Update: 13:20
And we're back in business.  Service has been restored all ResNet accommodation.

History of this outage is shown below.

As of 12:30 today (19th Jan) just under a third of ResNet has lost internet connectivity.

Early investigations seem to imply that there is a power problem affecting Priory Road possibly extending as far as The Triangle.  This means we've lost power to the core networking equipment which feeds most of the centrally located accommodation - this has knocked out both Wired ResNet and Wireless ResNet services in the affected halls.

Hopefully, ResNet will just spring back to life when the power comes back on, but we will be keeping a close eye on it just incase.

Update: The following buildings are without service

• Chantry Court
• 33 Colston Street
• Deans Court
• The Hawthorns
• Northwell House
• Osborne Villas
• 121 Redland Road
• 29 St Michaels Park
• 30 St Michaels Park
• 31 St Michaels Park
• 32 St Michaels Park
• 33 St Michaels Park
• Unite House
• Winkworth House
• 97 Woodland Road
• Woodland Court

The database server used by a large number of ResNet systems is currently experiencing problems.  The issues started at around 17:18pm on Weds 14th December.

Until the issues can be resolved, the following ResNet services are unavailable:

• The My ResNet Control Pannel (http://my.resnet.bris.ac.uk) will be completely unavailable
• The ResNet Activation System (http://go.resnet.bris.ac.uk) will be completely unavailable
• All helpdesk troubleshooting tools will be unavailable
• Various back-end scripts are failing, and may result in strange behaviour from the bandwidth monitoring systems (the ResNet Gadget/RSS feeds won't be updating) , the network status monitoring, DHCP updates will not happen etc.

About 25 of the servers which run ResNet are running *really* slowly at the moment (for various complicate and convoluted reasons) this means that customers may notice the following:

• The ResNet DNS servers are slow and unresonsive, which effectively means that your connection may function slowly, or even not at all.

• The My ResNet control panel (my.resnet.bris.ac.uk) is slow and unresponsive
• The ResNet Activation System (go.resnet.bris.ac.uk) is slow and unresponsive
• Most of  our backend troubleshooting tools are playing up as well, which makes troubleshooting individual problems difficult for the Service Desk
• The Wireless ResNet authentication servers are caught up in this as well, so ResNet Wireless may also be unusable

Because of the widespread nature of the problem, we're expecting it to affect all ResNet customers (Wired and Wireless)

We're aware of the problem, and are doing everything we can to restore service as quickly as possible.  I've already started planning ways to stop the same issue hitting us again in the future.

Update: 21/11/2011 17:13
Good news and bad news.  The good news is that the load issues are beginning to resolve themselves and DNS seems to be back to normal.  The bad news is that somewhere in the last 2 hours we hit a (separate, but related) problem which means none of our web servers are currently running (so www.resnet/my.resnet/go.resnet etc are still dead)

We've got a lead on that problem though, and are working to get them back up again.

Update: 21/11/2011 17:50
And we're back in business!   Sorry for the inconvenience everyone.

We're seeing some problems with OSX 10.7.2 (The latest update to Lion) and the ResNet Activation system (https://go.resnet.bristol.ac.uk)

The major symptom seems to be that if you've got a Mac, running the latest version of Safari (5.1.1), and the latest version of Lion (10.7.2) then you can't access the activation system to set up your connection.  The page appears to load, but is blank.  The last couple of computers I've looked at which have the problem can't open the Keychain App either.  This may or may not be related!

We're actively investigating this problem, and trying to work out what's going on so that we can fix it.  To be honest, we're not making a whole lot of progress at this stage.  Safari appears to make the initial connection to go.resnet, but then stops talking to the server halfway through.  It's all rather baffling!

Workaround:
We do however have a workaround for the problem.  It seems alternative browsers (eg Firefox,Opera or Chrome) can load the activation system fine.  So, if you've got an alternative browser, use that to activate your connection then go back to using safari once your connection is active.

If you don't already have an alternative browser on your computer, use a friends computer to download one and then transfer it to your computer by USB stick.

Update 2011-10-26:
I think I've fixed this.  Lion users should now be able to activate their ResNet connections with Safari.  As a bonus, some customers who were finding the activation system slow may find it to be a bit quicker now.

If you're still experiencing problems activating your ResNet connection, please get in touch with the IT Service Desk.

We're having a few problems with the wireless at Churchill, and some of the wireless points in A block are offline, so the wireless signal in A block may be a little unreliable.

We're not sure what's causing the fault yet (although some signs are pointing towards a faulty power supply) and we don't have anyone available to get up there today to look at it.

We'll get someone up there as soon as we can, but until then we suggest using the ResNet Wired service instead as that's not affected by the fault.

We will update this post when we've got more info.

[Update 26-10-2011, 12:30]  The vast majority of access points are working in Churchill but one WAP on the ground floor of A block and another on the top floor of H block are still down.  We have instructed our cabling contractor to troubleshoot and repair these two connections as soon as possible.  Wired ResNet is still working fine.

This afternoon we took our annual team photo, including our permanent staff and our seasonal casual staff who help with technical and administrative queries.

ResNet is now live for 2011!

If you are a new student arriving in Bristol everything will be ready for you to get online when you arrive.

