News – Structured Communications NOC

Notice: Draytek Vulnerability

We have seen an increasing number of attacks targeting Draytek routers, following reports that approximately 700,000+ devices globally are vulnerable due to recently discovered security flaws. You can read more about this issue here: The Hacker News – Draytek Router Vulnerability.

These attacks are causing significant connection instability for affected users. To mitigate potential risks, we strongly advise all users with Draytek devices to ensure their routers are updated with the latest firmware versions as soon as possible.

If you require assistance with updating your device or have any concerns, please contact your IT provider.

UPDATE01 – 06/10/2024

We have seen first hand a number of compromised routers since Friday. These include VPN users being created, both HTTP and HTTPS ports being changed as well as IP objects being created and enabled.

We would highly recommend updating your Draytek router and talking with your IT company. We have a number of providers we can recommend if you don’t have one.

Scheduled Network Maintenance – Broadband (15/04/2024)

We are delighted to inform you that all LNS upgrades have been successfully implemented. As part of this upgrade, we have reconfigured the RADIUS steering away from the legacy devices that remain, facilitating a gradual cessation of sessions on these devices until they are decommissioned during Phase 2 of our network upgrades.

Furthermore, we have removed restrictions on all limited 950Mbps FTTP packages following the completion of the LNS works, thereby enabling the full 950Mbps download throughput for our valued customers.

SIP – Gateway Retirement

Over the coming 3 months we will be retiring our legacy sip gateways known as SIP01, SIP02 and SIP03. Customers who take our managed services will be automatically migrated to our new infrastructure. Customers who manage there own PBXs will need to migrate manually.

You will be contacted in due course if this applies to you.

DNS Vulnerability affecting DrayTek

As per the various news reports there is a DNS Vulnerability affecting DrayTek routers. Over the past few days we have been auditing clients who have vulnerable models and a valid maintenance contract with ourselves. Work is already underway to patch devices in this instance however, we would advise all clients with Draytek hardware to … Continue reading “DNS Vulnerability affecting DrayTek”

As per the various news reports there is a DNS Vulnerability affecting DrayTek routers. Over the past few days we have been auditing clients who have vulnerable models and a valid maintenance contract with ourselves. Work is already underway to patch devices in this instance however, we would advise all clients with Draytek hardware to check if there device is affected and update firmware as required:

Please see below 3rd party link for full details.

DNS Vulnerability Strikes Popular DrayTek Broadband ISP Routers

As a measure we will be blocking the DNS server used for the exploit on our network. However this could result is a loss of service should your device already be compromised. This unfortunately is a better option than using the compromised DNS server as detailed in the above news report.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us.

15/03/2018 – Telehouse North (THN) Enablement & Network Expansion

We are pleased to advise that we have recently added Telehouse North to our network location list and will begin enabling this for service over the next few months. During this time we will be making changes to the current network located in Level3 Goswell Road in order to felicitate this. We hope to keep … Continue reading “15/03/2018 – Telehouse North (THN) Enablement & Network Expansion”

We are pleased to advise that we have recently added Telehouse North to our network location list and will begin enabling this for service over the next few months.

During this time we will be making changes to the current network located in Level3 Goswell Road in order to felicitate this. We hope to keep service disruption to a minimum and NOC notices will be published in advance of any works and the resulting impact they may have to your service.

Goswell Road as a result will be retired and all remaining services moved to our own in house data center. Details on this will follow as the THN migration is planned and the final build phase on our facility is completed.

Structured Communications – Christmas 2017 Change Freeze

Structured Communications will be implementing a change freeze from Monday 18/12/2017 at 01:00 GMT until Thursday 04/01/2018 at 09:00 GMT. This freeze is implemented every year during the busy Christmas period to ensure that no changes are made to our network or infrastructure which could affect services. The freeze includes all changes to the network, … Continue reading “Structured Communications – Christmas 2017 Change Freeze”

The freeze includes all changes to the network, non-essential maintenance, non-pre-planned change requests and infrastructure changes. Structured won’t be undertaking any planned maintenance during this time, unless we are responding to a fault.

Support tickets will not be affected by this change along with christmas changes to PBXs and current “inflight” orders already processing.

