on Today, during the course of the evening, we will replace the old switches in Hechinger Straße 14. There will be an internet outage of around one hour.
Update: The new switch is purring along. Unfortunately, upgrading the uplink of your dorm to 10 Gbit/s failed on the first try. We are investigating the error cause.
on On Wednesday, February 11, 2026, we will be replacing the old network switches with new ones in your dormitory. This will result in temporary interruptions to your internet connection.
Schedule: We will start in the afternoon at Eugenstraße 57/1, 57/2, and 57/3, then proceed to Landkutschersweg 10, Provenceweg 7, and Provenceweg 9.
We will keep you updated on the progress and any changes via this blog post. If you have any questions or issues after this, feel free to contact us via the contact form.
UPDATE
We’ve completed everything, and it should now function normally.
on TüNet is measuring a line for us, so you will be briefly offline. Start: 10:30 a.m.
Update: Finished testing and upgrade of the connection at 12:00.
Update 15.01.2026: Unfortunately, connection quality has deteriorated again since yesterday evening, resulting in packet loss. We are working on a solution.
Update 16.01.2026 13:10: We have replaced a component. The issue should now be fixed. We will address the underlying problem with the fiber provider during the week.
Update 29.01.2026: TüNet will measure the connection again tomorrow, 30.01.2026, beginning at 8:00 am. All dormitories of the French quarters as well as Eugenstraße will be affected by a short internet outage.
on This year, we had the opportunity to attend Europe’s largest hacker congress—the 39C3, the 39th Chaos Communication Congress. It is a four-day event organized by the Chaos Computer Club, held annually and now once again at the Congress Center Hamburg (CCH).
Here are three good reasons to attend the C3:
(1) Talks
A core element of the Congress—and probably the main reason for its public visibility. In the past, talks that made it into major media outlets included “We Know Where Your Car Is” (location histories of all recent Volkswagen vehicles, including those of government and intelligence employees, freely accessible on the internet), “The Electronic Patient Record Is Coming – Now for Everyone!” (severe security issues in the implementation of the largest digitization project in the German healthcare system), or “Operation Triangulation” (in which security experts from Kaspersky presented a zero-click attack on Apple mobile devices they had discovered).
Talks run throughout the entire Congress in four large halls. With more than 16,000 attendees this year, there was no shortage of content—and the limited time automatically ensures that only the most interesting submissions make it into the available slots. I personally watched, for example, “Excuse me, what precise time is it?”, in which the speaker presented and live-demonstrated various methods of microsecond-accurate network time synchronization. And of course, the “Security Nightmares” were a must again this year.
(2) Networking with other assemblies, meeting familiar faces again
Tables are set up all over the exhibition grounds—these tables belong to so-called “assemblies,” i.e., groups or associations. The C3-Nav gives a good impression of the venue—and the sheer number of groups present. When you’re not attending a talk, walking through the halls, or eating, these tables are typically the go-to place to retreat to. We were kindly hosted by the Chaostreff Tübingen—many thanks for that!
Right next to us, Selfnet e.V. from Stuttgart had their tables—the operator of the student dormitory network for Stuttgart, Esslingen, and Ludwigsburg. Two experienced members spontaneously took the time to give me a virtual tour of their dormitory network, and we talked about topics such as switch selection, Wi-Fi access points, redundancy, automation, and routing. I definitely took away a few new ideas—on the never-ending journey of continuously improving our own dormitory network.
At least two of our members also unexpectedly ran into other acquaintances—the (IT) world really is smaller than you think.
(3) Booths, hands-on events, venue, music
As can be seen on the aforementioned C3-Nav, the CCH is truly huge—and every room has its own design and music. The decoration team once again went all out and created something impressive. Many assembly tables are also used as booths, and there are small events and “self-organized sessions” you can take part in. In one of these sessions, for example, you could learn SMD soldering.
Unfortunately, there are only a few photos of the Congress—mainly because of the strict policy that you may not take photos unless you have explicitly asked every single person in the picture. This is meant to ensure a relaxed and low-pressure experience for everyone. Still, you can get a visual impression here, here, here, and here.
Many of the talks were recorded—if this blog post has sparked your interest, you’ll find plenty of content on media.ccc.de and on the YouTube channel.
Attending the 39C3 was a fantastic experience and definitely worth repeating. Thank you very much for the opportunity!
on The general members’ meeting for the 2025 association year will take place on January 6, 2026.
Originally, a date in December was planned, but unfortunately there was not enough time at the end of the year.
A regular general members’ meeting is required by association law. Certain deadlines and formal requirements must be met, regardless of how full the calendar is at the end of the year. For this reason, the meeting will now be held at the beginning of January.
To avoid this situation in the future, we will probably move the general members’ meeting to the summer.
