FAQs

The following will guide you through the answers to our most frequently asked questions. Click each question to view the answer. If you can’t find the right answer or you don’t see your question listed, please e-mail us at support@kanren.net.

Membership

KANREN is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, charitable corporation that operates as a consortium of its member institutions.

KANREN is a consortium of member institutions. We are a group of Education and Community Anchor Institutions who work collaboratively to function as our own ISP. KANREN also has a great deal of connectivity to specific research and education resources not available through commercial ISPs in addition to professional services and nationally renown expertise.

KANREN is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, charitable corporation that operates as a consortium of its member institutions. We are not part of the state government or Kansas Board of Regents.

Any accredited educational institution, or non-profit or public organization serving the public interest, is eligible for immediate membership. The membership committee will assess whether or not the applicant’s mission is a fit for KANREN’s, as well as evaluate potential for collaboration with the KANREN community, which brings value for both existing members as well as the applicant. Organizations matching the NTIA definition of “community anchor institution” will usually be granted membership.

KANREN’s members include all public universities, many Kansas community colleges, private colleges & universities, public school districts, education service centers, municipal governments, counties and other education and community anchor institutions. View our all full list of members.

The Board of Directors is comprised of leaders from KANREN member institutions. All user communities are represented in the composition of the Board, which is modified over time to stay consistent with membership.

Membership is an annual commitment. However, member who choose multi-year commitments (usually to provide stable budgeting) for connectivity will have membership commitments that match the commitment for multi-year service commitments.

75-3077895

Please email us at info@kanren.net or call 785.856.9800.

If you need or want KANREN to provide and manage an access circuit to connect you to our network, it will be priced on a case-by-case basis. Rates and fees are established each year at our annual meeting for our fiscal year (July 1 – June 30).

Billing

Currently, KANREN accepts payment for services via check. To request an alternative method of payment, please contact the KANREN business office at 785.856.9800 to discuss possible options.

KANREN services run on a fiscal year cycle running from July 1 through June 30.

KANREN provides annual, quarterly, and monthly billing options. Our default billing method is annual. Upgrades and disconnects are invoiced or refunded during the billing period following the upgrade or disconnect. Other billing arrangements can be made to accommodate member institution’s needs.

All payments can be mailed to:
KANREN, Inc.
PO Box 442167
Lawrence, KS 66044

KANREN will only send one invoice per billing period per member. Invoices are subtotaled by service location. The KANREN membership fee is typically included with institution’s primary service location. If special billing arrangements are needed, please reach out to the KANREN business staff to see if a solution is available.

Services

Yes, KANREN can provide solutions for members with multiple campuses. We provide multi-location solutions for a number of our members either as multiple standard connections, or as a virtual private network between campus locations with one “border” to the outside world.

KANREN site devices can be configured with an out-of-band test port. These ports can be helpful if poor performance problems are rooted in a malfunctioning firewall, content filter, packet shaper, or other LAN device.

There can be several reasons online speed tests return low results.

  • The testing application lists throughput in Layer3 values; however, circuits KANREN procures also must carry Layer 1 and Layer 2 portions of the path. This additional overhead can result in tests showing 5–7% lower then actual circuit speed.
  • If the speed test server’s traffic flows through congested segments of the Internet results can be erratic. Pay close attention to which server is selected (if there is an option) when running the test and where the testing server is located. These details can help the KANREN NOC troubleshoot any congestion issues. It’s also often helpful to test with multiple servers or speed testing services to try and replicate poor performance issues.
  • LAN traffic will contend equally with the speed test traffic. For example, if you have a 1Gbps connection, and are currently using 700Mbps of it, the best a speed test will show is 300Mbps.

Generally speaking, it could take up to 24 hours for changes to be visible across the internet. If you contact us in advance of a planned change, we may be able to make adjustments to force old values expire more quickly.

For IP Addresses that we have assigned to members (164.113.*.*, 198.248.*.*, 69.77.0-127.*, and 2001:49d0:*), we can add PTR records.

Email support@kanren.net or call 785.856.9820.

No. KANREN does purchase specific services from the Kansas telecommunications industry as “building blocks” for our network, but we do not simply re-sell existing internet services. KANREN’s service offerings are very unique, and tailored to our members’ needs.

KANREN provides engineering and/or consulting services to membership. These services have varied widely, from selection of videoconferencing hardware to federating autonomous systems. Contact KANREN at info@kanren.net or by calling 785.856.9800 to discuss your organization’s specific needs.

Email support@kanren.net or call 785.856.9820.

Yes, KANREN provides graphs for all member institutions’ connections, as well as graphs of our backbone and upstream connections. Please the network tools section on our Network Services page for more information.

KANREN hosts public-facing DNS for connected members at no additional charge. We can also slave your public DNS zones as well.

KANREN provides NTP servers for on-network (connected) members.
(Please use the DNS names as the IPs may change):
IPv4 and IPv6: ntp.kanren.net, ntp2.kanren.net

KANREN provides DNS resolvers for on-network (connected) members:
IPv4: 164.113.221.250, 164.113.207.250
IPv6: 2001:49d0:2005:f000::5, 2001:49d0:2005:f000::5

At this time, KANREN does not offer a fully supported, general streaming service. Zoom video conferencing may be used for one-way web-based “broadcasting.”

Video Conferencing

KANREN has partnered with Zoom to provide statewide consortium pricing for their services, through KANREN. This service is also enhanced with superior quality and reliability when used over a KANREN network connection, though connectivity to KANREN is not required for using the service. Read more about our video conference services here.

You do not, but KANREN strongly recommends a connection to our network for maximum quality and reliability — particularly if the service is relied upon for critical needs.

We will help if we can, but we do not offer dedicated support for third-party room systems. We often do not have enough knowledge or experience with the myriad of components used to build room systems to help effectively. KANREN recommends working with room integrators for specialized hardware support.

Some very minimal services are included with membership, but most members will need to subscribe to additional paid services to meet their videoconferencing needs.

No, the service and features are the same. Non-connected members pay a slightly higher subscription cost due to additional expenses KANREN incurs with off-network users.

KANREN can work with you to enable this. For more information on Zoom and SSO please see this Zoom support article.

E-Rate

Yes. KANREN Data Communications Contract #06807 is an approved state contract. The Department of Administration, Board of Regents, Regents institutions, State School for the Deaf, State School for the Blind and “political subdivisions,” including public K–12 School Districts in Kansas are eligible to purchase off this contract. School districts can reference this state contract to purchase E-rate eligible services, such as internet access, through KANREN.

Visit the Kansas procurement contract listing, then search by contract number 06807.

E-rate contact should be made just as any other membership or general inquiry by calling 785.856.9800 or emailing info@kanren.net.

KANREN, by default, uses the SPI billing method unless the BEAR billing method is requested. Additional information on E-rate billing methods can be found here.

In the context of the E-rate program, KANREN is an Internet Service Provider; our SPIN number is 143005645. KANREN is happy to respond to all RFPs from members or those eligible for membership.

Support

General Contact (inquiries, business issues, service changes/requests)

Primary Mailing Address
KANREN, Inc.
PO Box 442167
Lawrence, KS 66044

Large Item Shipping Address
KANREN, Inc.
2029 Becker Dr., Suite 282
Lawrence, KS 66047

Please contact us at info@kanren.net or 785.856.9800 and we will route your request to the appropriate KANREN team member.

Please email changes to info@kanren.net.