Here you will find archived status information about PLU's electronic resources. The most recent information is at the top, with older information listed in reverse chronologial order below.
You can find current system status messages here.
Thursday, 08/23/2007, 11:22am
Shortly after 11am the problems with the configuration that took Netstor and related services offline was resolved. Not continuing problems are anticipated related to this event.
Thursday, 08/23/2007, 10:29am
Around 10am this morning we had a couple of services (primarily Netstor) go offline due to an apparent configuration error. We are working to restore these services as soon as possible, but at this time there is no specific timeline available.
Tuesday, 05/15/2007, 10:37am
PLU's connection to the Internet is once again working normally. The problem appears to have been with our service provider.
Tuesday, 05/15/2007, 10:10am
We are experiencing a loss of Internet connectively. The problem appears to be with our service provider. We are currently investigating the problem.
The on-campus network is unaffected, which includes access to e-mail, Sakai, and Banner.
Saturday, 04/21/2007, 4:13pm
The upgrade to Active Directory on the PLU domain has progressed well. We are seeing no errors or problems for those users of the PLU domain.
Saturday, 04/21/2007, 8:06am
PLU's e-mail service is available once again. The system went down last night about 3am. The cause of this has been corrected. Thanks for your patience.
Saturday, 04/21/2007, 7:34am
We have been experiencing a strange problem since late yesterday with our primary e-mail server that has been periodically disrupting access to e-mail as well as delivery. At this time we are contacting the administrator responsible for this system and attempting to determine the nature of the failure. Watch this page for updates as they become available.
Friday, 04/20/2007, 6:17pm
The upgrade of PLU's domain to Active Directory was started at 6:00 PM on Friday. At this time no unexpected changes are apparent. The upgrade should be complete on Saturday.
Thursday, 04/19/2007, 10:39pm
We are finishing placement of the repaired fiber into the splice case and the manhole, but all splices to restore service to Ramstad, Tingelstad, HR, & Nesvig have been completed. All services now appear to be back to normal function.
Thursday, 04/19/2007, 9:27pm
Tingelstad was reconnected at approximately 9:15pm. The remaining repairs for Ramstad, HR, & Nesvig are well underway with restoration of connectivity for all buildings expected shortly.
Thursday, 04/19/2007, 2:37pm
In order to repair the cable damage that has taken Ramstad and Tingelstad off-line, the cables to both Nesvig and Human Resources will have to be disconnected. Thus, all four buildings will be off the network until repairs are completed.
Estimated time to repair is late this evening or early tomorrow morning. More will be posted when known. Thanks for your patience.
Thursday, 04/19/2007, 10:30am
Repairs have been initiated for the Ramstad and Tingelstad network cables. These repairs should be done by the end of the day. If this estimate should change or when the repair is completed, the information will be posted here.
Thursday, 04/19/2007, 9:41am
The network connections from both Ramstad and Tingelstad to the rest of the campus network are down due to physical damage to the cable that connects them to the network. We are in the process of accessing the damage and will post here again when we know the estimated time to repair.
Laundry and vending machine card readers in Tingelstad are also affected by this problem and will not work until the connection is repaired.
Monday, 04/09/2007, 5:56pm
Foss Hall has been re-connected to the campus network. The issue that was causing the problem has been resolved.
Friday, 04/06/2007, 2:15pm
Due to a problem with the network in Foss Hall, the campus experienced limited network failures Friday morning and early afternoon. Upon taking Foss off the network, the problems went away. Thus, Foss will remain off-line until sometime Monday.
Sunday, 03/25/2007, 11:25am
Logins to Gatekeeper are once again working. There are no more known problems at this time.
Saturday, 03/24/2007, 11:48am
Logins to Sakai are working once more. We are still experiencing problems with Gatekeeper logins. More to come...
Saturday, 03/24/2007, 1:38am
Following upgrade work Friday evening on our Calendar & LDAP systems we discovered a two systems (Sakai & Gatekeeper) are not allowing users to login. Both of these systems require LDAP services in order for users to authenticate and appear to have some sort of incompatibility with the upgraded LDAP platform. We are working to resolve this problem and hope to have resolution soon.
Friday, 02/16/2007, 2:44pm
In the last few minutes the final section of the Library network was restored using a fiber bypass route. All network segments appear to operating properly at this time.
