Since about 12:40 today, the University has been experiencing some problems with its authentication servers (similar to those on saturday). Wireless and VPN services have been affected by these problems, and users may have had problems connecting between 12:50 and 14:00. We have now activated a temporary workaround which will allow wireless and VPN users to connect without issues.

The root cause of the authentication server problems is still under investigation. This article will be updated if any further information comes to light.

At about 01:30am this morning a problem occurred with one of the University’s twelve authentication servers. This will have caused problems for some users when trying to connect to eduroam wireless, managed wireless and the UoB VPN service (VisitorNet wireless was not affected). A workaround was applied at 08:30am, so you will now be able to connect as normal.

Further information

The root cause of the issues are still under investigation. We are aware that ~700 eduroam users (about 6% of all Bristol eduroam users), and ~160 VPN users were affected. Unfortunately the nature of the fault was that the problem authentication server was replying “access rejected” for all login requests – had it failed completely i.e. stopped providing any replies, the services that rely on it would have automatically detected this and failed over to an alternative authentication server.

This article will be updated if any further information comes to light.

This week, new wireless has been installed to cover The Tennis Court and Magnum Room in 8/10 Berkeley Square. Three new wireless devices have been installed in the Worsley Chemical Library to provide for the high number of library users. An additional wireless device has been installed in the East Foyer in Chemistry. We have also upgraded all of the older wireless devices within Chemistry.

We now have over 720 wireless access points covering the campus area, and another 630 in University accommodation.

Unfortunately we have discovered that the infrastructure running the wireless service is affected by a bug. This bug causes a degradation in the wireless user experience e.g. high latency when loading web pages. There is a software update that should fix this issue available from the infrastructure vendor. We plan to apply the update on the morning of Tuesday, April 24th. This means that all wireless services at Bristol will not be available from 05:00 in the morning. All wireless services will be ‘at risk’ until 9am, although we hope to have the wireless back up and running before then.

As this bug was found to be affecting us very recently we were not able to give the usual two weeks notice for this work. A notification email has been sent to all staff and students regarding this maintenance work. Bristol users connecting to eduroam at another organisation will not be affected by this work.

What is IPv6? What’s happening? Do I need to do anything?

IPv6 is the new generation of the Internet. On June 6th 2012, many web services including Google, Facebook, YouTube, Yahoo, Bing and many others will permanently enable IPv6 functionality on their systems.

As an Internet user, you don’t have to do anything. You shouldn’t notice the change. However, if you do find that e.g. facebook stops working for you on the 6th June, you might need to adjust some settings on your computer – search the web to find out what to do, or visit the Bristol Uni Laptop Clinic if you need further help.

How are Bristol Uni involved?

It’s important that the University ensures it’s services are ready for the new generation Internet. Unfortunately, the first week in June is right in the middle of the annual examinations period. This is a really bad time to change any of the University’s systems because if anything goes wrong it could be very problematic and stressful for staff and students. So instead we are doing the following:

• April 2012: The authentication magic that lets Bristol staff and students connect at other eduroam organisations and visitors connect at Bristol now uses IPv6. IPv6 is enabled for visitors from other organisations connecting to eduroam at Bristol.
• May 2012: We have enabled IPv6 on this website – www.wireless.bris.ac.uk
• August 30th 2012: We will enable IPv6 network access for all Bristol eduroam users – check out this IPv6 FAQ article for more information.

Where can I find more information about IPv6?

World IPv6 Launch has it’s own web pages, and there are regional sites as well: 台灣IPv6全面升級, 日本でのWorld IPv6 Launch, Всемирный запуск IPv6, 中国世界IPv6启动, Netherlands IPv6 Launch.

There are tons of web pages about IPv6 in general, and technical information, on the web. A good place to start for more information is the IPv6 wikipedia article. There are also sites that allow you to test if your computer and Internet connection will be ok with IPv6:

• Google IPv6 test
• … or a more technical IPv6 test

This week wireless has been installed to cover:

• The MSc study room in Geographical Sciences (Room G2s)
• Rooms C9-C10 and Rooms C72-C74 in the Medical School

We have also made adjustments to better cover the Mathematics Veranda.