IETF Attendees Reengineer Their Hotel's Wi-Fi Net 120
alphadogg writes "What happens when a bunch of IETF super nerds show up in Paris for a major conference and discover their hotel's Wi-Fi network has imploded? They give it an Extreme Wi-Fi Makeover. Members of the Internet Engineering Task Force, who gathered for the outfit's 83rd meeting this week in France, discovered as they arrived at the Hotel Concorde Lafayette that the Wi-Fi was flakey and became flakier still as scores more attendees arrived and tried to connect, and the wired net was having issues of its own. Working behind the scenes, a team of IETF attendees negotiated with the hotel and were granted access to the wireless network, and began rigging up all sorts of fixes, which even included taping a Nexus S phone to a ceiling and turning off the radios on numerous access points to reduce noise."
the phone (Score:4, Funny)
Re:the phone (Score:3)
Ad hoc wireless access point, one would presume.
Re:the phone (Score:5, Informative)
"There was no WiFi signal when on the desk in front of the window in my room, but after some experiments, I discovered that the signal was quite good... on the ceiling of the bathroom," emailed Marc Petit-Huguenin.
"I have a Nexus S phone, so I taped it on the ceiling of the bathroom, and used tethering over Bluetooth to bridge the gap to the desk," he explained. This is a slow connection, but good enough to send emails over SMTP or use vi [the popular Unix text editor] over SSH."
FTA
Re:the phone (Score:5, Informative)
Re:the phone (Score:2)
Why not just use a repeater instead? Maybe not as much geek-cool factor, but faster and less of a PITA.
Re:the phone (Score:2)
Because they didn't have a repeater in their pocket?
Re:the phone (Score:4, Informative)
There were too many active radios, and the spectrum was too crowded. They even switched to a four-channel layout instead of the three-channel. (We informally use a five-channel model in my apartment building, what with all the various tennants' APs and routers finding the least crowded piece of spectrum in their immediate area.
Re:the phone (Score:1)
Re:the phone (Score:3)
That is some real MacGuyver networking there. I can picture Richard Dean Anderson saying, "I need some duct tape and a cell phone!"
Re:the phone (Score:3)
Translation: “I can't bother to RTFA, tell me the tl;dr version”.
Re:the phone (Score:1)
Re:the phone (Score:1)
"'There was no WiFi signal when on the desk in front of the window in my room, but after some experiments, I discovered that the signal was quite good... on the ceiling of the bathroom,' emailed Marc Petit-Huguenin.
'I have a Nexus S phone, so I taped it on the ceiling of the bathroom, and used tethering over Bluetooth to bridge the gap to the desk,' he explained. This is a slow connection, but good enough to send emails over SMTP or use vi [the popular Unix text editor] over SSH."
Re:the phone (Score:5, Funny)
Someone please explain the usefulness of taping a phone to the ceiling to me.
It's part of the IPv7 protocol. Don't worry, you'll see them release a paper next week on it...and I'm sure industry will get right on implementing that...sometime in 2037.
In other news, it was reported that part of the re-engineering of this Wi-Fi network was implementing IPv6...unfortunately, they could find no one outside of the IETF super nerds who knew what the hell it was for...
Re:the phone (Score:4, Funny)
Someone please explain the usefulness of taping a phone to the ceiling to me.
It's part of the IPv7 protocol. Don't worry, you'll see them release a paper next week on it...and I'm sure industry will get right on implementing that...sometime in 2037.
Obviously in 2037 we have to tape our phones to the ceiling when we wear our pockets inside-out.
Re:the phone (Score:0)
Nicely played bttf2 reference
Re:the phone (Score:4, Funny)
Re:the phone (Score:3)
Dude I'm wearing my pockets inside out as soon as 2015 hits. ;)
At least get the reference right
Re:the phone (Score:2)
Actually though, IPv7 predates IPv6!
The experimental IPv7 protocol was specified in June 1993 in RFC 1475 [ietf.org] while IPv6 was specified as in December 1995 as RFC 1883 [ietf.org].
Re:the phone (Score:5, Interesting)
Oh come on, why does it have to be useful? The hotel let us do it! (I'm guessing that it had a USB ethernet dongle, but I wasn't there, so I don't know for sure.)