2025 is a special year for the association.
It is the first year in which we have concluded the contract with the Studierendenwerk for operating the network. This means that a long-open issue has now also been formally clarified and placed on a stable basis.
I am also pleased that I was able to invite 18 people to this year’s general members’ meeting.
Since the founding of the association, the number of members has therefore doubled.
It is increasingly noticeable that structure and activity in the association are slowly gaining momentum. Tasks are being distributed better, processes are becoming clearer, and engagement is growing steadily.
on Since April, our support has been using a new ticket system: FreeScout.
Before that, things were often confusing, with only one inbox that was read and answered by several people. Now we have a better overview. And we have some numbers that we find quite interesting and would like to share with you.
193 people have written to us.
We have sent 610 replies.
That is about four per day.
We have now closed 216 tickets or cases.
For 81 of them, one reply was enough.
The biggest rush, as always, comes during move-in to the dormitory. There are many new people, and accordingly many questions.
Short answer: usually quite fast.
About half of all requests are answered within one hour.
On average, it takes 48 minutes.
We do this on a voluntary basis. Without an office, without fixed hours. When there is a lot going on, like during move-in, we pay especially close attention so that no one has to wait too long for a reply.
This does not happen automatically for us.
When we reply and then do not hear back from you, we leave the ticket open for the time being. Maybe our answer helped. Maybe you need more time. Maybe the email got lost. We do not know.
At some point, when there is time, we go through the open tickets and close those where nothing more is happening.
That is why it looks like many tickets are only solved after more than two days. In reality, most of them are finished much earlier. We just do not press “closed” immediately.
In three out of four cases, one or two replies are enough. Sometimes it takes a few more messages, or there is simply another “Thank you” and a “Have fun on the network” at the end. That makes the statistics longer, even though the topic was actually already finished.
The data clearly shows the move-in phase. And that many of you only start dealing with the topic of internet in the dormitory and routers after moving in.
Many then seem to go, under stress, to the nearest shop that sells routers and let themselves be sold whatever the shop wants to get rid of at the moment.
The problem:
These “specialist salespeople” unfortunately do not inform themselves at all about what our five and a half thousand users actually need.
It is really a shame when some of you ruin probably the best internet connection you have had so far, and will probably have in the next five to ten years, with a bad router.
In local retail, a router probably costs 30 percent more than online. That is completely fine.
But please do not buy anything that is already marked as insufficient on our website.
We really put a lot of effort into our guides. And if you are not sure about a device that is not on the list, just ask. We are happy to help you.
We usually reply quickly and do our best.
By now, we even know quite precisely how fast we reply.
on In Schwerzstraße 2, one switch has been showing unusual values in our monitoring for some time. To avoid it failing over the holidays, when we might not be able to arrange a replacement or repairs at short notice, we will carry out a preventive upgrade to our current network equipment.
We plan to leave Tübingen on Sunday at around 12:00. Accordingly, we will arrive in Hohenheim during the afternoon and start the work there.
Please expect at least two hours of work. During this time, the network will be unavailable several times for short periods. We will update this blog post as soon as the work is completed.
If anything is still open after the upgrade, we will probably be able to follow up on Monday or Tuesday. But please contact us immediately if anything does not work after the upgrade.
on In recent weeks, there have unfortunately been repeated power outages as part of the ongoing construction work at Pestalozzistraße 41. According to the current status, these should come to an end with the start of the construction break from the evening of December 23 until January 7 inclusive.
On 23 December, the workers will gradually finish their work from around 4 p.m. From 5 p.m. onwards, we therefore ask you to report any noticeable problems to us immediately, so that on 24 December we still have the opportunity to replace any hardware that may have been damaged or to reach someone from the Studierendenwerk.
After 24 December, neither we nor external companies can be reached between Christmas and New Year in order to arrange short-term repairs. If a network cabinet is without power during this period, this can only be fixed after the end of the construction break.
Power is an essential requirement for your internet access. Without power, our network technology on site cannot function.
on We detected several outages today, including a longer one, at Pestalozzistraße 41 in our monitoring system.
While looking for the cause, we found out that there is intensive construction work going on in the building.
At the moment, all switches except one are online. The following rooms are connected to that switch:
Ground floor 8–12, 1st floor 117–121, 2nd floor 217–221, and 3rd floor 317–321.
We do not know whether these rooms are occupied during the renovation. If they are, please contact us immediately!
We will ask the Studierendenwerk what is going on.
Since all of our dormitories in Reutlingen are connected through this building, we hope that our hardware is not being damaged.
Update: A power line was cut and has now been repaired.
on Due to an oversight on my part, I have unfortunately taken Pestalozzistr. 63 partially offline. I apologize for this. I will take care of getting you back online today.
Update: Pestalozzistr. is back online.