If any problems are noted please contact the I&TS Help Desk, x7525.
Friday, 02/16/2007, 11:41am
The network in the Hauge administration building is working normally once again. The only known remaining problem is with the network in the Library, which is affecting most of the building. Troubleshooting we've done indicates a problem with one of the optical fiber cables connecting the building to the rest of the network. Work continues toward correcting the problem.
Friday, 02/16/2007, 9:21am
This morning we found problems with a couple of locations around campus and are continuing to troubleshoot these areas. Primarily affected at this time are Mortvedt Library and portions of Hauge Administration Building.
Thursday, 02/15/2007, 8:55pm
The network is functioning normally once again. The problem was caused by a problem with one connection in Stuen Hall. Thanks once again for your patience.
Thursday, 02/15/2007, 7:37pm
As of 7:30pm we are still troubleshooting the cause of this problem. However, most network activity has been restored after isolating the problem to Stuen Hall. Continued testing may affect connectivity across campus, but every effort is being made to minimize the impact to the source. More to follow as testing proceeds.
Thursday, 02/15/2007, 5:03pm
Starting about 4:15pm, the PLU network began to experience a slowdown of network data flow. You'll notice this in the slow loading of web pages. We are currently working to diagnose and fix the problem. More will be posted here when it's known. Thanks for your patience.
Saturday, 01/06/2007, 12:34pm
Telephone Services were fully restored at approximately 9:30am with some testing and verification continuing through the morning. At this time no problems appear to have resulted from the upgrade and normal operation should continue.
Saturday, 01/06/2007, 8:12am
As scheduled the work on the telephone system began as scheduled around 8:00am. Information about any unusual situations will be posted here if necessary. Otherwise, we will update again when all work is complete.
Sunday, 12/17/2006, 10:36am
PLU's incoming/outgoing phone service and Internet connectivity were restored last night around 6:00pm. There are no other known issues at this time.
Friday, 12/15/2006, 9:02am
The provider of our phone and Internet services is experiencing a major outage caused by the windstorm. Though PLU has full internal network and phone service, we cannot make calls off-campus, receive incoming calls, or reach non-campus network resources via the Internet.
There is no estimate from our provider at this time of when service will be restored. Information will be posted here when it is available.
Thursday, 11/30/2006, 2:33pm
Sakai was down between 2:30 and 2:35 due to an unplanned database shutdown. The database was immediately restarted, and service has been fully restored.
Monday, 11/13/2006, 2:47pm
Our new spam filtering device arrived on Friday and was put into service Friday evening. We are in the process of transitioning from the old, slower device to the new one. While delivery delays have been eliminated, you may have noticed an increase in spam over the weekend. This was part of the transition process and has abated.
Thursday, 11/09/2006, 3:45pm
At approximately noon today we disconnected a malfunctioning device from the network in the Morken Center. It appears something about the device or its connection was causing the campus-wide issues we saw this morning. We will investigate more and try to restore this device in the near future, but in the meantime other network services appear to be restored.
Thursday, 11/09/2006, 2:10pm
The new spam filtering device has been shipped and is due to arrive tomorrow. We currently have about 19,000 messages backed up on the current spam filter. We have temporarily disabled incoming e-mail from off-campus while it works through this queue. You should be receiving any undelivered messages within the next few hours.
Thursday, 11/09/2006, 11:01am
This morning we began receiving a number of reports about slow access to various network resources as well as the Internet. We are investigating the problem. At this time the only obvious sign is a very high CPU load on a core piece of network equipment. This type of activity is not usually spontaneous, but is likely related to the poor performance being seen around campus. If we can identify the root cause of this load we should be able to restore normal operations in short order.
Thursday, 11/09/2006, 8:19am
We are once again seeing e-mail delivery delays occuring. The upgraded spam filtering device probably won't be delivered until Friday, so delays will most likely continue for the next day or two.
Part of the attempt to keep the current device performing somewhat acceptably has been to remove many of our spam rules. So, you will probably see an uptick in spam to your mailbox as well for the next week or so, as we re-establish the rules on the new device.
Thanks again for your patience. And, once again, please note that on-campus and outgoing e-mail aren't being affected. The delays only affect incoming e-mail from off-campus addresses.
