November 2023 Welfenstrasse

The internet at Welfenstrasse 80 is not working right now.

We first heard about this issue on November 11, 2023, after 10 PM, but the information was not very clear at first.

After checking the wireless bridge from a distance and ruling out other possible causes, we hope it’s just a loose mount on the bridge.

But, we are worried that we might need to replace it.

Just to be safe, we are sending a request today for a replacement to StuWe.

All checking and fixing work depends on the weather, because we need to go on the roof to do it.

So, we are hoping for better weather tomorrow to check the hardware in person.

As always, please report right away if something isn’t working. Describe the problem and what kind of tech you are using. We already know how important the internet is, so you don’t need to mention that. Just tick the box if you feel like saying that.

Update Tuesday 14.11.2023 6:30 pm:

In the morning, it became clear that there would be a long break in the rain, which might allow us to work on the roof in Hohenheim. That’s why we decided to have a meeting during lunch break. One of us, who was professionally near Hohenheim, was able to be on the roof in Egilolfstraße during the conversation and check the antenna there and its alignment.

Originally, we thought that the antennas had reached the end of their life and needed to be completely replaced. Getting new ones would probably have been possible by the end of the week, but in the meantime, the poor internet connection would remain. Therefore, we came up with the idea to dismantle a part of a radio bridge, which was used as a test setup, from another roof and replace it in Hohenheim today. Right after the meeting, we implemented this and around 16:50, we were able to replace the antenna on Welfenstraße, which was responsible for the disturbance. After some driving and a bit of traffic, I am now here dictating this text, which I will have ChatGPT format before I leave for the evening.

We hope that the system is now working again and plan to create redundancy soon. This way, if this pair of antennas fails, it can automatically switch to a better system.

Of course, we would prefer to have a fiber optic connection to you, as we usually do, but that seems difficult.