This Sunday morning during our established maintenance window between 6 and 10 am EDT we will be performing several key system and network component upgrades that will affect wired and wireless network connectivity.

We are increasing the network bandwidth of the links that connect the wireless network controllers with the core of the College network from 2 gbps to 10 gbps, this will improve the total capacity of our wireless infrastructure and provide for expected growth in the coming months.  As the wireless network controller links are upgraded, the individual wireless access points (WAPs) that are distributed throughout the campus may lose network connectivity for up to 15 minutes and thus wireless network services may be unavailable at various locations throughout the Middlebury and Bread Loaf campuses during our maintenance window for up to 15 minutes.

We are also upgrading key network switches that connect our network core to various devices in our path to our upstream Internet service providers, as these individuals switches are upgraded there likely will be multiple short interruptions (a few minutes) of Internet connectivity for all of the Middlebury and Bread Loaf campuses.

Finally we’ll be upgrading components within our VMWare infrastructure that support virtual desktops such as those used at “thin client” stations throughout the Davis Family Library and kiosk stations in various other locations such as those in or near the Grille, during our maintenance window there will be periods when a thin client station will not be able to startup a new virtual desktop session.

We appreciate your patience as we work to enhance our systems and network infrastructure.