If you have any further questions regarding this freeze, please get in touch.

EasyIPT – Caller Display – 07/07/2016

We are aware that 1 of our carriers has been rejecting outbound calls where the caller ID is withheld resulting in the call failing to setup where the call is routed via this carrier. We are working with them as to why they are rejecting calls sent in this way. Until then and to ensure … Continue reading “EasyIPT – Caller Display – 07/07/2016”

We are aware that 1 of our carriers has been rejecting outbound calls where the caller ID is withheld resulting in the call failing to setup where the call is routed via this carrier.

We are working with them as to why they are rejecting calls sent in this way. Until then and to ensure calls connect without issue with have assigned non-callable outbound numbers to each account that has an anonymous setup.

Calls returned to this number will be met with a non acceptance massage.

DNS Servers – Advisory – 16/02/2016 – 10:30

Following on from yesterdays issue with Google DNS reachability. We are advising all our customers who take our connectivity solutions to ensure they are using our DNS servers. Primary: 95.87.104.23 Secondary: 95.87.104.25 Clients with IPv6 are advised to contact us for further details. Unfortunately issues with 3rd party DNS servers are not covered by our … Continue reading “DNS Servers – Advisory – 16/02/2016 – 10:30”

Following on from yesterdays issue with Google DNS reachability. We are advising all our customers who take our connectivity solutions to ensure they are using our DNS servers.

Primary: 95.87.104.23
Secondary: 95.87.104.25

Clients with IPv6 are advised to contact us for further details.

Unfortunately issues with 3rd party DNS servers are not covered by our network SLA.

2015 Christmas Network Freeze Information

During the Christmas holiday period several of our suppliers will implement network freezes during which non-essential work will be restricted. They are as follows: BT: No formal freeze, but staffing levels will be reduced over the Christmas period. Vodafone: From 00:01 on Friday 11th December until 00:01 on Monday 4th January. TalkTalk Business: From Wednesday … Continue reading “2015 Christmas Network Freeze Information”

During the Christmas holiday period several of our suppliers will implement network freezes during which non-essential work will be restricted. They are as follows:

BT:

No formal freeze, but staffing levels will be reduced over the Christmas period.

Vodafone:

From 00:01 on Friday 11th December until 00:01 on Monday 4th January.

TalkTalk Business:

From Wednesday 16th December until Tuesday 5th January. From Wednesday 16th December to Friday 18th December 2015 no Medium & High Risk work will be allowed to proceed. Saturday 19th December 2015 to Monday 4th January 2016 only emergency fault fixes will be allowed.

Virgin Media:

From 17:00 on Friday 11th December until 09:00 on Monday 4th January.

Level 3:

Freeze starts 00:01 on Saturday 12th December and ends 23:59 on Sunday 3rd January 2016. During this period only essential repairs and maintenance will be permitted.

Colt:

Freeze starts at 18:00 on Friday 18th December until 23:59 on Sunday 3rd January 2016. During this period only emergency repairs and maintenance will be permitted.

Structured:

Provisioning / Support will be business as usual until 17:00 on Wednesday 23rd December. From that time until 09:00 on Monday 4th January no new installs, routine maintenance or internal network changes will be performed. However, any emergency maintenance required during this time will be performed as normal and advised of through the usual channels.

LON01 – EasyIPT, Unmanaged SIP Accounts Service / Settings Change Notice FINAL REMINDER

As per our NOC notice on the 02/10/2014 which can be found HERE. This is a final reminder to advice of these imminent changes. Any PBX / System that is not reconfigured to our EasyIPT service tonight will lose all inbound and outbound call routing once the existing 3rd party services are terminated. All numbers … Continue reading “LON01 – EasyIPT, Unmanaged SIP Accounts ***Service / Settings Change Notice FINAL REMINDER***”

All numbers will be automatically re-routed to the respective new trunks / accounts once the old services are terminated. In order to restore your services, PBXs will need to be reconfigured as above.

If you require your login information or have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us. Any users requiring out of hours assistance can be arranged FOC.

Structured Communications will not be held responsible for any loss of service due to none reconfiguration of PBX / Systems or configuration issues, not limited to incompatible products.