We will be upgrading firmware across some of our LNS gateways tonight to correct a RADIUS issue on the broadband platform.
The work will require a reboot of affected LNS once the upgrade is complete. This will take around 30 seconds per LNS. Connected circuits will see a PPP restart while this takes place and may connect back to another gateway.
UPDATE 01 – 22:05
This work is complete.
We are observing high levels off optical light loss on one of our backhaul links between our Horsham and London Cores. We have a window scheduled with Openreach between 12:00 & 13:00 on the 20th to clean (and replace) if required optics and cables at the exchange.
No outages are expected as traffic will flow across redundant paths but the works require an “at risk” notification of facility redundancy levels due to the work being undertaken.
We have been informed by one of our wholesale providers that they will be undertaking capacity upgrades on there network that affect several interconnects we provide broadband services via. We expect our redundant links to take over when the works commence but services should be considered “at risk” and may see PPP reconnections / disconnections.
We apologise for any disruption this may cause.
We will be making some changes to our network on the 19/10/2020 starting from 12:00 noon. These changes are in relation to our LINX peering and no impact is expected to be seen as traffic will be gracefully re-routed via alternative routes prior to work starting.
We will also be taking this opportunity to add additional hardware for future broadband capacity. This will also be non service affecting.
UPDATE 01 – FINAL – 16:50
This work is complete and LINX peering has been restored. No impact was seen to customer traffic.
At the end of 2019, Windows 2008 server will become EOL (End Of Life) and cease to be supported by Microsoft. In response to this, we will be retiring the platform which we have had in operation since 2011 and migrating accounts to a Debian based operating system well before this. Unfortunately due to the … Continue reading “03/07/2019 – Web hosting / email retirement and upgrade”
At the end of 2019, Windows 2008 server will become EOL (End Of Life) and cease to be supported by Microsoft. In response to this, we will be retiring the platform which we have had in operation since 2011 and migrating accounts to a Debian based operating system well before this.
Unfortunately due to the age of the operating system and the cross vendor platforms there is no direct migration path between systems and will requires changes on both our side and customer applications. (such as emails programs)
The change does bring around a vast number of new features and security options such as SSL (Secure) email which is now becoming industry standard.
All user accounts will need to be migrated by the 30th Aug 2019 when the platform will be turned off. We are currently migrating accounts on a domain by domain basis due to the manual requirement to transfer account data.
Users that have existing accounts setup as IMAP will simply need to delete there accounts when told to and re-create there them with the new server details provided. While we will make every effort to help and backup data, we are limited in what remote assistance we can provide due to unmanaged nature of the product and would strongly suggest users backup there email to local storage prior to making any changes.
Changes our side to DNS will require time to populate around the internet and some disruption is expected on your migration day. Sadly this cant be avoided but we will do all we can to minimize this.
Affected customers will be contacted directly and you are welcome to contact us to expedite your move.
UPDATE 01 – 04/07/2019
In order to ensure data consistency, we have moved to suspend logins to the old platform and would advise anyone who still has access to no make changes until after you have migrated your account as data may be lost.
UPDATE 02 – 10/07/2019
End users will start to see messages about new accounts being created. This is expected as they are being cloned on to the new platform. It also ensures we have up to date contact information for the migration email to follow
UPDATE 03 – 15/07/2019
It has come to our attention that the formatting on the mass email sent out last night has broken. We have uploaded the original email below.
Dear sirs,
Further to our recent advisory on the retirement and renewal of the existing webhosting & email platform. (Details can be found at https://noc.structuredcommunications.co.uk/?p=1387)
Please find below further details and plans on the account migrations that will affect you.
Due to the more modern file structure and use of secure connections on the new platform. Users are advised against simply updating existing email accounts by changing the server details. For ease, users are advised to create a new separate account on there respective email clients and devices using the new server details at the bottom of this email.
Initially, once you create the duplicate account, the contents of the inbox will be out of date. Upon creation of the new account and once you are ready to migrate please visit http://noc.structuredcommunications.co.uk/EasyHTTP/ and complete the form.
Within 24-48 hours the contents of your mailbox will be synchronised to your new account and will begin downloading on your devices. (This may take time if you have a large inbox) Your old account will then stop working and can be deleted from your email client and devices.
Structured Communications will take steps to preserve your email data however is in no way responsible should data loss occur and advise clients to always keep their own data backups.
If you have your email client configured for POP3 based email, then we would advise you to consult your IT personal as the above will result in data loss. You are welcome to contact us if you have questions.
Due to the unmanaged nature of this product and data protection, Structured Communications will be limited in the assistants it can offer end users in setting up and deleting accounts. We can however refer users to one of our IT partners who can offer remote assistance at a charge.
NEW SERVER DETAILS:
USERNAME: Your full email address
PASSWORD: Your existing password
INCOMING SERVER: plesk.easyhttp.co.uk
PORT: 993
ENCRYPTION METHOD: SSL or TLS
OUTGOING SERVER: plesk.easyhttp.co.uk
PORT: 465
ENCRYPTION METHOD: SSL or TLS
OUTBOUND AUTHENTICATION: YES (use same username and password)
Users with a website and custom DNS entries have been mirrored where possible
We understand these changes can be quite confusing and will do all we can do assist and answer any questions however they are necessary.
