2024-11-20 Total outage

Today (~8:34 AM) we had a power outage.

Manual intervention was required, the dorms were back online around 09:03 AM.

Update: The outage also particularly affected a switch only relevant for the dorms in Pestalozzistraße 41 – since 4:10 PM this also is fixed, and everything should work again.

2024-09-30 Total outage the 2nd

Today (~4:19 pm), there was second unexpected power outage caused by a tripped circuit breaker (FI switch), which disconnected our systems from the network for about 90 minutes.

Since manual intervention was needed, we had a downtime of around 30 to 45 minutes before the systems were fully up again.

The outage wasn’t caused by anything we were doing, so it came as a surprise. Unfortunately, the UPS (uninterruptible power supply) didn’t last long enough until I could bike up the hill to Fichtenweg 5 to fix it on-site.

These kinds of incidents can happen, but most of you probably didn’t even notice the outage.

2024-09-30 Total outage

Today (3:58 pm), there was an unexpected power outage caused by a tripped circuit breaker (FI switch), which disconnected our systems from the network for about 90 minutes.

Since manual intervention was needed, we had a downtime of around 30 to 45 minutes before the systems were fully up again.

The outage wasn’t caused by anything we were doing, so it came as a surprise. Unfortunately, the UPS (uninterruptible power supply) didn’t last long enough until I could bike up the hill to Fichtenweg 5 to fix it on-site.

These kinds of incidents can happen, but most of you probably didn’t even notice the outage.

2024-09-11 Kaiser-Wilhelm-Strasse 10

Our systems have been showing an outage at our connections at Kaiser-Wilhelm-Strasse 10 in Geislingen an der Steige since Wednesday, September 11th.

We received the first report from a resident on September 12, 2024, at 11:42 AM.

Without such a report, we cannot take action because there can be many reasons for the outage of our connections, like construction work in the building or on the street, or other reasons for a power cut.

In the past, we have gone to sites unnecessarily with fully configured replacement devices, so we no longer respond without a report from a resident.

Since we cannot access the building and the technical rooms in the basement without the help of a janitor, no repairs have been possible yet.

We will try again today to fix the issue.

Update 10 AM: The janitor was reached and turned the power off and on again. Everything is back online. The availability and accessibility of janitors is very important!
A big thank you to the janitor for his help – he saved us over two hours of driving time.

2024-08-21 Muenzgasse 7

Muenzgasse 7 has been shown as offline since last night.

So far, no one has contacted us. We are preparing to upgrade the building to Gigabit. (12:00)

3 PM: No power, no internet. We upgraded the hardware. As soon as the power is back on you got gigabit internet.

2024-06-10 Pestalozzistrasse 65 + 63

In the house at Pestalozzistraße 65, it looks like a device died.

The following rooms are probably affected: 222, 223, 301, 302, 303, 304, 305, 306, 307, 308, 309, 310, 311, 312, 313, 314, 315, 316, 317, 318, 319, 320, 321, 322.

If we have access to the tech cabinets and the locks haven’t been changed again, we can probably install new hardware in the evening and get you back online.

Please contact us as soon as possible if you notice any problems.

Update 3:20 pm: Now all the house is offline.

Update 4:26 pm: got an report that 63 is down.

Update 8:05 pm: last tests, but you all should be online and the number 65 upgraded to gigabit speed.

Why a Router?

Router: With a router, you can create your own small computer network in your dorm room, where your devices usually go online via Wi-Fi through your router. Your router is connected to a device called a switch, which is typically located in the basement of your dorm. This switch is usually directly connected to us at Fichtenweg 5 in Tübingen via fiber optic cable. From there, the connection goes to the Data Center of the University of Tübingen, and from there to BelWü and beyond. The term Internet is based on the interconnectivity between networks.

To communicate between devices on the Internet, they need to find each other. For this, there are IP addresses, which we can compare to phone numbers for this explanation. We have a limited number of these addresses and can provide each of you with one. Since nowadays you have more than one device that wants to go online at the same time, it would cause problems without a router.

Access Point: An access point is not a router and does not create its own network. An access point is an entry point for a network. The access point needs an IP address to function. We give you exactly one IP address. If you connect an access point in your room, it gets an IP address from us. A smartphone connected to the access point does not go online at first, and you can’t access the access point because they don’t know each other’s addresses. The access point usually does not ask for a new IP address and forgets the assigned one after a while. A device in the Wi-Fi of the access point, such as a smartphone, continuously asks for an IP address and gets one from us after a maximum of two minutes if the access point has no more IP addresses. Then the smartphone can go online. Your laptop, however, will not go online through the access point. Therefore, you need a router.

Range Extender: Range extenders increase the range of a Wi-Fi network and do nothing else. So, you can’t do much with a range extender; at best, it might work like an access point.

Important Note: If you unplug your router and connect a laptop directly to the network socket, please wait 2 minutes before assuming there is an error or doing further diagnostics. The limitation to one IP address per room has a timer of 60 seconds. After 2 minutes, you will definitely have a new IP address from us if your devices are configured correctly.