Category: Network Status

Maintenance work announcement Viktor-Renner-Straße

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On Thursday, April 18, starting around 6:30 PM, we will finally be able to equip our dormitories in Viktor-Renner-Straße with more modern technology.
For the residents, this means they will be able to use gigabit internet in their rooms afterwards.
For us as Netz-AK the upgrade also brings us major advantages in the management of our network. The switches that were previously installed in Viktor-Renner-Straße are the very last to not support various standard features and needed to be configured very differently from the rest of our infrastructure, hindering any automation efforts.
We expect the installation to take about 3 hours, meaning you will probably have unrestricted internet access again from 9:30 PM.

Update 2024-04-23: After we were initially only able to replace the switches at Viktor-Renner-Straße 2 last Thursday, we have completed all maintenance work at 4 today. If you still have problems with your internet, please contact us individually using our contact form! This is the only way we can identify the individual problems and help you effectively, because the sources of error can be very different.

As everywhere else in our network, the maximum number of IP addresses assigned in Viktor-Renner-Straße is now basically limited to 1 per connection. However, you don’t have to buy a new router now if, for example, you have previously operated a WiFi repeater and therefore need several IP addresses. For all such connections that we could identify, we have temporarily relaxed this restriction. Let us know if we missed one.

Maintenance Work Announcement week 3

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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

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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.

Network restructuring on the weekend of November 25th and 26th, 2023.

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Next Saturday and Sunday, we finally have the long-awaited network restructuring happening.

These changes are necessary to improve the performance and reliability of our network.

To minimise the impact on you, we’ve planned to carry out the restructuring early in the day. During these times, there are usually fewer users online, which should reduce any inconvenience.

The scheduled offline periods will each last about an hour. We understand that this may be a bit inconvenient temporarily, but we are confident that the long-term benefits will outweigh any short-term inconveniences.

We appreciate your understanding in advance.

Update Nov 25th 2023 4:15 PM:

Yesterday, Malte worked until 11:30 PM, and Lucas until 1:00 AM, preparing and configuring.

The implementation of network changes started this morning at 10:00 AM and resulted in a longer network interruption across the entire network (student housing and dormitories) at 10:30 AM.

The interruption lasted from 11:30 AM to 2:00 PM and then from 2:30 PM to 3:30 PM. The work was completed by 3:30 PM, and the last device came back online at 4:00 PM.

During the cleanup following the work, no further outages are expected.

Whether work will be needed again on Sunday depends on whether disruptions are reported to us or if we discover issues that are not functioning as desired.

November 2023 Welfenstrasse

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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.

Update 15.11.2023, 7:30 pm:

A new day, a new attempt! Unfortunately, the exchange in Welfenstraße yesterday was not successful. Therefore, we have now placed the antenna that we had removed there on Egilolfstraße and thus swapped everything once.

Currently, there are no new outages to report, and we hope to gain some time to decide on 2 more antenna pairs. These should then be able to function in continuous operation as redundancy for several years.

Once you are in Hohenheim, such an exchange is quickly completed. The travel time alone today was approximately 3 hours.

Update 16.11.2023, 8:15 am:

Now sign of a problem since the exchange, but also no feedback from anyone who lives there.

Welfenstrasse Sept 2023

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We currently think that the radio bridge might have a problem. To check this, we need to go to Hohenheim and climb onto the roof of Egilolfstrasse.

Today at 2:50 PM, we restarted the hardware and are now monitoring the transmission values. We hope the issue is due to the current weather, as the weather and our availability don’t match the necessary work.

Please let us know in the next few days about your experiences with the internet connection so far.

lightning strike Provenceweg 7/9

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According to yesterday’s diagnosis, it seems that a lightning strike damaged some chips on the switches in the basement.

We are currently setting up the configuration on the new switches.

Afterwards, we will install the switches in Provenceweg. This will cause a brief network outage, as we will have the cables in hand.

We won’t be able to respond to emails in the basement. If you have any questions about the duration, come visit us in the basement at number 9 (towards the center of the building).

Update 12:30 PM: Everything has been swapped out and upgraded from 100 Mbit/s to Gigabit. Feel free to run our speed test and let us know if something still isn’t working.

Schimpf-Eck (Am Lustnauer Tor 1) July2023

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Surprisingly, construction work for Schimpf started last week. Each room, as usual in our dormitories, will have its own network connection with a double network socket, and one connection will be active.

We don’t consider a comprehensive alternative like WLAN networking, which is often desired, to be practical here. Those who have dealt with connecting hundreds of devices to Eduroam will understand why we are avoiding it.

In each room, you can set up your own secure and easy-to-configure WLAN with a simple router for around €35, allowing you to connect everything from a printer to a PlayStation.

The connection of the WG units in Schimpf Eck depends on the work at Pfleghof, whose starting date is still unknown to us. As surprises are possible, we prefer not to estimate when it will be ready. Getting new DSL contracts doesn’t seem sensible to us. We hope that the WG units will find a fair solution to redistribute the internet access costs or find a way to get rid of these contracts once the dormitory is stably connected to our network.

The final connection via fiber optic to our network is planned but not yet confirmed.

Hohenheim Uplink Upgrade 11:30 am till 4 pm

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Good morning dear Hohenheim residents!

Today, the Uplink upgrade will be fully implemented. If everything goes well, you will be running on 10G afterwards, and the outages will come to an end.

To transport the Uplink technology from the temporary location at Schwerzstraße 2 to the new location at Egilolfstraße 57, we will need some time. Unfortunately, during this time, the Hohenheim dormitories will be offline.

Since we have to unplug the device and then reconnect it in a different building, it cannot be avoided. However, we will hurry as much as possible.

Hohenheim 26 of May Upgrade

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It’s time!

Last night, we were given the task to carry out the upgrade.

As mentioned before, we had already prepared a new location for the uplink, which will enable all Hohenheim residences to go online.

To transport the uplink technology from the temporary location at Schwerzstraße 2 to the new location at Egilolfstraße 57, we will need some time. During this time, the residences in Hohenheim will unfortunately be offline.

Since we need to disconnect the device and then reconnect it in a different building, it cannot be avoided. However, we will do our best to expedite the process.

The estimated duration will probably be around one to two hours this afternoon, with several short outages as we make the necessary adjustments throughout the day, starting in the morning.

We will update this post once we have more information.