KAREN High Speed Network
What is KAREN?
KAREN stands for Kiwi Advanced Research and Education Network. It is a very high speed network that joins all the Universities and a number of Crown Research Institutes (CRIs) together in New Zealand. Our link to the KAREN network runs a 1Gb/sec and allows us to interact with the other sites as if they were on our own local network. Because there are only a limited number of organisations connected to KAREN, it is very responsive and large data transfers are completed quickly.
KAREN is also connected to Australia and the United States with fast links (155Mb/sec and 622Mb/sec respectively) enabling rapid access to similar institutions in both countries.
How does KAREN Work?
Whenever you try to connect to an Internet site, the border router checks whether the site is accessible through the KAREN network. If it is, then the connection is made via KAREN. If not, the connection is made through SNAP, our Internet service provider (ISP), at a similiar speed but with more contention from other users.
Is KAREN Free?
The University pays a single annual fee for access to KAREN and there is no expectation that this fee is recovered from users. This is deliberate so staff can try using KAREN in new ways without the question of costs limiting their experimentation. But unless you are registered as a KAREN user, all your Internet traffic will be treated as if it passed though our ISP. This is also deliberate as the routers cannot distinguish between academic staff, general staff or students and to provide free access to all would encourage undesirable activity (like music peer-peer file sharing) as well as legitimate experimentation.
There are more questions regarding KAREN on the FAQ page.
KAREN Registration
KAREN registration is simple. Staff and research students just need to complete the registration form, get it signed by your Head of Department and send it to us.