Wednesday, 11/08/2006, 12:47pm
Inbound emails are being delayed due to the volume of messages coming into our spam firewall. We're working to resolve the issue.
Monday, 10/30/2006, 9:30am
Most of the work yesterday was successful, however, a couple of changes were not immediately successful. All known problems were resolved and re-tested fully by 8pm.
Unfortunately, some timers caused a handful of systems to have issues this morning (Monday 10/30) that affected some access to Banner as well as printing services in the Haley Center and the Morken Open Lab. These problems were resolved by approximately 9am.
Sunday, 10/29/2006, 6:05pm
Work on the network began a couple of hours ago with little impact to users. We now begin the final stage which will briefly impact most users on campus. However, the actual outage duration should be very brief.
Wednesday, 09/27/2006, 4:31pm
We experienced another, shorter, power outage this afternoon that caused some network services to be down from about 3:40pm to 4:10pm. We have it on good authority that the cause of both power outages has been identified and will not affect us again.
Wednesday, 09/27/2006, 4:30pm
Harstad Hall's network is back on-line. The work we've done should have fixed the intermittent network failures that have been experienced in the building over the last week.
Wednesday, 09/27/2006, 1:40pm
The Harstad Hall network has been having problems for the last week. We've tried several fixes that haven't worked. We're now going to take the network offline for several hours to replace the entire hardware unit that connnects the building to the network.
The network in Harstad should be up again around 5pm today.
Wednesday, 09/27/2006, 12:53am
A power outage occurred at 6:40pm yesterday that affected the Library, UC, Harstad, and Ramstad. Since all central networking equipment is housed in the Library, this brought down the campus network for everyone. Power was restored at about 11:00pm, with network services being restored at about 12:45am this morning.
Monday, 09/18/2006, 2:08pm
At about 1:40pm PLU began having difficulties with our Internet connection. The problem appears to be with our upstream provider (ISP) and contact with them has been initiated. As soon as the problem is isolated we should have information regarding the repair process and timing. We will update this page as soon as we have more information.
Friday, 09/15/2006, 9:13am
Our e-mail service became unresponsive this morning, after a period of not delivering mail since about midnight last night. The service was shut down about 8:30am and restarted at about 8:50am. All seems to be working well now. If this problem occurs again after tonight's scheduled e-mail software upgrade, we will be working with technical support to fix it.
If you are still having problems, please contact us for help.
Wednesday, 09/13/2006, 4:37pm
We have been having intermittent problems with the e-mail service where some people are not able to open their e-mail inbox, with an error message similar to the following being displayed:
ERROR: Connection dropped by IMAP server.
When this happens, we correct the problem as soon as possible, which is usually within an hour. After the correction is applied, you can once again access your e-mail.
Thus, if you have this problem, the best solution right now is to log out of your e-mail and wait a half-hour and try again.
We have a vendor-recommended fix for the problem that will require installing a new version of our e-mail software. This will take down the e-mail service for one to three hours and will be scheduled soon.
Thanks for your patience. If you have questions, feel free to contact us.
Thursday, 09/07/2006, 10:26am
You may have had problems using Webmail between 10:00am and 10:20am today. During an update to one of the system's web pages, the Apache web server that serves out Webmail became non-responsive. An error in the web page was corrected and the web server restarted, which fixed the problem.
Thursday, 08/31/2006, 1:49pm
If you find that you are missing any of your e-mail folders after the e-mail upgrade last weekend and you need the data, feel free to send an e-mail to comptelc@plu.edu with the name of the folder and we can restore it for you. Some folders were located in non-standard places and didn't get automatically moved. Also, we didn't move your old Sent or Trash folders over from Webmail. If you do need either of these, they can be restored, but, please, only ask for them if you need them. Not moving this data over has saved a great deal of storage space on our server.
Tuesday, 08/29/2006, 6:56am
There is now a simpler way to get your old Webmail address book. Rather than doing a full archive of your old e-mail and extracting the address book from there, you can click on the following link and download the file directly:
This file can be imported directly into the new Webmail. Note that if you had mailing lists, they aren't included in this file. The format of the old Webmail mailing lists won't allow them to be directly imported into new Webmail. But, the raw data of the lists can be found in the full archive of your old e-mail, if you'd like to have access to this.