I feel very fortunate that a majority of my business travel is to IETF meetings, because this is the only time that I ever experience functional internet in a hotel. It can be pretty fantastic--in Hiroshima, the WIDE team rewired _all_ of the IETF hotels, which is about five different hotels. In almost every IETF since Seoul, the IETF NOC has provided the connectivity for the conference hotel for the duration of the conference, and the connectivity has been excellent.
It's too bad that hotels can't afford to pay IETF geeks to fix their connections on a more general basis, and that there isn't a commercial provider that's able to provide a similar level of service for a price hotels can afford. Sometimes I think we ought to have an independent hotel WiFi rating service, so that hotels would have to actually compete on the basis of the quality of their Internet service.
Re:the phone (Score:0)
Which hotels in Hiroshima are IETF hotels?
Re:the phone (Score:3)
ANA Crowne Plaza Hiroshima Hotel [ietf.org]
Re:the phone (Score:5, Insightful)
Having all hotels provide connectivity suitable for a LARGE group of internet junkies is financially stupid.
Most hotels have adequate coverage for their normal guest load, so they use the cheapest provider capable of providing that adequate coverage.
No other event in the hotel is going to require the connectivity perfection that an IETF conference is going to require, its a waste of money for them to engineer and build out an IETF compatible network. Its far simpler to get some joe the plumber from the PCGuys Shop down the street to throw in a DSL line and enough APs that no one bitches, and for the most part, works just fine.
Not every hotel NEEDS that kind of connectivity. For instance the hotel I went to for my wedding had absolutely shitty connectivity and if you asked they would politely respond, aren't you here for your wedding sir? And they were right :) Disney has absolutely shitty connectivity and their response is rather atypical for Disney in that it is intentionally bad, you're not supposed to be dicking around on the Internet at Disney.
They also don't need to pay for DS3 or so of bandwidth for the hotel if it isn't filled with bandwidth hogs (which I actually doubt the IETF are, probably the opposite but just making a point.)
Re:the phone (Score:3)
Bah. There is other technology than DS3s for high-speed internet, many of which are much cheaper.
If you can't get a 50mbps connection for your hotel, for less than the cable bill, than you are doing it wrong.
The last thing anyone wants, in this day and age, is some cheap ass hotel trying to serve over a hundred customers with an ADSL connection.
Re:the phone (Score:2)
If you know some trick to get 50mbps to an arbitrary location for less than a cable bill, I'd absolutely love to hear it.
Re:the phone (Score:1)
A hotel gets a cable bill and you get a cable bill. The numbers are different though. Regarding the argument that a hotel should provide more bandwidth: The TV usually provides some revenue (via pay-per-view). Free Wifi doesn't. If it's too good, it will be used for VoIP and then it eats into the phone bill. Wifi just needs to be "good enough" that you can put it on the list of amenities.
Re:the phone (Score:2)
At this point cell phones have pretty much killed charges for room charges from the phone. I don't think I've used a phone in a room in like 15 years.
Having bad WiFi is one of the things that can drive business customers from staying there, and business customers are usually the most profitable customers for a hotel.
Re:the phone (Score:2)
Precisely my point. You don't want your chain of hotels to become associated with 'receiving a more favorable internet connection via a pair of acoustic couplers [wikipedia.org].'
Re:the phone (Score:2)
Where there's a hotel capable with 500 rooms, there's likely to be a cable ISP within easy reach. The larger the hotel, the more cheap bandwidth is geographically handy.
Re:the phone (Score:2)
For instance the hotel I went to for my wedding had absolutely shitty connectivity and if you asked they would politely respond, aren't you here for your wedding sir? And they were right :)
Haven't been to many IETF weddings I guess.
Re:the phone (Score:3)
Someone please explain the usefulness of taping a phone to the ceiling to me.
It is there to hide it from Inspecteur Clouseau!
This Just In! (Score:3)
Re:This Just In! (Score:2)
Nerds get together and do nerdy stuff en masse!
At least they weren't genetic engineers.
(a get-together of plastic surgeons, on the other hand...)
Re:This Just In! (Score:2)
Nerds get together and do nerdy stuff en masse!
Ah, that explains all those dudes at the park dressed up in medieval garb and why I got hit in the head with a beanbag.
Re:This Just In! (Score:2)
Lightning Bolt! Lightning Bolt! Lightning Bolt!
Nexus S phone??? (Score:0, Flamebait)
I don't see many hotels running with that solution.
