Surprise

Just now, at 10:25 AM, the Studierendenwerk contacted us because the people moving into Schwerzstrasse 2 apparently don’t have internet.

This doesn’t surprise us, since we weren’t informed until just now that the dormitory is finished being renovated and is now being moved into.

We can’t fix this immediately, but we should be able to do it by tomorrow afternoon, because Lucas and I will probably spend our vacation in the basement of Schwerzstrasse.

Until then, we can’t do anything for you. Use the time to get to know your new neighbours. Celebrate a little and pick up a book, the old-fashioned way.

We look forward to welcoming you to the network tomorrow.

2024 new in the dorm?!

First of all, it’s great that you’re here – welcome to the dorm and our volunteer-managed network.

If you’re new to Tuebingen, you’ll probably want to meet people. A good reason to start a conversation could be because you have a question – whether it’s about living, where to shop, or, likely why you’ve landed on this page, about accessing the internet from the dorm.

There’s internet in the dorm; it’s fast, and you don’t have to pay anything extra for it.

You can only get online in the rooms wirelessly through WiFi if you get yourself a WiFi router, which is what most people do. If you already own a router, make sure to read our guide on Wireless internet in your room. If you don’t have a router and are looking to buy one, I’ve just finished a blog post describing what I would do if I were faced with this task.

If you ever run into a problem or need help, don’t hesitate to write to us via the contact form. Please always use this form so we have all the information we need to help you quickly and efficiently.

Unfortunately, we can only help in German and English as a group, but in all communication, we advise you to use the language you speak best and not to use automatic translators. The quality of your German or English shows us what you might mean if you’re not well-versed in technology. If you send us a technically perfect text using AI, you will get a response that matches the level of your request, and it could unnecessarily complicate things if you’re not an expert.

Have fun and a pleasant time in the dorm!

Your Netz-AK (short for Netzwerk Arbeitskreis = Network Work-group)

How Would I Choose a WiFi Router?

Finding the right WiFi router can still be a challenge for some. Let me walk you through how I would approach this as someone hypothetically moving in today, March 3, 2024.

I start by reading the guide on Netz-AK.de about Wireless internet in your room. This tells me exactly what features I need in a product:

  • WiFi Router
  • 5 GHz
  • Gigabit WiFi connection preferred
  • No Fritzbox, no D-LINK DIR-809

Next, I use a search engine to find a price comparing website for router in Germany. I find three German websites, which unfortunately tend to be exclusively in German: billiger.de, geizhals.de, and idealo.de. Knowing Geizhals, I start there.

On Geizhals.de, under the category Hardware > Netzwerk > WLAN-Router, I set the “Price range (€)” (“Preisbereich (€)”) generously up to 50€ including shipping. For availability (“Verfügbarkeit”), I select “in stock” (“lagernd”) and choose providers from Germany (“Anbieter aus Deutschland”). For the total 5GHz transmission rate (“Übertragungsrate 5GHz gesamt”), I select from 867Mbps to exclude outdated devices that only support 433Mbps. In the “additional filters” (“weiteren Filtern”), I find “WAN 1Gbit/s (exkl. Sets) ab:” and activate it. I then get results, which I sort by price including shipping, finding suitable routers from €27.99 including €5.99 for shipping.

To ensure the router I’ve chosen is compatible, I check it against the list on Netz-AK‘s site. If it’s not listed, I send the router’s name and, if possible, the product link via the contact form to receive a prompt reply about the device’s compatibility according to the manufacturer’s specifications.

I attempt the same at idealo.de but encounter difficulty as there appears to be no option to set a minimum WiFi speed or the minimum WiFi standard.

Lastly, I try billiger.de. Initially, I find no network technology category and almost give up after 5 minutes. Searching for “Router” eventually yields results. I also set the price limit to €50 here. Under product type (“Produkttyp”), I choose WiFi Router (“WLAN-Router”), for the WiFi data transfer rate (“Datenübertragungsrate WLAN”) I set the minimum to 866 Mb/s, and I use the LAN data transfer rate of 1000 Mb/s (“Datenübertragungsrate LAN”) as a proxy, though it doesn’t necessarily reflect WAN speed. This should suffice.