Sunday, 08/27/2006, 8:10pm
The import of folders took much less time than anticipated. All student folders are now in the new system. Thus, the upgrade is complete.
Here are a few more interesting items and tips:
We have had 3150 people try out the new Webmail system since it became available yesterday afternoon.
Over 75 gigabytes of e-mail was moved into the new storage structure. This is nearly 1.5 million e-mail messages.
ALL of your e-mail was copied into this new storage structure. The originals are still viewable by going to oldwebmail.plu.edu. It is "frozen" at what it contained on Friday, August 25, at 5:30pm. We will eventually remove the original data to free up space. The old Webmail system will remain available to view the old data until October 1, 2006, at which point it will be taken down and retired.
If you do access the old Webmail system, you'll get a warning message about the encryption certificate. It is nothing to worry about. This happens because we renamed the server.
Thanks for your patience during this upgrade. Hopefully, you will agree that it was worth it. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact us at comptelc@plu.edu
Sunday, 08/27/2006, 12:51pm
A few more things of note on the upgrade.
We've had 1930 people try out the new Webmail since yesterday when it came online.
All indications are that the performance of our server given the new set-up is much better than before.
Student e-mail folders have been imported into the new service from A through most of the letter P (we are doing it in alphabetical order).
If you requested an archive of your old e-mail and it didn't work in some way, try it again. A couple bugs in the service were repaired.
Due to an unexpected error, e-mail was down for a couple hours last night near midnight. The cause of the error was removed.
More to come...
Saturday, 08/26/2006, 7:26pm
PLU's e-mail service is up and available for use. But, due to the way network names propagate over the Internet, http://webmail.plu.edu may still take you to http://oldwebmail.plu.edu for another day or so. You can get to the new Webmail service in the meantime by going to
Saturday, 08/26/2006, 1:31pm
The e-mail upgrade is nearly complete. Mail is flowing into the server, with all mail that was held during the downtime already delivered. The improved Webmail will be available shortly.
FOR STUDENTS ONLY: Note that, due to time constraints, your e-mail folders are still in the process of being moved over to the new system. Your inboxes, though, are already available. All student inboxes will be moved into the new system by Tuesday evening, at the latest. In the meantime, if you need to get to anything in these folders, you can get to them through the old e-mail server at http://oldwebmail.plu.edu. DO NOT CHANGE THEM. Anything you add or delete will be moved to the new system. Also, DO NOT CREATE NEW FOLDERS UNTIL THE EXISTING ONES ARE MOVED OVER. If you do create a folder with the same name as an existing folder, the existing folder WILL NOT be moved over.
Friday, 08/25/2006, 5:17pm
We will be taking down the e-mail server at 5:30pm for the e-mail service upgrade described in the System Notice posted on this page to the left. Check back here for reports on the status of the upgrade.
Monday, 08/07/2006, 10:18pm
Due to a minor configuration error in our new firewall, connections from off-campus to on-campus resources were blocked for about 3.5 hours this evening. This problem has been corrected. All services should be operational and any incoming e-mail delivery should resume shortly. We apologize for any inconvenience from this disruption.
Friday, 08/04/2006, 12:03pm
The Banner database server (MINT) will be down for emergency service during the noon hour today (12:00 - 1:00pm).
Monday, 07/31/2006, 10:50am
This morning (7/31) we have been seeing a number of problems across campus. The issue appears to be related to IP address processing by our DHCP server, however the exact cause is unknown. We are currently investigating and hope to have an update/resolution soon.
If your computer is working properly please avoid rebooting or shutting down your computer unless absolutely necessary until this problem is resolved.
Wednesday, 06/28/2006, 4:05pm
At about 1:00pm today, a CPU fan went bad and caused our e-mail server to shut down. Since some of our web site files are also on this server, the main PLU web page also became unavailable. We removed the bad CPU and brought the system on-line again about 3:00pm, at which point both e-mail and the PLU Web became available once again.
All systems are up and functioning normally at this time.
Tuesday, 05/23/2006, 4:59pm
Due to a problem with loading updated licenses on our e-mail server, it became unavailable for a short time around 4:30pm today. This problem has been fixed and e-mail is once again available.
