Major incident

Rice University: Intermittent Wi-Fi Connectivity

Affected: Wireless

Current status of Rice University: Operational — live Rice University status

Timeline

1. Mar 24, 2026, 20:02 UTC
   investigating
   We are currently investigating reports of intermittent Wi-Fi connectivity affecting users in the following locations: Cambridge Office Building, Alice Pratt Brown Hall, Ley Student Center, McNair Hall, Anderson Biological Lab, and Rich Health Center. Users may experience frequent disconnections, slow speeds, or difficulty authenticating.
2. Mar 24, 2026, 22:45 UTC
   identified
   The issue has been identified and a fix is being implemented.
3. Mar 24, 2026, 23:10 UTC
   monitoring
   We will continue to monitor the service closely throughout the evening and into tomorrow morning.
4. Mar 25, 2026, 16:06 UTC
   investigating
   OIT is continuing to investigate the Wi-Fi disruption event reported yesterday. While we work to restore and stabilize the system, you might experience brief service interruptions beyond the already known impacted locations. Known impacted locations are: Alice Pratt Brown, Anderson Biological Laboratories, Duncan Hall, Rich Health Center, Humanities Building, Cambridge Office Building, Ley Student Center, Reckling Park, Keith Wiess Geological Laboratories, Multicultural Center, Wiess President’s House, Central Plant, Fondren Library, Gibbs Recreation and Wellness Center, Sewall Hall.
5. Mar 25, 2026, 18:01 UTC
   identified
   OIT has identified the problem affecting Wi-Fi performance across the campus and will be conducting a maintenance activity shortly after 5:00 PM this evening (3/26/2026) to correct the issue. This work will take approximately one hour to complete. Please expect some disruption to Wi-Fi performance during that period. Once work has been completed, this notice will be updated again.
6. Mar 25, 2026, 22:04 UTC
   identified
   Network Services has commenced the prescribed changes. We will update again as service stabilizes.
7. Mar 25, 2026, 22:41 UTC
   identified
   We are about to make another adjustment, then service should return to normal.
8. Mar 25, 2026, 23:02 UTC
   monitoring
   Recommended changes have been completed. We will continue to monitor services closely.
9. Mar 26, 2026, 15:57 UTC
   monitoring
   We are continuing to monitor campus Wi-Fi performance closely during today’s peak usage period. We currently have over 13,000 devices successfully connected across the network. While our monitoring tools show that the system's processing load is higher than we'd like due to the large volume of concurrent users, we are monitoring and planning future adjustments accordingly. The environment remains stable and we have not received any reported issues or help desk tickets this morning. Our team is actively managing the distribution of this data load across our infrastructure to ensure continued stability. We will remain on high alert throughout the day and will provide further updates as needed.
10. Mar 26, 2026, 21:53 UTC
    monitoring
    Network Services continues to monitor campus Wi-Fi performance throughout today’s peak activity. While the system is currently stable and supporting over 12,000 concurrent sessions, we are identifying further optimizations to improve backend processing efficiency and ensure long-term stability. We are currently evaluating campus event schedules to identify the least disruptive time for a brief maintenance window to implement these adjustments. We will provide a scheduled time for this maintenance once it has been confirmed.
11. Mar 27, 2026, 22:03 UTC
    monitoring
    Network Services has continued to monitor campus Wi-Fi performance throughout today’s peak activity. While the system remains stable, we have identified further optimizations to improve backend processing efficiency and ensure long-term stability. After evaluating campus event schedules to minimize impact, we have scheduled a brief maintenance window for Sunday, March 29, from 10:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. These optimizations are designed to ensure continued stability for the upcoming week. Users connected during this window may experience a brief disconnection lasting only a few seconds as their devices transition to the updated configuration.
12. Mar 30, 2026, 03:20 UTC
    monitoring
    This evening's configuration changes have been completed. We will continue to monitor system performance throughout the evening and on Monday as utilization increases.
13. Apr 2, 2026, 14:10 UTC
    monitoring
    We continue to investigate the service degradation affecting campus wireless services. Our team is actively working with our vendor to identify the root cause. We will provide an update as soon as more information becomes available. We appreciate your patience as we work to resolve this issue.
14. Apr 3, 2026, 20:53 UTC
    monitoring
    Network Services will be performing critical maintenance on the campus wireless network on Sunday, April 5, 2026, from 1:00 AM to 3:00 AM CDT. During this window, our team will implement vendor-recommended configuration changes to address ongoing performance and stability issues. Impact: Users will experience intermittent connectivity to the Rice Owls, Rice Visitor, and eduroam networks. Residential Colleges: Wireless service in residential colleges is NOT expected to be affected by this specific maintenance. If you experience difficulty connecting after 3:00 a.m., please try toggling your device's Wi-Fi off and back on. If you continue to have trouble connecting, please open a ticket with the TSS Service Desk at [email protected]. We appreciate your patience as we work to resolve these issues.
15. Apr 5, 2026, 06:35 UTC
    monitoring
    This evening's wireless maintenance has been completed. Our team will continue to monitor services closely, especially as we see increased traffic during business hours.
16. Apr 6, 2026, 18:04 UTC
    monitoring
    Following the configuration changes implemented during Sunday morning's maintenance window and a subsequent review with senior engineers today, we are seeing significant improvements in wireless network stability. While the system is currently stable, our engineering team and vendor partners continue to closely monitor performance. We will provide further updates if there are any significant changes to system status. Thank you for your continued patience as we work toward a final resolution.
17. Apr 10, 2026, 03:03 UTC
    monitoring
    Following the weekend maintenance and extensive monitoring, we are pleased to report that the campus wireless network has remained stable throughout high-traffic periods this week. Performance metrics have returned to healthy baseline levels across the university. The Technology Solutions & Services (TSS) team will continue to monitor the environment closely and remain in active coordination with our vendor to finalize the root cause analysis. Important update for Anderson Hall / Architecture Students: With the primary campus-wide issues resolved, our team has identified a secondary, localized issue in Anderson Hall. This appears to be a technical conflict tied to a specific software package used within the Architecture curriculum. We are working directly with students in the building to isolate the software involved. Architecture students who continue to experience wireless instability are encouraged to reach out directly to the Help Desk at [email protected] so we can coordinate troubleshooting on your specific device. Thank you for your patience and cooperation as we worked to resolve these issues.
18. Apr 10, 2026, 15:22 UTC
    resolved
    Following the weekend maintenance and extensive monitoring, we are pleased to report that the campus wireless network has remained stable throughout high-traffic periods this week. Performance metrics have returned to healthy baseline levels across the university. The Technology Solutions & Services (TSS) team will continue to monitor the environment closely and remain in active coordination with our vendor to finalize the root cause analysis. We are resolving the issue at this time.

Updates as published by Rice University (original).