Connection instructions for ResNet are either waiting for you in your room or available from your Senior Resident / Hall Office.The connection instructions cover both the ResNet Wired and the ResNet Wireless service (available in 70% of student bedrooms) Just follow the instructions for the connection method you want to use!

It helps if you can pay online before you get here, but if you can't don't worry - you can still connect immediately with a seven day free trial.

It's easy to connect, but if you need help give our special ResNet start of term hotline a ring - 0117 928 9001, or 89001 free internal call from your room. We'll be glad to help.

Welcome to Bristol!

Important maintenance work on the power supply to the Stoke Bishop area will be taking place on the 4th August 2011 between 2pm and 6pm.

This will affect ResNet, Wireless (all wireless, including ResNet & eduroam services), Admin network and telephone connectivity at all Stoke Bishop halls.

Your hall office should be able to answer any further queries that you may have.

4th August 2011

The following locations will have no network (ResNet, Wireless, Admin Network) or telephones:

• University Hall
• Durdham Hall
• Haitt Baker
• Wills Hall (Including The Holmes)
• The Downs Workshop
• The Grounds and Gardens offices etc
• Churchill Hall
• Badock Hall

Additionally, some (possibly all) of Hiatt Baker will be without power for the duration of the work.

While we already compare favourably with commercial broadband providers (on price, speed and bandwidth quotas) there's always room for improvement - so we're rethinking how much bandwidth we give you on ResNet.

Making your usage quota easier to understand

Currently you have two bandwidth quotas, one for off-peak and one for on-peak times of day.  Going over either quota lands you in a slow network for the rest of the week - at all times of day. This is confusing, and terribly inconvenient if you want to skype your friends back home during peak hours...

So, we're getting rid of peak-time!

We've combined the on and off peak quotas to give you a single quota of 48GB per week (For ResNet Standard) or 81GB per week (For ResNet Max) - no more worrying what time it is!

We've been trialling this change since 23rd May and it's been going pretty well so far.  The My ResNet control panel, and the Bandwidth Gadgets don't fully know about the change yet, so your on-peak usage is being reported as zero.  If the trial continues to work out ok, we'll have to see about fixing that!

If 81GB per week isn't enough for you, you can still buy extra chunks of quota through My ResNet.

Making your connection even faster!

Not content with making things easier, we're making them faster too!

Starting Monday 13th, we're going to increase the speed of ResNet wired connections to 50Mbps symmetric - That's 50Mbps download speed, and 50Mbps upload speed.  Once we've made that change, ResNet connections will be faster than BT Infinity Broadband (which gives you 40Mbps download speed, and 10Mbps upload)

Why is this awesome?  (Apart from it being obvious that faster is better!)

Well it means you can take full advantage of cloud based storage/backup solutions such as iCloud, Windows Live SkyDrive or Ubuntu One. It makes uploading photos or video to facebook/vimeo/flickr/youtube super quick, but most importantly - whatever cool new internet functionality is coming round the corner, we want your ResNet connection to be ready to handle it.

At this stage, we're not making any changes to the speed of the wireless network.  We can make it a bit faster than it is at the moment, but we can't make it quite as fast as the wired network.  So to take full advantage of the speed boost you'll need to use your wired connection.

"With great power comes great responsibility" - Spiderman

Once your connection is faster than a very fast thing going downhill on rollerskates - it does mean that it's easier to use up all your bandwidth quota.  We've done some sums and we think a bittorrent client serving up something popular (like an Ubuntu Linux DVD image) left unchecked could rip through the ResNet Max weekly limit in under 4 hours - on upload traffic alone!

If you've got any filesharing software on your computer, you might want to limit how much it can upload to the internet.  Most programs allow you to specify a maximum upload speed - we suggest setting this as low as you can get away with!

Not-that-small-really smallprint: All the features mentioned above are being trialled, we reserve the right to end the trial at any time if things start to melt.  We'll make a decision about what next years network speeds look like based on the results of the trial, so the above features may or may not be available for the 2011-2012 academic year.

Oh, and they apply to ResNet only.  The VisitorNet service got an 8 fold increase about a month ago but that's as far as we can push that for the moment.

Questions?

If you've got any questions or comments about the trials mentioned above, hit the comments below!

This is the fourth ResNet newsletter of the year sent to ResNet subscribers.

Jobs With ResNet from September 2010
Each year a large number of students join the team to help run ResNet and the Student Laptop Clinic. We are now recruiting for technical positions for the 2011/12 academic year.

A job with ResNet offers competitive pay (£11.51 per hour) and excellent experience while working with and helping other Bristol students. It can be hard work but is very enjoyable, a chance to develop your skills, and great experience for future employers.

Jobs start in September and continue during term time for the rest of the 2011/12 year.

The closing date for applications is 10am, Monday 13th June. For more details or to apply please see: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/is/computing/advice/homeusers/resnet/about/behindscene/vacancies11.html

Leaving halls? Get broadband in private accommodation

If you're moving into private accommodation next year you'll want to sort out an Internet connection. Unfortunately you can't get ResNet, but we have a guide to help you choose a broadband provider: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/is/computing/advice/homeusers/broadband/