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ITS is working to resolve a problem with wired connections in Butterfields, Fosses, and Fauver dorms.  Wireless IS working fine.  We hope to have it resolved shortly.

ITS is working to resolve a problem with wired connections in Butterfields, Fosses, and Fauver dorms.  Wireless IS working fine.  We hope to have it resolved shortly.

Google has been been having repeated issues this week with Google Drive.  Their education customers all over the country have been affected by this.  Service has been intermittently slow and unavailable.   The issues are with Google and this is nothing ITS can rectify.

ITS will not be doing any network configuration tonight.  There is more work to do, however we are re-grouping with our engineers.  Future work will continue to be scheduled “off” hours.  Depending on the nature of the work, this could be nights or Saturday morning.  Notifications will go out to the community.

ITS has restored functionality to HRMS and WFS.   We appreciate everyone’s patience while we have worked on the issues.  Some of the complexities of our project have presented us with particular challenges.  Note that WFS users will still see the red message on the login page. We are still working to address that issue. However it does not affect functionality and you may login and work as normal.

ITS is working on resolving issues with WFS and HRMS.  Services were unavailable overnight and have been very slow.  We are actively resolving as quickly as possible.

There was an interruption of services for about 5 minutes at 9:50 on Tuesday 3/19.  This was longer than expected.  Services came back quickly however, Outlook and mobile devices may prompt for a password to reconnect. Outlook users are reminded to enter username in the WESLEYAN\username format.

With these emails about potential network interruptions and the unexpected problems on Sunday, you might be wondering what is going on.  ITS is in the process of what is called a “core refresh”.  Basically, we are replacing the central networking equipment that runs the University and upgrading it to increase bandwidth throughout campus.  Concurrently, we are adding in layers of redundancy to help protect us from potential failures.  The process of a network upgrade is incredibly complex in an environment where users are accessing systems 24/7 year round.  To do that, we are working with network engineers who help us to configure the new equipment in parallel, test functionality, and then cutover from the old to the new.  It is this “cutover” time that can cause brief interruptions in service.

We try to anticipate what could go wrong so we are prepared to respond to it, but we don’t foresee everything.  For example, on Sunday, there was a failure of equipment that affected our failover as well.  We are now brainstorming methods to prevent that from recurring.   Overall, the work has been progressing well and we are excited at what this will allow us to do moving forward.  With the critical infrastructure upgraded, we will move on to focus on improving bandwidth in all buildings along with a major wireless upgrade to occur in 2014.

On Tuesday, March 19 and Thurs, March 21, between 8 and midnight, ITS will be continuing its work in the data center to connect the new equipment.  Again, we don’t expect major disruptions, but people will be on hand and ready to respond should the unexpected happen.

Google drive (docs) are unavailable right now due to system problems at Google.  No ETA has been posted as to when it will be resolved.

There have been several reports of Outlook repeatedly prompting for a password.  When entering in your username and password, please use WESLEYAN\username in the username field.  This should address the issue in the majority of cases.

If you have a problem where your Outlook is in Offline mode, please contact your Desktop Support person for assistance.  They will be in touch with you as soon as possible to help resolve that issue. ITS is researching the cause of this issue.