Now, I find suitable options here as well, unfortunately without shipping cost details. Where you decide to purchase is up to you, but personally, I don’t mind spending an extra €10 to shop locally. However, for a €30 router, an additional €10 is a significant 30% more, so don’t hesitate to return a product if local advice from a so-called specialist leads to a purchase that doesn’t meet your needs.

We will no longer support FritzBox routers

Starting from April 1, 2024, we will no longer support FritzBox routers in our network.

For a short while now, we’ve had all the permissions needed to tackle the ongoing issue with FritzBox routers.

We’ve been advising against using FritzBox routers for a while due to their cost and features that are unnecessary for a student dormitory setting. We’ve also linked to this advice in our guide since 2022.

Besides the wasted money, we’ve received complaints from various dorm areas saying, “when I’m away for a while and come back, I have to unplug and replug my router to get online.”

We were able to reproduce this issue widely when we upgraded a slightly neglected dormitory to Gigabit at the beginning of the year. During the upgrade, the dormitory also received Alcatel switches, which we’ve been exclusively using since 2012. With these switches, those with compatible routers could now enjoy Gigabit, but for those using FritzBox, the situation got worse.

Currently, it seems that FritzBox routers are the only ones unable to obtain an IP from our DHCP server a second time, eventually going offline.

We are conducting a small test setup to try and replicate this phenomenon observed in the wild, but it’s taking time.

We should invest in the next generation of switches, but that takes too long considering the short time residents stay in the dormitory, making it unreasonable to ask anyone to daily reset their FritzBox.

Therefore, we’ve decided to phase out FritzBox routers from our network by April 1, 2024, the start of the summer semester.

Those with older devices can receive a special configuration for their connection from us. Old devices are defined as: FritzBox routers that were in use in either of the two dormitories before their upgrade (Konrad-A-Str. and Viktor-R-Str.), i.e., the winter semester of 2023-2024.

In all other dorm areas, FritzBox routers haven’t worked for almost a decade, so we see no legitimate reason for complaints.

Anyone buying a FritzBox, despite our advice since 2022, will have to live with potentially needing to reconnect it daily. We will not invest our volunteer time into a special connection configuration just because someone chose to spend more money on a product we advise against.

When and how we will deploy our next generation of switches, which manufacturer they will be from, and whether FritzBox routers will work with them is not yet decided, and we ask that you refrain from inquiries about this.

Those interested in network technology are, of course, welcome to discuss and research this issue with us, but “I paid a lot of money and want my device to work” is not an argument here!

In short: from the summer semester of 2024, we will no longer support FritzBox routers in our network.

Fiber optic advertisement for the dorm is retro.

Imagine you’re living in a student dorm that has had fiber optic since 1974. And then, in 2024, you suddenly get an advertisement for the “soon arrival of fiber optic” in your mailbox.

Great!

If everything goes well, by this year, every room will be equipped with a synchronous gigabit connection, meaning 1,000 megabits of both upload and download.

That’s at least our goal for the 20th anniversary of our Network Work-group

Four out of nearly 6000 connections blocked

In rare cases, we must temporarily block certain connections to protect our network. This is done because of what are called abuse reports, which indicate that abusive activities might be happening from a connection. We receive this report from the BelWü-CSIRT (Computer Security Incident Response Team), and our task is to stop the abuse with appropriate actions, which we do by turning off the connection of the room.

What is an abuse report?

In short, an abuse report is triggered when suspicious or unusual activities are observed coming from an internet connection. This could be, for example, sending spam emails or unauthorized attempts to access other computers. Often, you may not be aware of this behavior because it is usually caused by viruses or other malicious software that has secretly installed itself on one of the devices in the network.

