For the last two weeks we have been logging users’ wireless ResNet usage and have just made this viewable (if you have any) via MyResNet

Because wireless, unlike wired, ResNet usage includes internal usage we are not yet including this in your weekly allowance – it’s just for information.  We will be monitoring wireless usage to make sure it’s not being abused by individuals.  We believe that our wired weekly usage allowance is very generous, so excessive use of the wireless should not be necessary.

As part of our on-going effort to make the internet a safer place for your computer to be, Information Services have started filtering out a list of 30,000+ websites which are known to host malware (spyware, adware, viruses etc) – This makes it harder for the bad guys to install unwanted software on your computer without your knowledge.

Most of the time this will happen in the background and you won’t notice it.  If your computer tries to visit a website which is on the list of sites that we filter, you may occasionally see a message which says that the site your computer is trying to access has been blocked.  If this happens, don’t panic, It’s a good thing!  The system has stopped your computer from doing something dangerous!

If you want to see an example of the type of message you would receive, see this link: http://blackhole.isys.bris.ac.uk/ (NB: This link is only available within the University Of Bristol network)

We’re doing our best to ensure that the list only contains websites which are dangerous, although with a list of sites this big it’s possible that we’ll make mistakes and block things that we didn’t intend to.  If you think we’ve blocked something by accident, the web page you see will contain instructions for getting in touch with us and we can lift the block on that site.

It’s important to note that we’re only filtering out websites which are known to install unwanted software on your computer.  We’re not making any moral decisions about page contents, or otherwise censoring legitimate sites, and you will not get in trouble for encountering a page on the block list. (Although if you generate a lot of blocked requests we might offer to help you clean up your computer!)

Technical details for those who are interested:
We’re importing a list of known-bad domains from several reputable sources, and collating them into one list.  This list is then being fed to the University DNS servers.  If your computer requests a web page from a domain which is on the list, the DNS servers provide you with the IP address of aserver on the University network instead of the real IP address.  The server on the University network then displays the message saying “we don’t think you wanted to do that!”

This is similar to how the ResNet registration network works, where whatever website you try to access, you get redirected to the ResNet registration page.

The Student Laptop Clinics will be starting again on Friday 9th January and will run until Friday 20th March. As usual we are in the Student Refectory in the Hawthorns from 2pm to 5pm Monday to Friday.

For more information please see http://www.bristol.ac.uk/is/computing/advice/homeusers/help/laptopclinic/

Two days into Freshers Week and we already have 4000 students connected to ResNet!

If you need help connecting please give us a ring on 89001 free from your room. Phone lines are now open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It has at times been difficult to get through, especially in the early evening. From 8am-5pm calls are answered by the ResNet team and from 8pm until 8am by the out of hours Help Desk.

If you’ve rung and found lines engaged or been kept in a queue we’re sorry – we are answering as many calls as we can at this very busy time of year. Everyone wants an Internet connection immediately to stay in touch with friends and family, and we want to get people connected as soon as possible.

If you prefer we can also arrange room visits to come out and help you connect up in your room, at a cost of £16. We can fix many problems for free over the phone though, so please try calling first.

Welcome to ResNet for all new students!

Can’t connect to ResNet?

Please phone us on 89001 free from your room (0117 92 89001) if you need technical support.

From 8am-5pm Mon-Fri calls are answered by the ResNet team.
From 5pm-2am and at weekends calls are answered by the Out of hours Help Desk – they can also help with ResNet.

Most people connect up to ResNet with no problems. Everyone wants Internet as soon as they arrive, so this is a very busy time for ResNet. We take on extra staff and answer as many calls as we can, but please accept our apologies if you have difficulty getting through. Lines are open 8am-2am, so please try later (or earlier!) Please don’t bring any laptops in to us – we don’t have the resources to look at them at the moment.

For the very latest info and tools to help with ResNet see our knowledgebase

Need to pay for ResNet?

You can connect first if you haven’t already paid – everyone on ResNet gets a 7 days free trial (longer for students at Langford). Then pay in person by cheque, cash or card at the Computer Centre, Tyndall Avenue. Unfortunately online payments aren’t available – we’re working on them but they aren’t ready for the start of term. You can print an application form and return it by post if you prefer.

New packages – ResNet Standard and ResNet Max
New for ResNet this year are two different ResNet packages, ResNet Standard & ResNet Max. We recommend ResNet Max to people who do a lot of video and other downloads. If you don’t know if you are a light or heavy user try ResNet Standard—you can upgrade from Standard to Max later if you wish.

New Freewire phone

Freewire Phone provides cheap calls to landlines and international numbers, and free calls to other Freewire users. It is a piece of software available for Windows & Mac. You need speakers + mic or a headset to use it.  Freewire phone will work anywhere – so your friends and family can also download it to keep in touch free of charge.

Problems with Freewire TV?

Freewire TV provides BBC1, E4, Film4 etc to your computer over ResNet. It is now available in almost all residences, and the signal is turned on to all rooms by default. If you have any problems with Freewire:

• First check service is available in your residence and room using www.resnet.bristol.ac.uk/myresnet
• Then check firewall settings
• If still having problems contact Freewire Support

ResNet available in more residences

The ResNet service is now available at Hillside/Woodside for the first time. We’ve also extended ResNet to more of the houses on St Michaels Hill and Osborne Villas.

