday 28th September to Friday 2nd October, 8am to 8pm (freshers week)

Phone Number
89001 (free call from the internal phone in your room)
0117 9289001 (from external phones)

We’ve also got a page of simple things you can try before calling the helpdesk, you may find that one of these fixes your problem http://www.bris.ac.uk/is/computing/advice/homeusers/resnet/help/helpdesk.html

In order to provide a more secure envoirment on  ResNet, we are introducing some new security requirements.

We have always asked for users of ResNet to be configured to get their IP address automatically. This is now being enforced by the new network equipment that we installed recently.

This means that users will not be able to use static ip addresses on ResNet. All computers or routers etc connected to ResNet must be configured to use dhcp.

If you think that you are being affected by these changes, make sure that you reboot your computer before contacting the helpdesk.

Instructions on configuring your computer to use dhcp can be found in this pdf: