By Вen Li
The Internet may appear broken this weekend as University of Calgary’s IT department powers off the computer room. Between midnight and 7 a.m. on Sun., July. 27, technicians will install 11 racks of new computers which will join WestGrid, a computing network of eight Canadian universities.
The power outage is necessary to tie a new electrical panel for the new computers into the Information Technologies power system, and to test the fire prevention system in the machine room.
"There will be no Internet access during the power outage," said IT Operations Supervisor Angus Sherwood. "Dial-in and calendar services will be affected, and if you’re on the campus network, you won’t have outbound access."
Access to university computers from the Internet will also be unavailable during the seven-hour service window, according to Sherwood. During that time, e-mail to ucalgary.ca addresses will bounce, and web sites hosted at the university will be unavailable.