No blame on you

We want to emphasize that such a blocking is in no way meant as a blame towards the affected users. In most cases, you are victims of malicious software acting without your knowledge. Our priority is to quickly identify and solve the problem to prevent further damage.

Why we block the connection

The fastest and most effective way to inform you about a possible security issue is by temporarily turning off the connection. This measure immediately attracts attention and prompts most users to contact us right away. This way, we can address the problem together as quickly as possible.

We are almost always available

Please note that we are also available on weekends and outside regular working hours. If your internet connection unexpectedly stops working, do not hesitate to contact us. We are ready to analyze the problem and offer you steps to solve it. Together, we can ensure that your connection is quickly safe and fully functional again.

Conclusion

The security and reliability of our network are very important to us. Through proactive measures like these, we want not only to ward off potential threats but also to raise awareness of the importance of network security. We thank you for your understanding and cooperation in keeping our shared digital environment safe.

If you have any questions or concerns, we are always here for you.

Maintenance Work Announcement week 3

In week 3, which is from January 15 to January 21, some maintenance work is scheduled.

Hohenheim

The maintenance work starting on Friday will be long and unpleasant for the people in Hohenheim.
The fiber optic lines in Hohenheim to get extended to be used in a different location because of the renovations.
Without the fiber optic line, there will be no internet there.

The work will be carried out by a specialist company and is scheduled to start on Friday morning, which is January 19.
The work will take a long time, so we announce a complete internet outage in all student dormitories in Hohenheim from Friday morning to Saturday noon.

If it’s done faster, please avoid sending us messages all day. It won’t speed things up.
The company will complete their work as quickly as possible, and we will reconnect the fiber optics.

Tuebingen, Konrad-Adenauer-Strasse

On Thursday, January 18, starting around 5:30 PM, we will finally be able to equip our dormitories in Konrad-Adenauer-Strasse with modern technology.
For the residents, this means they will be able to use gigabit internet in their rooms afterwards.
Since we haven’t been able to implement the exclusive use of routers in Konrad-Adenauer-Strasse due to technical reasons, we will not enforce this immediately but only from the start of the summer semester (April 1, 2024).
We expect the installation to take about 3 hours, meaning you will probably have unrestricted internet access again from 9:00 PM.

Tuebingen, Schimpf-WG

There will be a maximum half-hour interruption in internet access at the Schimpf-WG. We had announced this work several times before but could never implement it due to problems accessing our hardware in the neighboring building. We cannot say exactly when this will be, but it will happen some evening between Monday and Thursday.

30th December Update

After a failed network-wide update on the night of December 27th to 28th, several buildings experienced unspecific internet outages. We are in the process of resetting all devices and hope this will fix the disturbance. When resetting, the devices will restart, and you will be completely offline for up to 15 minutes. This was, of course, not planned. Please always report outages directly to us and not in any messenger groups. As soon as we receive feedback, we can take appropriate action.

Quo vadis Gigabit?

In Geislingen, Sigmaringen, and Albstadt, we have installed Gigabit switches for quite some time. It was more of a coincidence that these places were equipped with Gigabit internet before Tübingen and Hohenheim.

We have just checked how many residents of the dormitories actually use the offered Gigabit internet.

The results are somewhat sobering: In Albstadt, 53% of the residents use the Gigabit internet, in Sigmaringen it’s 33%, and in Geislingen only 25%.

This raises the question of whether we have not informed well enough that Gigabit can be used with the right router, or whether the residents simply do not need such high internet speed.

Workload Admissions Winter Semester 2023/24

Since we have some time, we would like to provide a brief review of the admissions wave for the winter semester of 2023/2024.
The wave of admissions can also be clearly seen in the volume of emails.
All emails were answered manually and in the shortest possible time.
I will write a separate article about the most notable routers of this admissions wave.

WS2023-24 Mails
WS2023-24 Mails by time
WS2023-24 Mails by day
WS2023-24 Mails by month