Network Outage – Multiple Locations – Fairfax Campus

February 28, 2019 12:00 a.m.
Outage category: 
VoIP phone service, Wired Network, Wireless Network
Location: 
Aquia, Baker House, Carty House, East Building, Field House, Fenwick Library, Finley Building, Harris Theater, Johnson Center, Krug Hall, Lecture Hall, Mason Pond Deck, The RAC, Robinson Hall, Softball Field, Student Union 1, Thompson Hall, West Building, West PE Module
Status: 
Closed
Resolved alert: 
02/07/2019 6:34 pm

The following buildings experienced a loss of wired and wireless connectivity:

  • Aquia
  • Baker House
  • Carty House
  • East Building
  • Field House
  • Fenwick Library
  • Finley Building
  • Harris Theater
  • Johnson Center
  • Krug Hall
  • Lecture Hall
  • Mason Pond Deck
  • The RAC
  • Robinson Hall
  • Softball Field
  • Student Union 1
  • Thompson Hall
  • West Building
  • West PE Module
Initial symptoms: 

The following locations are currently experiencing a network outage. ITS is working to resolve the issue.

  • Aquia
  • Baker House
  • Carty House
  • East Building
  • Field House
  • Fenwick Library
  • Finley Building
  • Harris Theater
  • Johnson Center
  • Krug Hall
  • Lecture Hall
  • Mason Pond Deck
  • The RAC
  • Robinson Hall
  • Softball Field
  • Student Union 1
  • Thompson Hall
  • West Building
  • West PE Module
Duration: 
02/07/2019 6:10 pm - 02/07/2019 6:34 pm
Impact to Mason: 

The listed buildings were without wired or wireless networks resulting in no internet access or Voice over IP phone services being available.

Affected Services: 
Wireless (Wi-Fi) Network, Telephone Services
Other Affected Services: 
Wired Network
ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS
Cause: 

An application setting – “right click to paste” caused a default script to overwrite the configuration on the Aquia PE.

Resolution: 

Downloaded backup configuration to USB and copied over to startup-config on router. Then reloaded the router.

Prevention: 
  1. Disable right-click to paste feature
  2. Remove “conf t” from scripts
  3. Remove “write memory” from scripts
STATISTICS
Service Team: 
NOC