Saturday, 05/13/2006, 2:25pm
As of 2:20pm the network equipment in Harstad has been restarted and appears to be coming back online normally. Users in Harstad may experience some instability for up to an hour as the equipment "re-learns". Unless new problems arise, no additional work is planned at this time.
Saturday, 05/13/2006, 1:48pm
After arriving at Harstad our technician has identified a problem with the network switch that services the entire building. The issue appears to be power related and may require partial or complete replacement of the unit. Further testing is underway and a plan for repair is forthcoming.
Saturday, 05/13/2006, 12:41pm
We received reports this morning that several people had called in with problems accessing the network in Harstad. Campus Safety contacted I&TS and after some remote diagnostics we have found indications of a building-wide problem. A technician is in-route to campus and will attempt to get more detail about the problem and resolve it ASAP. As more information is available this page will be updated. The technician should arrive on campus no later than 1:30pm.
Wednesday, 05/10/2006, 3:24pm
The heavy traffic clogging up our Internet connection was traced to a student owned machine that was probably infected with a computer virus. We disconnected the student's machine from the network and network traffic has returned normal.
Wednesday, 05/10/2006, 1:18pm
We're currently experiencing heavy traffic on our Internet connection that is causing difficulty getting to many external sites. We're in the process of diagnosing the type of traffic so that we can resolve the problem.
Tuesday, 05/09/2006, 3:30pm
As might be expected, we are getting a lot of questions from people about the e-mail slowdown. We've created a list of Frequently-asked Questions (FAQ) and answers to these questions that is available here.
We'll add new entries to this page as other questions come up.
Monday, 05/08/2006, 5:04pm
Today has been another challenge for the PLU e-mail service. Usage has been extremely high, with Webmail exceeding the 400 user limit about every half-hour, staying at this high for about a half-hour, and then being available for a half-hour before hitting the limit once again.
Monday of last week saw the e-mail server similarly busy. Usage was at much lower levels for the rest of the week. Hopefully, this will be repeated through the rest of this week--with this being the heaviest day of usage.
For more information, please be sure to check out the system status message below from Thursday, 04/20/2006.
Tuesday, 05/02/2006, 2:00pm
Internet connectivity appears to be back to normal. The specific cause for this disruption is not yet know, but we will continue to monitor the situation and update this page as we know more.
Tuesday, 05/02/2006, 1:35pm
It appears that a problem with our Internet Service Provider's network is causing PLU's Internet connection to be unreliable. You may not be able to connect to some web sites from on campus, and you may not be able to connect to campus from elsewhere. We are in the process of investigating this issue and will post a follow-up as we know more or resolve the problem.
Tuesday, 05/02/2006, 7:46am
To add insult to injury, our e-mail server crashed last night about 11:00pm (Monday) and thus e-mail service became unavailable until about 7:45am today (Tuesday). We have re-started the server and e-mail service is once again available but, as noted below, may be slow due to continuing high demand. Monday's have typically been the highest usage day of the week, so hopefully performance will be a bit better today.
Thanks again for bearing with us.
Monday, 05/01/2006, 7:27pm
The e-mail slowdowns described in the status message from April 20, posted directly below this message, are continuing. Please refer to it for more information. And thank you once again for your patience.
Thursday, 04/20/2006, 3:21pm
Over the last several weeks, we've been experiencing heavy demand on our e-mail server, causing periodic response slowdowns during the day, especially noticeable if you are using Webmail. During these busy times, Webmail does not allow logins past about 400 users, in an attempt to provide acceptable performance for those who are already logged in.
We're investigating ways to improve performance. In the meantime, here are some things you can do to help get the most out of your PLU e-mail:
Thanks for your patience with the e-mail service and those of us attempting to improve it. If you have questions on the above, please contact us at comptelc@plu.edu.
Monday, 03/13/2006, 4:44pm
Last night, our incoming e-mail server stopped accepting off-campus e-mail. We fixed this problem, but processing the backlog is creating very slow response times, which is why your e-mail clients and Webmail are having trouble getting and sending e-mail. The backlog should be cleared by this evening, at which time response times will improve. You should also have received all of your delayed messages by then, as well.
Friday, 03/10/2006, 9:55am
The problem with the DHCP server has been resolved. If a computer can't connect to the network at this time, a re-boot should fix it.
There are no known system or networking issues affecting campus at this time.