ResNet Wireless extended

The trial ResNet Wireless service is now available at Northwell House, Richmond Terrace, Winkworth House (with 115 Queens Road within the next few weeks). ResNet wireless is not as fast or reliable as wired ResNet, but is very convenient. We’re testing wireless  to gain experience before gradually providing it to more residences in future years.

Don’t know your username & password?
Go to StudentInfo/new or visit the IT Help Desk at the Computer Centre, Tyndall Avenue, 8am-5.30pm Mon-Fri with some ID.

Remember that all new students need to change their password soon after registration.

Laptop clinics coming soon
With funding from the Alumni Foundation we have a new student laptop clinic which will be coming soon. Laptop clinics start weekday afternoons from Wednesday 8th October and  can advise on laptops which run slow or have similar problems.

The summer vacation has now started, and during this period only we can provide ResNet to students from other universities staying in Bristol accommodation over the summer. There is a charge of £20 for this for any period from 30th June to 22nd September.

NB: Unfortunately we can’t provide ResNet to holidaymakers or other people with no educational status.

To get ResNet, see ResNet over the summer for details and an application form.

The ResNet service is 10 years old this term!

We think Bristol was the first University in the UK to provide Internet access to study-bedrooms in all halls. ResNet started as a small pilot in one block of Hiatt Baker Hall in the spring term 1998. Over the summer vacation a team of university staff and students installed hardware, wrote the docs, set up the servers, designed a logo, stuffed envelopes and did everything else so that ResNet went live across all nine halls of residence for Freshers Week, 1998. The student houses followed soon afterwards. We haven’t looked back since!

10 years ago things were very different:

• Only about 30% of students had a computer, and most of those were desktops with Windows 95, or even Windows 3.1
• Fast, always on Internet like ResNet was almost unheard of – at home people had dialup if they had Internet access at all
• Computers didn’t have a network adapter built-in: you had to open the case and fit a special ethernet adapter.

We are very proud of ResNet. It’s been great fun working on something that provides a real service to students and people seem to appreciate (even the Epigrump column likes ResNet )

If you’d like to wish ResNet a happy anniversary, say what you think about the service, or suggest what you would like to see from ResNet in future, please leave a comment below. Here’s to the next ten years!

The ResNet team.

This is the first part of a news story from the BBC.  Full story on the link at the bottom.

Severed cables disrupt Internet

Internet services have been disrupted in large parts of the Middle East and India following damage to two undersea cables in the Mediterranean.

There was disruption to 70% of the nationwide network in Egypt, and India suffered up to 60% disruption.

UK firms such as British Airways have told the BBC that call centres have been affected by the outage.

Industry experts said it could take up to one week to repair the damaged cables and resume full service.

International telephone calls, which have also been affected, are being rerouted to work around the problem.

Full story…

If you’ve looked at MyResNet recently you’ll have noticed that the off-peak weekly allowance cell in the Network Usage table has changed from ‘unlimited’ to 35GB. Currently we are not automatically restricting users based on their off-peak usage but we are working towards this goal.

Looking at this table you should be able to work out that if either the off-peak allowance OR the on-peak allowance exceed 100% AUP then your connection will be moved into the restricted network. Clever usage will allow up to 40GB weekly traffic (35 off + 5 on).

As I said before, the off-peak allowance is not active yet, but will be in the near future. The on-peak allowance is still in operation as it has been all year.

From current usage statistics, we anticipate that less than 1% of our users will be affected by this change. For example, last week 0.56% of users transferred data in excess of 35GB off peak and the week before it was just 0.33% (although term only started on Wednesday of that week).

Currently off-peak is midnight to 6pm (18 hours) and on-peak is 6pm to midnight (6 hours).

As always, we welcome constructive feedback.

Dear ResNet subscriber,

This is one in the occasional series of ResNet newsletters sent to all subscribers.

Get your computer up to date

Welcome back to Bristol if you’ve been away for the Christmas vacation. Now you are back this is a great time to check your computer has all the essential security updates for Windows. To check and install updates go to Microsoft Update http://www.update.microsoft.com/microsoftupdate/ or open Control Panel, Security Center.

It is essential you stay up to date: if not you put your computer and others on ResNet at risk. To protect other people we may suspend your ResNet connection if your computer is not up to date (but we’d give you a warning about that first).

For more advice on computer security see Protect your computer, your data, and yourself: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/is/computing/advice/security/

Changes to fair usage allowance

During the vacation we temporarily increased the weekly peak time fair usage allowance from 5GB to 10GB, as the network was very quiet. Now term has started again we’ve returned to our normal limit of 5GB a week, peak time (6pm-12 midnight).

Extended ResNet Help Desk opening hours

As it’s busy at the start of term we’ve extended the ResNet Help Desk opening hours. For the next two weeks if you need help with ResNet you can now ring us on 89001 internal, 2pm-8pm weekdays.

Free software for students

As a student at Bristol there is lots of free or very cheap software available for you. For example you can:

• Download McAfee Anti-Virus from the University free of charge,
• Buy, rent or get free (some departments only) student copies of Microsoft Office,
• Get free Desktop Publishing software from Serif,
• Get free Autodesk CAD software.

To download free software or find out more about student discounts see software for home users: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/is/computing/advice/homeusers/software/