Category: general

New in the dormitory? | Winter semester 2026/2027

Tim on

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

If you are new to the dormitory, you probably want to meet people. So, it’s a good idea to talk to your neighbours if you have a question.
They can answer questions about housing, shopping, or sports facilities and we can only help you with the access to the internet.

The internet in the dormitory is fast, and you don’t have to pay extra for it. (If someone has slow internet, it’s usually because they have a bad router.)

To go online via Wi-Fi, you need your own router. Almost everyone has one or shares Wi-Fi with the neighboring room.
If you already have a router, make sure to read our tutorial on Wi-Fi in the dorm room.
If you don’t have a router and want to buy one, someone has written a blog post explaining how he would do it if he was in your situation.

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

Unfortunately, as a working group, we can only help you in German or English. Please use the language you are more comfortable with.
We understand that you might want to practice your German, but it is easier for us to help you in English if your English is better.

When you write to us, please don’t use AI.
Based on what and how you write, we can understand what you mean and how much you already know.
A “perfect” AI-generated message suggests to us that you know a lot – and you will then receive a response at that level.
If you want help from a human, write the message yourself!

Have fun and enjoy your time in the dormitory!

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

2026-08-28 Internet outage Fichtenweg 17

Marajha Manthey on

Friday, 28.08. 21:20 

Since this morning we are having an internet outage at Fichtenweg 17.

Unfortunately, we are in Karlsruhe right now, so we will take till tomorrow to look into the issue.
We will resolve the issue as soon as possible.

Stay tuned for further updates.

Edit 29.08. 16:43: I exchanged all of the network hardware of the house – the Internet should be available again for about an hour (and the internet speed, provided you’ve got a compatible router, up to 10x as fast). Please reach out, in case you’re still experiencing issues. ~Jonas

WHO Summer Party, 17 June 2026

Marajha Manthey on

‘Hacking’ refers, amongst other things, to the creative repurposing of electronics to achieve specific goals.

We’ll be finding out tomorrow, 17 June, from 5.00 pm, at the Village Council’s summer festival, whether throwing a network switch to achieve quite impressive distances also falls under this definition.

Do come along!
As well as the switch-throwing competition, we’re of course also up for lively discussions on both technical and non-technical topics.

We’re still sorting out the arrangements, but with a bit of luck we might even be able to hold a patch competition tomorrow!

2026-04-30 planned maintenance work

Marajha Manthey on

We were informed by BelWü that there will be maintenance work that could effect our internet connection.

Here you`ll find the information provided to us. For details, follow the link (in German).

Beginn: 2026-04-30 00:00
Ende: 2026-04-30 06:00

Den Verlauf dieses Vorgangs können Sie unter folgender URL erreichen:
https://www.belwue.de/trouble-tickets/ticket/699.xml

Maintenance Server Room 2026-04-26

Malte on

We plan to do some maintenance in our central server room today in the evening. There may be short interruptions of service. We will inform you here once the works are done.

Update 21.00: All work is done. Our network cabinet, where all optical fibers come together, got new long rack rails. The old ones were too short and inflexible, screw nuts were hard to place. The renovation took place during ongoing operations and we only had to reconnect some cables that were in the way, which is why we could not avoid some brief connection dropouts. With the new rails in place we are ready for some more upgrades: Soon we will also exchange our old core switch. As always, we will inform you beforehand.

3D printing workshop 2026-04-19

Malte on

On Sunday, 19th of April, the Netz-AK invites you to a 3D printing workshop. It will take place in our network lab in Fichtenweg 16 (see below for directions).

We have ordered some Raspberry Pi’s and will print suitable casings on our own.

There will be a short introduction to the basics (technology, study of materials, etc.) and afterwards we will begin to print the models, so that something will be definitely finished.

Depending on time and demand there will be the possibility to model on your own with TinkerCAD, Fusion360 or OnShape afterwards.

Update 2026-04-14: Please bring your own laptop!

We expect it to take 3-4 hours. Since the Netz-AK currently has a regular meeting each Sunday from 4 p.m., there will be the possibility to work longer on something or to (better) get to know the members of our working group and our rooms.

You can also join later.

There will be some snacks and Spezi.

This way you can get to our network lab:

what3words: endet.wenn.abkühlen

New in the dormitory? | Summer Semester 2026

Tim on

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

If you are new to the dormitory, you probably want to meet people. So, it’s a good idea to talk to your neighbours if you have a question.
They can answer questions about housing, shopping, or sports facilities and we can only help you with the access to the internet.

The internet in the dormitory is fast, and you don’t have to pay extra for it. (If someone has slow internet, it’s usually because they have a bad router.)

To go online via Wi-Fi, you need your own router. Almost everyone has one or shares Wi-Fi with the neighboring room.
If you already have a router, make sure to read our tutorial on Wi-Fi in the dorm room.
If you don’t have a router and want to buy one, someone has written a blog post explaining how he would do it if he was in your situation.

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

Unfortunately, as a working group, we can only help you in German or English. Please use the language you are more comfortable with.
We understand that you might want to practice your German, but it is easier for us to help you in English if your English is better.

When you write to us, please don’t use AI.
Based on what and how you write, we can understand what you mean and how much you already know.
A “perfect” AI-generated message suggests to us that you know a lot – and you will then receive a response at that level.
If you want help from a human, write the message yourself!

Have fun and enjoy your time in the dormitory!

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

2026-03-11 Planned-Maintenance | Hardware replacement Fichtenweg 5

Tim on

On Wednesday, March 11, 2026, we will replace the old switches with new ones at Fichtenweg 3. This may cause brief internet outages in the building or on individual floors.

We will start at around 3 PM in the basement and work our way up through the floors.

Feel free to approach us if you see us.

Update:

We have finished the replacement in your building.
If you have a gigabit-enabled device, you should be able to use 1 gigabit synchronously.

2026-02-19 Maintenance: Hardware Upgrade Hechinger Straße 14

Malte 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.