Friday, 03/10/2006, 9:45am
The server that hands out network addresses is down at this time. That means if you turn on a computer, it won't be able to get onto the network.
We're working on the problem and should have it fixed shortly. An update will be posted as soon as the server is fixed.
Wednesday, 02/22/2006, 12:58pm
As of 12:45pm we had restricted access for the offending system and general Internet access has been restored. However, a few web sites appear to be experiencing issues due to connectivity problems further up the line.
We will continue to monitor both our connection(s) as well as our ISP and update this page with any new developments.
Wednesday, 02/22/2006, 12:42pm
We are currently experiencing difficulty with Internet connectivity due to a Denial of Service Attack executed by a student system on campus. The system has been identified and steps are being taken to block access at this time.
Tuesday, 02/21/2006, 10:58am
Though there are still isolated incidents of network instability, most problems caused by Friday's power outage have been resolved. The Lutecast server is being replaced and will be available again within the next few days.
If you are still having problems, please follow the standard procedure of calling the Student Help Desk if you are a student (x8250) or the I&TS Help Desk if you are an employee (x7525). Thank you.
Saturday, 02/18/2006, 11:05am
We have identified a couple of areas that are having connectivity issues due to problems caused by yesterday's power outage. Currently, University Printing, Memorial Gym, East Campus & Development are experiencing intermittent outages. We hope to have these services stabilized by early Tuesday morning.
Saturday, 02/18/2006, 10:56am
Due to the area-wide power outage on Friday (2/17) all network services as well as voicemail were down for the duration of the outage. Almost all services were restored as of 9pm Friday night. As of 10am Saturday morning the remaining systems (most notably, e-mail & Gatekeeper) were returned to normal working order.
The one exception, due to an equipment failure caused by the power outage, is the Lutecast streaming service. This equipment should be repaired or replaced early next week and a status update will be provided at that time.
If you identify any additional problems with equipment or services please contact either the I&TS Help Desk (x7525) or the Student Help Desk (x8250).
Thursday, 02/16/2006, 5:21pm
All central network services are available once again. Though the exact cause of the failure is unclear and still under investigation, it is likely that it was due to abnormal network traffic that occurred during that period of time.
Thursday, 02/16/2006, 2:44pm
We are currently experiencing a problem with the PLU network which is causing intermittent connection failures to serveral services. This includes but is not limited to Banner Web, library.plu.edu, and the Netstor file storage server.
Though we don't yet have a solution, we are working on the problem and will fix it as soon as possible. More information will be posted here as it is available. Thanks for your patience.
Wednesday, 02/01/2006, 9:37am
Yesterday, a network device was placed on the Morken network in such a way as to create a loop that caused disruption to services in the building. The loop has been removed and services restored.
All systems are up and available at this time, with no known problems.
Monday, 01/30/2006, 7:46pm
By moving non-responsive systems to a different network device, we have made them available to the network once again. You should now be able to access previously unavailable systems, which include Banner Web, eCourse, library.plu.edu, and the network file server.
All systems are up and available at this time, with no known problems.
Monday, 01/30/2006, 5:30pm
We are currently experiencing a network problem that is causing some people to be unable to connect to Banner, Voyager, eCourse, and network-based file storage. This problem has been occurring since at least this morning.
At this time, we are moving some of the affected systems to a different network device. If this solves the problem, we will evaluate our next steps.
Tuesday, 01/24/2006, 9:00am
Network service to the south part of the first floor of Morken Center has been restored. We haven't yet been able to determine the exact nature of the failure of the new network device that services this part of Morken. Thus, we've installed other network devices to provide service.
We will do more testing on the failed device, but because it is disruptive to the campus network, this will be done at a later time when the impact to campus will be at a minimum.
All systems are up and available at this time, with no known problems.
Friday, 01/20/2006, 9:00pm
Since last Thursday evening, people have been experiencing random network disconnects and inability to connect to various network resources, such as email, file shares, and the Internet. We have resolved this problem. It now appears that one of the new network devices in the Morken Center was the cause. Once we removed this device, the connection problems ceased.
We will be doing further testing on this device to determine more precisely how it is failing.
Due to the removal of the failing network device, network service to the south part of the first floor of Morken is unavailable. We will restore this service as soon as possible.