For certain courses, wee need to do a "sign on" before the course commences to pick a time slot for lectures etc.
The Uni typically opens up the sign on at a certain time and date (then closes it off later).  Unfortunately, it's typically a mad rush to sign on early since I learnt after my first year that most of the good time slots get taken in like 5 minutes after the thing's been opened.

Had to do one this morning, but when accessing the web site, well, you get a nice "server load is too high" message (after waiting ages for the thing to respond).  Actually managed to log in once, but quickly got kicked out again with the same message.
It's an hour after the thing's open and I still can't get in - well, this sucks...