To set up ResNet Wireless on your laptop/tablet/smart phone, connect your computer to the "ResNet-Setup" wireless network.  Then open a web browser and follow the on screen instructions.

121 Redland Road and 97 Woodland Road
The connections to these two properties have been unusually unreliable this year, and to be honest we're as fed up with it in the office as you have been when trying to use it.

So we're pushing the boat out and running new fibre optic connections to these properties, which will give those properties the same high speed reliable connections that everyone else enjoys, as well as ResNet Wireless!  Hurrah!

Help us improve the wireless
According to our collection of maps we currently cover 96% of bedrooms, but we're aware that in some halls there are blackspots which don't get the wireless coverage that we think they should.

We don't quite have the resources available to check the signal strength in all 5000 bedrooms plus all the common rooms, kitchens etc individually - so we want to focus our efforts on places which have been reported as having poor wireless coverage.  If you don't report it, we might not visit it!

So it would really help us out if you could fill in our short 1 page survey.  As an incentive we're giving away 5GB of extra bandwidth allowance to anyone who completes it:  https://www.survey.bris.ac.uk/it-services/resnet-wireless-coverage don't forget to enter your UoB username in the last question to claim your 5GB topup.

Identity Theft - Who is Alex Davies?
Keeping our identities safe is not something many of us think about, but have you considered how much personal information you give away on a daily basis?

The UK’s independent regulator of information rights – the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) – has launched a nationwide campaign to help students protect themselves from identity theft. Advances in technology have made communication quicker, easier and more effective, but have also made more of our personal information available and easier to access.

You can take some simple steps to protect yourself, and it could save you time, money and a lot of hassle in the long run!  Oversights such as not checking bank statements unfamiliar transactions are common, but can prove extremely costly.

For tips on how to avoid identity theft and keep your information safe visit http://www.facebook.com/therealalexdavies

Mains power is expected to be off from 09:30-11:00 at The Holmes and from 12:00-13:30 at Wills/Durdham Hall.

As they're switching the power off to the site, all the data networking equipment will be powered down as well.  This means that ResNet Wired, ResNet Wireless, VisitorNet and the Halls Admin network in these locations will be unavailable for the duration of the work.  Telephone service may also be interrupted.

There will be two breaks of up to 20 minutes each which will affect Internet connectivity for the entire university.  This includes ResNet Wired, ResNet Wireless, VisitorNet, Eduroam and access from campus PCs/public computer rooms.

Full news item at:  http://www.bris.ac.uk/it-services/news/2012/janet3april.html

IT Services apologises for any inconvenience this work may case. If you have any questions or issues regarding this work please contact the IT Service Desk.

IT Services
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/it-services

We've had a large number of reports of customers experiencing problems with ResNet Wireless and Eduroam.  The symptoms being that it your computer asks for your username and password.  Some times it will accept them, but it often takes multiple attempts to get anywhere.

We're actively investigating the issue, and we've been poring through mountains of log files trying to work out what's going on.

Workarounds:
The ResNet Wired service is not affected by this problem at all, so if you plug your laptop into the wall you'll have a nice fast stable connection that doesn't repeatedly ask for your password.

For Eduroam, we don't currently have a workaround other than "wait for 15 minutes then try again" as the problem appears to move to another location every so often and if you wait a bit then try again it may work better.

Update 2012-02-10 16:06:
We've managed to replicate the problem on a machine in the office, and we *seem* to have fixed the problem with that machine (it's a bit early to tell, but I've connected/disconnected several times with no problems)

We've released a new version of the setup wizard with a couple of tweaks, which should help.  You can re-run the wizard by connecting to the "ResNet-Setup" wireless network and then going to http://go.resnet.bris.ac.uk wizard in your web browser.

Update 2012-02-13 10:50:
OK, so the new wizard only appears to have fixed things for my laptop in the office and not anyone elses.  This rules out client side certificate issues.  We've got a few more leads that we're following up from deeper in the network infrastructure.  More news as we get it.

Update 2012-02-13 12:20:
The problem appears to be even more widespread than we thought, and is potentially affecting some eduroam clients as well.  We're currently working closely with the core networking team to identify a course of action.

Update 2012-02-13: 14:00:
We've hit a point with this problem where the next step is to escalate it to Cisco (the vendor that makes our wireless networking kit)  So we're in the process of raising a ticket with their support team.  Our best advice at this point is to use the ResNet Wired network instead where at all possible.

Update 2012-02-15:
Just a quick update to say we haven't forgotten about this problem and we are still pursuing it.  We are currently waiting for Cisco to get back to us.

Update 2012-02-16:
I think it's safe to say we've got enough detailed information to go on for now, so there's no need to email the service desk.  We'll update this blog post again when we have some news about a fix.

Update 2012-02-20:
We now think this is  a known bug in the firmware version our wireless controllers are running.  By all accounts it only surfaces if the controllers have been running for quite some time (as ours have) and a restart of the controllers should temporarily alleviate the problem.

Coincidentally there is a wireless maintenance slot scheduled for tomorrow morning, so we're planning to restart things during that slot.  Upgrading the firmware is a larger job though and needs some planning.  There's a meeting happening tomorrow which will determine when that upgrade can happen.  More news about that tomorrow.

Update 2012-02-21:
The upgrade to the new firmware has been scheduled for Tuesday 28th Feb and will be applied between 6am and 9am.  During this time all University wireless services will be unavailable.  See this news item for more details: http://www.bris.ac.uk/it-services/news/2012/wireless13feb.html

Update 2012-02-28:
We believe that the upgrades done this morning have fixed the problem.  If you continue to have problems with ResNet wireless, please contact the IT Service Desk and we'll investigate.

• The My ResNet Control Pannel (http://my.resnet.bris.ac.uk) will be unavailable
• The ResNet Activation System (http://go.resnet.bris.ac.uk) will be unavailable
• The ResNet Bandwidth Monitoring Gadget will not report data use correctly
• The ResNet Live Status screens on the ResNet Website and the IS website will be unavailable

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

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.

• 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.

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 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.