Jobs With ResNet from September 2012
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 2012/13 academic year.

A job with ResNet offers competitive pay (£11.56 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 2012/13 year.

The closing date for applications is 10am, Monday 11th June. For more details or to apply please see:http://www.bristol.ac.uk/is/computing/advice/homeusers/resnet/about/behindscene/vacancies12.html

Adding wireless to these properties will increase Residential wireless coverage to just over 96%

For more information on ResNet Wireless please visit <http://www.resnet.bristol.ac.uk/wireless>

If you have any questions then please get in touch by email but please check <http://www.bristolresnet.net> before doing so as progress updates will be posted there.

 Update 8/5/2012

Our contractor was hoping to have this installed by now but we're having supply issues with the wireless access points and switches.  On Friday we received the majority of the WAPs so the cabling contractor can now crack on with the install.  Watch this space for further updates.

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.

We do not have a completion date but hope the installation will be completed before the end of the Easter Vacation.

Adding wireless to these properties will increase Residential wireless coverage from 80% to just over 95%

For more information on ResNet Wireless please visit

This post will be updated with any useful information as and when we have some.

Update 23/4/2012

We currently have all but 2 of the 51 wireless access points installed in Unite House and Chantry Court fully working.  We are working on the 2 that are not happy and hope to have them up soon.  We can see that 171 of you have used the wireless already which is great.  If you've not used ResNet wireless then you can do so by connecting to the ResNet-Setup wireless signal and visiting go.resnet.bristol.ac.uk.

Update 8/5/2012

Okay, all wireless access points in Unite House and Chantry Court are up and running - they were last week, I just forgot to update this post.  If you are having any problems connecting then we have pages to help connect.  If you're having problems with signal strength then there is a survey that will help us identify problem areas.

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

• Northwell House
• Woodland Court
• The Hawthorns
• 121 Redland Road
• Rodney Place

Please see the IT Services news item for more details, since some buildings other than halls of residence will also be affected.

We apologise for the inconvenience caused to our customers.