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Current and Previous Issues affecting the Sandwell Schools Broadband Service

31/11/07

Transform Sandwell advise us that they are planning to make changes to the IP addresses of their web services. This will result in schools websites and webmail services being unavailable over the weekend  of 15th- 16th December.

This will have the following implications for schools:

Over the weekend of 15th-16th December:

• SMBC Webmail will be unavailable
• schools websites for most schools (where the domain name ends with .sandwell.sch.uk) will be unavailable
• delivery of email to all .sandwell.sch.uk domains may be delayed
• Other SMBC services, such as SBS, Atrium and BMS will be unavailable
• Other Broadband Sandwell services will NOT be affected

After the weekend:

• changes may be needed to DNS services for some schools. This will be undertaken by Broadband Sandwell, but may involve fault finding to resolve some problems. Please report any faults to the Broadband Sandwell helpdesk in the usual way
• if schools connect to Sandwell services using IP information rather than by domain name, configurations will need to be changed. This may affect SFTP access to Sandwell webservers if your technician uses the ip address rather than the domain name. If you are affected by this, click here for more information
• It is expected that after the weekend, all Sandwell Council services will operate normally. Any exceptions will be caused by local re-configuration requirements

22/10/07

Please note that Menzies High School will have no power in school on Monday 22nd October between the hours of 8.00am and 11:00am. Also Thursday 25th October between the hours of 8.00am - 2.00pm.

27/08/07

Sandwell MBC advise that they need to carry out further work on the power supply to the server room at Oldbury Council House on Sunday, 30th September 2007. Although not related to the schools' broadband service, this will necessitate a loss of the broadband service during that day.

• This has resulted in the replacement of the old fuse boards (these were large floor standing units separately wired for each circuit, requiring down time each time a new circuit was added), with a pair of new type enclosures, having external "pluggable" commando-type connectors, such that a new circuit can simply be plugged in. It is expected that this will cut down the amount of down time needed in the future.

24/07/07

Synetrix have requested a service interruption on 31st July 2007 for essential maintenance work. This work "follows on" from a problem uncovered during the power outage on 15th July 2007, when a faulty module was discovered. Replacement of this equipment is scheduled for 18:00hrs on 31st July 2007, and will last for up to 4 hours.

• When the module was replaced it was discovered that there was a problem with the frame into which it plugged. This was subsequently replaced under the maintenance agreement.

13/07/07: We are advised that the power issue at Menzies High School is now resolved.

• The school undertook a fuse board upgrade in the school which was "tripping out"

03/07/07: Sandwell MBC advise us that there is planned work to be carried out at Oldbury Council House on Sunday 15th July 2007 to update power supplies in the Council House. Although not related to the schools' broadband service, this will necessitate a loss of the broadband service during that day.

• This is to allow the addition of extra circuits for new computer systems to be installed in the Sandwell Council Server room.

27/06/07: There are currently power issues at Menzies High School. This will affect the schools who get their internet feed through via Menzies High. Extensive work is scheduled to be carried out to resolve this issue out of hours.

• see above

March 07:

Improving the Internet feed

Following testing, the Sandell Schools Broadband network is now using the UKERNA ISP feed

Click here for more information

March 07: Loss of Service

On Tuesday 13th March a loss of service was experienced. This was resolved by Synetrix within 1 and a half hours of notification which complies with the 4 hour SLA resolution time for a Priority 1 fault.

Dec 06: ISDN Connections

We are advised that some schools are still paying for the old "Schools Internet Caller" service which was made redundant by the connection to the Broadband Sandwell network. Please check that you are not still paying unnecessary bills.

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