Re: Nexus S phone??? (Score:0, Troll)
you are a fscking idiot.
Re: Nexus S phone??? (Score:2)
Re: Nexus S phone??? (Score:3)
Re: Nexus S phone??? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: Nexus S phone??? (Score:3, Informative)
Re: Nexus S phone??? (Score:5, Funny)
Whilst thine contention that I readeth not the article is in good sooth, thine attitude lacketh charm and grace.
Prithee consider the comeliness of thine words, lest good folk consider thee knavish.
Thou art an embossed carbuncle.
Re: Nexus S phone??? (Score:2)
That has to be the most literal interpretation of "get medieval" I've seen anywhere.
Pray, sir, that you may accepteth my earnest compliments on thine craft of the Anglo script!
Re: Nexus S phone??? (Score:3)
"thy" = "your", "thine" = "yours"
"I readeth not" = wrong tense, I think you want "I didst not read"
- archaic grammar nazi
Re: Nexus S phone??? (Score:2)
I am a fan of the samsung line of android smartphones, but using a high-end smartphone is one of the most expensive options for a wifi router that I've ever heard of.
I don't see many hotels running with that solution.
You should look at the price of Cisco AP's - you can easily pay more than the price of an unlocked Nexus for a single AP. (but it's a lot more capable as an AP than the phone)
Summer blockbuster? (Score:1)
Can't wait until Micheal Bay directs a movie about this.
IETF Agents struggle to defend paris against an onsluaght of transforming alien turtles and explosions
Re:Summer blockbuster? (Score:2)
Can't wait until Micheal Bay directs a movie about this...
Why? Are there massive explosions and car chases when you configure your AP? If so, you might be doing it wrong.
Re:Summer blockbuster? (Score:3)
Can't wait until Micheal Bay directs a movie about this...
Why? Are there massive explosions and car chases when you configure your AP? If so, you might be doing it wrong.
Or very very right, depending on how you look at it. Seriously, if you can get your AP to explode, literally, just by configuring it, I would be impressed.
Re:Summer blockbuster? (Score:2)
Doesn't matter. Michael Bay could shoot "Sex in the City" with massive explosions and car chases.
Re:Summer blockbuster? (Score:3)
SHUT UP.
You might give him ideas.
So now I know (Score:0, Troll)
Where the fucking network kludges I have to unfuck come from. FOSS-tard dumb asses.
Jury Rigged WiFi (Score:1)
Re:Jury Rigged WiFi (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Jury Rigged WiFi (Score:2)
Chris.
Oh, so it's not just San Francisco (Score:0)
The Wi-Fi at my hotel for GDC last month was unusable. These places need to step it up if they're going to partner with tech-oriented conferences like these.
I have been in hotels with a cable co wifi modem (Score:2, Informative)
I have been in hotels with a cable co wifi modem in the room (good as I needed to reboot it aka unplug and replug to get it working)
Re-engineer? Um, no (Score:0, Flamebait)
Please explain (Score:3)
Can somebody explain to me why did these guys go to this conference? In my experience there are two reasons to go to a conference:
1. Business - meet people learn new things
2. Pleasure - screw the talks and go skying
This conference is in Paris of all places and if they don't care about the place and the talks why the hell did they go there. I am pretty sure every single one of the participants has better internet connection at home.
Re:Please explain (Score:1)
Because those guys have jobs and need to be able to access the network at those jobs. If you'd read the article you would know that they were reengineering the network specifically so that their VPN connections wouldn't drop constantly.
No giant dinosaur?! No go! (Score:2)
You're right. There's absolutely *nothing* to see or do in Paris.
Re:Please explain (Score:1)
1. Business - meet people learn new things
Please read up on what the IETF does. We meet to design the protocols that allow the Internet to work. Our primary focus is not to meet people or learn new things, although both things happen as secondary outcomes. Your ability to transmit your message above is because of the work we do.
This conference is in Paris of all places and if they don't care about the place and the talks why the hell did they go there.
The selection of the sites for the IETF meetings is complex and many variables go into the mix. We try to encourage participation in the IETF around the world while somewhat equalizing the inconvenience of travel by having meetings at locations around the world. Few cities have conference centers with enough meeting rooms in the right mix of sizes for us. We are very sensitive to price, while wanting the facility to allow us to install our own network. There has to be enough hotel rooms close to the conference center for 1200-1600 attendees. Adequate restaurants, climate, stability of the government, openness of the Internet in the country, and an almost endless number of other variables are used. Paris was chosen for many reasons.
