Midwest TEL NET Network Upgrade Information

Midwest Tel Net is currently in the process of upgrading the MWT network. Our work includes many aspects necessary to meet your growing needs. We continue to look for ways to better serve you. This network upgrade will provide you with even more reliable service. While we will do everything possible to minimize any network outages, some outages will occur. We will make every effort to schedule these outages during the least busy times. Watch this page and your Midwest Tel Net mailbox for important information about any scheduled outages. Some of the things that are changing are listed below.

Please read this important information about changing your DNS information.

Changing all IP addresses so that MWT can have redundant routes.
Installing new fiber optic equipment.
Reconfiguring existing fiber optic routes for maximum efficiency.
Installation of new Cisco 7513 core routers in redundant fashion
Installation of new Cisco Content Engines for faster browsing.
Installation of new network monitoring software.
Installation of a fifth network server.
Compliment our existing DS3 PSI Net feed (Milwaukee) with a second DS3 feed from UUNET (Minneapolis)
Add additional DNS, RADIUS, HTTP, and other sofware servers.

Throughout the week of April 16th and into the week of April 23, 2001 there will be intermittent issues that will arise. The cause of these brief outages and latency is the major changeover that is taking place. During this time frame we will be adding our additional circuit and new routers. We do not expect to create outages during this time, however they are possible. Please watch for information about changing your DNS information. MWT has developed an easily downloaded script that will be available soon. Simply download the program and run it on your Windows ME, 98, 95 machine and the changes will be automatic. If you are using another operating system you should change your Primary Name Server to 207.190.94.2 which is ns1.mwt.net and also your Secondary Name Server to 207.190.94.129 which is ns2.mwt.net. Watch for more information about this change.

On Wednesday, March 21st beginning at 11:00 p.m. there will be another planned service outage that will affect the same customers that were affected on Monday evening. There has been a problem discovered with the work that was performed on Monday night that must be corrected. We will make every effort to minimize this outage. The problem that was created appears to have impacted various network segments, but we think it is namely dedicated connection customers. There will likely be periods of intermittent connectivity during the outage so it is possible that you could get connected and then have the connection fail while we are testing. We thank you for your cooperation and patience during this outage.

There will be a planned service outage beginning at 11:00 p.m. on Monday, March 19, 2001. This is to facilitate moving a portion of the fiber optic network. Customers that will be impacted include those receiving service from Richland Electric Cooperative, Richland-Grant Telephone Cooperative, Hillsboro Telephone Company, Scenic Rivers Energy Cooperative, Reedsburg Municipal Utility. This outage will last into the early morning hours of Tuesday, March 20th.

Within the next few weeks another outage will be necessary to install the new core routing equipment and an additional DS3 connection from UUNET. Midwest Tel Net will notify all subscribers in advance of this outage.