'''Communications Network Services (CNS)''' is a division of the Office of the Vice President for Information Technology, which provides ISP services including telephone and Internet to the university. Unlike most departments, CNS operates as an auxillary service, and therefore recieves funding through cost-recovery rather than university budgets. Individual departments and students must pay a ''per-port'' charge for each IP or phone device attached to the network. '''NI&S''', previously known as '''Communications Network Services''' ('''CNS'''), and briefly as '''Advanced Network Infrastructure and Services''' ('''ANIS''') is the ISP of [[Virginia Tech]], and part of the [[Division of IT]], providing services including telephone and Internet to the university. Around 2015, they went through a significant rebranding effort, because of the poor reputation earned by CNS as being "unhelpful, tyrannical network overlords", in the words of a former student. Today, they attempt to exist by their ''Brand Promise'', "Let's explore what's possible together", and ''Brand Character'', "Approachable, Plain Spoken, Collaborative", in order to prevent the need for further rebranding. Several NI&S employees have suggested a more accurate motto would read "F*ck you; we turned it off", in reference to several services essential to the jobs of departmental IT, like rdweb, the "temporary" port 22 block, the L2TP VPN, and several other useful services. Unlike most departments, CNS operates as an auxillary service, and therefore recieves funding through cost-recovery rather than university budgets. Individual departments and students must pay a ''per-port'' charge for each IP or phone device attached to the network.
== Network Topology ==