We will send out reminders for accounts that’s have not migrated before the August 2019 deadline. Should you take no action then your email accounts will stop working and we may lose the ability to sync your inbox data from the date it was initially cloned.
You can contact us on support@structuredcommunications.co.uk or call 0203 301 4000 (even if you want to confirm this email has been sent by ourselves)
UPDATE 04 – 19/07/2019 – User Guides
UPDATE 05 – 01/08/2019 -Helping Users Migrate
We have been working internally to looks at options of migrating current DNS records. This is possible however without the use of SSL due to the IP miss-match between old and new.
In order to assist users in the short term we are moving records requiring little changes if any to email clients. This will allow users to move over before the cut over date automatically, however changes will be required long term as non-SSL connections are turned off.
Domains where no contact has been made will commence from the 05/08/2019. Users should see no interruption.
UPDATE 06 – 30/08/2019 -Extended Deadline
We have, at our own discretion extended the “switch off” date until the 03/09/2019.
On the 23rd February 2019 starting from 08:00 our UPS vendor Vertiv will be undertaking a planned upgrade to the system adding additional battery capacity to our Horsham facility. Normally with this type of work the UPS would be placed on “bypass” however the nature of the works require a complete decommission of the system … Continue reading “23/02/2019 – 08:00 till 18:00 – Horsham Power – Planned Maintenance”
On the 23rd February 2019 starting from 08:00 our UPS vendor Vertiv will be undertaking a planned upgrade to the system adding additional battery capacity to our Horsham facility.
Normally with this type of work the UPS would be placed on “bypass” however the nature of the works require a complete decommission of the system which will require a complete isolation and removal of power to feed “B”
Each cabinet is supplied with a redundant “A” supply. All of our critical services and client facing platforms are dual feed so no outages are expected however should be considered at risk until the completion of the works.
We will be contact clients with co-location who have devices that are not dual redundant.
UPDATE 01 – 08:00
Engineer’s are now on site. Work will start shortly.
UPDATE 02 – 08:30
Work has started and power isolated.
UPDATE 03 – 13.00
Work is now complete and redundancy restored.
We have been advised by one of our fibre providers that they will be conducting maintenance on there hardware from the 8th June 2018 from 00:01 at Telehouse. This will affect a number of leased lines we provide via this location. Please note this will affect clients with redundant fibre services whereby they terminate into … Continue reading “Planned Maintenance – 08/06/2018 – 00:01 till 06:00 (Leased Lines)”
We have been advised by one of our fibre providers that they will be conducting maintenance on there hardware from the 8th June 2018 from 00:01 at Telehouse. This will affect a number of leased lines we provide via this location.
Please note this will affect clients with redundant fibre services whereby they terminate into the same core device on our network (carrier only redundant). Clients with DSL backup and or redundant fibre to our diverse cores at Telehouse (full redundancy) will not be affected.
Downtime is expected to be between 15 and 60 minutes all being well.
We have been advised our suppliers will be performing essential works on our interconnects which will cause a large number of circuts to lose their connection. Work is anticipated to start at 02:00 and impact is expected to be 1 hour. Our suppliers have advised this could be extended to 4 hours downtime. Not all … Continue reading “31/05/2018 – Broadband Supplier Maintenance 00:01 till 06:00”
We have been advised our suppliers will be performing essential works on our interconnects which will cause a large number of circuts to lose their connection.
Work is anticipated to start at 02:00 and impact is expected to be 1 hour.
Our suppliers have advised this could be extended to 4 hours downtime.
Not all circuits will lose connectivity. However, if session disconnects during the work, they may not be able to reconnect until the work is complete.
We apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.
As part of our planed network migration to Telehouse North and our own facility. We are now ready to migrate existing Ethernet fibre and EFM services from Goswell Road to Telehouse. This work is planned to take place from 20:00 tomorrow night and is expected to take around 1 hour to complete with each service … Continue reading “17/05/2018 – Ethernet Leased Lines – Migration – 20:00”
As part of our planed network migration to Telehouse North and our own facility. We are now ready to migrate existing Ethernet fibre and EFM services from Goswell Road to Telehouse.
This work is planned to take place from 20:00 tomorrow night and is expected to take around 1 hour to complete with each service seeing around 5 minutes of downtime while VLANs are moved around the network to there new home.
Customers with backup ADSL or FTTC are unlikely to notice the drop as services will automatically re-route for the duration. Customers that have dual leased lines are also unlikely to notice a service drop as the move is being done in groups, so no 2 services are in the same migration window.
Updates to be posted on the night. Existing test services have been transferred so we do not expect any problems.
UPDATE01 – 19:45
Engineers are getting ready to start
UPDATE02 – 20:00
Work has started
UPDATE03 – 20:10
A problem has been found in our suppliers scripted code. They are attempting to fix this. Unfortunately this does mean additional downtime for the affected circuits.
UPDATE04 – 20:22
Code has been fixed however we are seeing MTU issues. They are being sorted for both this batch of migrations and the 2nd set.
UPDATE05 – 20:30
Stage 1 has been migrated and BGP sessions are back online. Stage 2 will now start.
UPDATE06 – 20:45
Stage 2 is complete, however there is a problem with 2 circuits.
UPDATE07 – 21:10
This work is now complete and all circuits are showing as online.
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.