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Plans and funding are in place to double internet bandwidth for the residential network (ResNet) from 200Mb to 400Mb by August 2012.

The ResNet network has consistently seen modest annual bandwidth increases to respond to student demand without increasing the cost to residents. Fifteen years ago, the University undertook a major project and borrowed money to wire all residence hall rooms for high-speed network and internet access. Now that the initial loan is about to be paid off, the savings are being reinvested into the network.

Bandwidth is essentially the amount of data that can pass to/from the internet, analogous to the number of lanes on a highway. The more lanes you have, the more quickly traffic is able to flow.

Although ResNet bandwidth has increased nearly 500% since April 2006, it's difficult to keep up with student demand. For example, on a normal weekday the 200Mb pipe currently in place is completely filled most of the time -- from about 10am to 3am.

To help ease congestion, a number of bandwidth management devices are utilized. One such device, which kicks in when the internet pipe reaches 90% utilization, attempts to provide equitable bandwidth to all users by "borrowing" from the heavy users in order to minimize lag for the not-so-heavy users. The result is that users uploading/downloading huge files and running dozens of concurrent sessions during peak times will see their file transfers take longer than they would during off hours.

Although the jump to 400Mb is a substantial increase, we still expect to see peak usage numbers that require continued use of bandwidth management devices. However, peak usage time should be greatly reduced, resulting in a faster internet connection for all residents.

Network Services identified a bad fiber connection that degraded network performance on Old Main 3rd, 4th and 5th floors. The bad connection has been disabled (repair is being scheduled) and performance is noticeably improved.

SkyDrive, the cloud-based file storage service included with all students' Windows Live accounts, is now available as a free app for iPhone, iPad and Windows Phone. Read more...

Background: The recent release of AVG 2012 antivirus software was not supported by ForeScout. As a result, students who upgraded to AVG 2012 received warning messages in their web browser that their antivirus software is out-of-date.

We strongly recommended that students planning to upgrade to AVG 2012 wait until it is fully supported.

Network Services has been able to identify Steam Network traffic and create bandwidth management rules based on ports commonly used by Steam. As a result, Steam Network game players should notice improved performance, even during times of heavy network congestion.

A mobile version of the Kutztown University ResNet web site is now available. KU ResNet mobile provides current and prospective students a quick and easy way to access the latest news and information related to residential computing from their iPhone or Android device.

iPhone and Android users who visit resnet.kutztown.edu are automatically directed to the mobile version of the site (mobile users have the option of viewing the full site).

The ResNet helpdesk and Johnson Hall lab will be closed today from 4:30pm-6pm. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Due to inclement weather, the ResNet helpdesk and Johnson Hall computer lab will close today at 12:30pm.

The Johnson Hall network outage originally scheduled for the morning of Tuesday, February 1, has been rescheduled for Tuesday, February 15.

The 1-hour network outage in Johnson Hall will last from approximately 5:00am-6:00am. This outage affects only the 3rd and 4th floors of Johnson Hall. During this time, there will be no access to the campus network or Internet. This outage is required to repair some bad fiber. All other buildings on campus are unaffected.

As is typical at the start of a semester, the beginning of the Spring 2011 semester was met by a couple of network issues in ResNet caused by misconfigured or infected student devices.

Two areas most affected are Bonner Hall (4th and 5th floors) and Deatrick Hall (1st, 2nd and 3rd floors). Although not all students have been affected in those areas, the problems are relatively widespread.

Students returning from Winter break occasionally return to campus with infected PCs or new network devices that may not be configured to work properly on the network. In some cases, these infected PCs and new devices can prevent other students from accessing the network.

The cause of the problem in Bonner Hall has been rectified. The exact cause of the problem in Deatrick Hall still hasn't been identified. Network Services continues to monitor that area, but identifying the root of the problem can be time-consuming as the owner of the bad device may unknowingly disconnect it for hours at a time.

UPDATE:

A number of manual checks have been added to Clean Access to allow users running Microsoft Security Essentials version 2.0 to successfully log into the network. Clean Access doesn't yet have native support for Security Essentials 2.0, but the addition of the manual checks allow students using Security Essentials to upgrade without fear of losing the ability to access the network.

Students considering upgrading to Microsoft Security Essentials 2.0 anti-virus software should be aware that the Cisco NAC Agent doesn't yet support it. As a result, any computer running version 2.0 of Microsoft Security Essentials would not be able to access the network.

Cisco expects to add support for Microsoft Security Essentials 2.0 within a few weeks, but no official date has been announced.

Students who are already running Microsoft Security Essentials are advised to remain at version 1.x until further notice in order to avoid any network disruption.

The ResNet network is currently in the midst of a major upgrade as the seven-year-old network switches in many of the residence halls are being replaced with newer, faster models. The upgrade is part of the ResNet cyclical equipment replacement plan which helps to ensure that network infrastructure upgrades are budgeted for and implemented on a regular schedule.

During each switch upgrade, network access is not available in that location from approximately 8am-11am. As a result, upgrades are being scheduled for times when the majority of students aren't on campus.

Here is the tentative switch upgrade schedule:

Building	Scheduled date (tentative)	Notes
Beck Hall	March 8, 2011	Completed
Berks Hall	January 7, 2011	Completed
Bonner Hall	December 21, 2010	Completed
Deatrick Hall	January 5, 2011	Completed
Dixon Hall	N/A	New switches already in use
GB Village South #10	January 14, 2011	Completed
GB Village South #20	October 11, 2010	Completed
GB Village South #30	March 7, 2011	Completed
GB Village South #40	TBD
GB Village South #50 - #80	N/A	New switches already in use
GB Village West	March 11, 2011	Completed
Honors Building	March 11, 2011	Completed
Johnson Hall	November 24, 2010	Completed
Lehigh Hall	January 10, 2011	Completed
Old Main	March 10, 2011	Completed
Rothermel Hall	January 12, 2011	Completed
Schuylkill Hall	January 10, 2011	Completed
University Place (suites x01-x07)	January 3, 2011	Completed
University Place (suites x08-x19)	December 23, 2010	Completed

From the Assistant Vice Provost for Information Technology...

Faculty and Staff members,

At approximately 1pm today, KU lost all Internet access, both outbound from campus to the Internet, and inbound to be able to access campus systems from off-campus.

The outage lasted from approximately 1pm until 5:30 pm.

Initial symptoms reported by the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education Network Operations Center staff indicate that the problem was likely caused by a Denial of Service attack, impacting Kutztown and the majority of other PASSHE universities.

Internet service was re-established at 5:30, outbound and inbound, for both the KU Academic and ResNet networks.

Original problem:

Beginning last night at 9:58pm, the Student_1 authentication provider failed, so students trying to log into Clean Access using Student_1 are unable to. The workaround is to select the Student_2 authentication provider when logging in.

After the problem was discovered this morning, Student_1 was removed from the list of authentication providers so students are forced to choose Student_2.

There will be a brief network outage (5-10 minutes) in all residence halls at approximately 8:00am on Thursday, November 11. During this time, there will be no access to the campus network or Internet. This outage is required for a planned network equipment upgrade to take place during Thanksgiving and winter breaks.