Inside Iowa State

December 10, 2004

Power upgrade could result in network interruptions Jan. 3

by Diana Pounds

There's a slight possibility that part of the campus network, including the Web and some e-mail services, could be inaccessible for several hours during the late afternoon and evening of Jan. 3.

The outage could occur if complications arise during a power upgrade in the Durham Center, which is the hub of the campus network. Officials don't anticipate problems and believe the only inconvenience for the campus community may be a slight slow-down in some mail services during the upgrade.

However, there's always the possibility that contractors working on the upgrade could run into unexpected difficulties, said Dave Popelka, associate director of Academic Information Technologies. If serious problems occur, a portion of campus network services might be unavailable during the late afternoon and evening of Jan. 3, he said.

During that time, the university Web site, the AFS file system and AIT e-mail (WebMail and Eudora) would be inaccessible. Those with MS Outlook provided through Administrative Technology Services should be able to send and receive e-mail on campus. But they wouldn't be able to send or receive mail beyond campus borders.

Administrative information systems maintained by ATS (such as ADIN and AccessPlus) would remain in operation. Departmental servers maintained by ATS also would be accessible.

Popelka said the power upgrade is scheduled for the afternoon of Jan. 3 because of the light activity on campus during the holiday break.

There's a slight possibility that part of the campus network, including the Web and some e-mail services, could be inaccessible for several hours during the late afternoon and evening of Jan. 3 if complications arise during a power upgrade in the Durham Center, which is the hub of the campus network.