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News

19.07.2023

Step by step to even more sustainability

In the past few weeks, we were able to commission another external PV system as well as a new waste heat recipient.

On June 30, 2023, another photovoltaic plant with around 200 kW peak was synchronized with the BKW grid for the first time.

At the beginning of May, a new waste heat consumer was integrated into our local heating network. A novelty to be mentioned in this context is, that this is the first user that will draw waste heat from our data center all year round.

30.11.2022

New DNS RPZ service available

NTS now offers a DNS RPZ service to interested customers

What is it? RPZ means Response Policy Zone and serves as a DNS firewall. It allows overriding certain DNS information and enables generating alternative responses to DNS queries, effectively protecting all devices before connecting to malicious systems. The system uses external data sources and therefore can only block requests that are already known to be malicious.

This enables additional security measures in the following areas:
  • Prevention: blocking access to infected and malicious web pages/services.
  • Detection: Detecting already infected systems that post suspicious requests to the web.
  • Awareness: When accessing a malicious domain name, users are redirected to a secure landing page. This not only improves IT security, but also raises user awareness of the dangers lurking on the Internet.

    • NTS offers the DNS RPZ service as a paid add-on service and provides the necessary updates in the background, which we obtain from various secure sources (including GovCERT and Spamhaus).

    For further information please contact us.

    15.09.2022

    New RIPE AuthDNS Server at NTS

    For an even more stable Internet

    Since a few days we operate a so called AuthDNS server for RIPE in Zurich. This DNS server serves as a slave to the three core DNS servers of RIPE (Amsterdam, London and Stockholm) where reverse zones, ripe.net and various ccTLDs are published. AuthDNS servers are currently available in Vienna, Salzburg, Rome, Sarajevo and Yerevan and now also for the first time in Switzerland. Further information is available from RIPE.

    11.07.2022

    Scouts @lightspeed

    This year, after 14 years, a Swiss National Jamboree will take place again between July 23 and August 6.

    Not only some of our employees are spending their summer "vacations" at the camp as helpers, but also some of our routers are actively helping.

    With the support of various companies, we as a co-partner have organized several kilometers of fiber optic cable in the run-up to the national camp, and during the camp we provide a redundant Internet connection (several Gbps) for the more than 30,000 scouts. Extremely demanding logistics also require the appropriate communication channels, which are nowadays primarily realized via the Internet.

    14.02.2022

    GTL for our emergency generators

    For even cleaner emergency power operation

    In the future, NTS will use GTL fuels as a replacement for the conventional oil-based fuels for the operation of the emergency power generators. Although the diesel generators only have a few operating hours per year - mostly for test runs - we would also like to further optimize this process and make it more environmentally friendly. This is in addition to the measures already installed, such as particulate filters and fuel-water emulsion systems.

    GTL is a synthetic fuel derived from natural gas. It burns cleaner than conventional diesel fuel, helping to reduce local emissions such as particulates, nitrogen oxides (NOx) and carbon monoxide (CO). GTL also has significantly lower levels of aromatics, olefins, sulfur and nitrogen.