I am pretty sure every single one of the participants has better internet connection at home.
We had two 1G uplinks. No, (almost) no participant has better internet connections at home.
Chris.
Re:Please explain (Score:2)
Well, except for Peter Lothberg, whose Mom has better Internet connection.
Re:Please explain (Score:1)
screw the talks and go skying
Can I come Skying? I have no idea what it is but it sounds really fun!
Re:Please explain (Score:1)
It was an IT conference. There were no humans identifiable as female present, except for the terrified hotel staff who had to face hordes of raging nerds, each of whom was trying to out-impress the cute lady at the hotel concierge desk. That being said, there quite possibly was still some "screwing of the other attendees" going on, since they were bored and internet was down, but who are any of us to judge?
Lower power (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Lower power (Score:2, Informative)
"It's a 2.4Ghz infrastructure in a highly 3D and rather radio transparent environment -- where the three non-overlapping channels [all that are possible in that band] are a real problem."
They're in Paris. There are four non-overlapping channels in Europe: 1, 5, 9 and 13. While it is customary to use 1, 6 and 11, especially in settings where international visitors are expected, if the network really needs 4 channels, they are available and should be used.
The proper way to fix the Wifi in multi-story buildings is with directional antennas, to reduce the 3D problem to multiple 2D problems.
Re:Lower power (Score:5, Informative)
And that's ultimately what Chris did: we're now operating on four channels. Well, six, actually -- some of the APs could operate in the 5 GHz spectrum, so rather than leaving them off, they were re-purposed for the equipment that could use them (which offloads all the Macs and iPads from the 2.4 GHz spectrum, bringing the noise floor down). So now, running down one side of the building, we have 1, 5, 9 and 13; and then on the other side, 13, 9, 5, and 1. The APs on the tips of the building (it's shaped like an American football in horizontal cross-section) are on the 5GHz channels 40 and 44. The pattern is reversed for every other floor, to provide as much vertical spacing as possible.
This should help you visualize the layout: http://www.ietf.org/proceedings/83/slides/slides-83-iesg-11-ietf-operations-and-administration-plenary.pdf [ietf.org]
Keep in mind also that the APs, when we showed up, were turned up all the way up. Look at the diagrams, and keep in mind that these are small rooms (the building is maybe 150 feet wide along its longer axis), and you begin to see how the deployment failure was pretty complete before we got here.
Of course, we didn't show up with 300 directional antennas to fix the APs themselves. All we could do is change their configuration. The change has been dramatic.
Re:Lower power (Score:1)
Chris.
Re:Lower power (Score:1)
Re:Lower power (Score:2)
Never mind the spec; 1, 6, and 11 do overlap (albeit only slightly) in real life. Go buy a 2.4 GHz spectrum analyzer, bring up three APs on those three channels, and see for yourself what the power curve is.
Wifi Analyzer (Score:2)
If you have an Android device, Wifi Analyzer [google.com] will do a pretty decent job showing you what's on each channel and what the crossband interference might look like.
Using CyanogenMOD, I also quite often set my phone up as an HSDPA-wifi, HSDPA-USB, or even wifi-usb tether, depending on my situation... and it usually works much better than whatever lousy wifi access point I might encounter in public.
toney (Score:3)
" they arrived at the toney Hotel Concorde Lafayette"
Do you mean "tony" as in "upscale and/or fashionable"?
Re:toney (Score:2)
Regardless of what they meant, the Hotel Concorde Lafayette ain't it.
Re:toney (Score:2)
Yeah, it's kind of an overpriced crap pit with chronic theft problems in which the staff appear to be complicit (if not the actual perpetrators). But that wasn't really the main thrust of the article. :)
Happens all the time (Score:5, Interesting)
The IETF basically re-engineers the Hotel's network every place they meet. The big difference is, sometimes they get permission to do this before the meeting, and sometimes (as here in Paris), they don't get this permission until after the Hotel's network melts down.
(By the way, I am at the meeting, and I heard that the Hotel's IT head has now been fired. This is not too surprising when one of the major fixes was to turn off
the majority of the access points.)
But but.... (Score:4, Interesting)
Nobody ever got fired for listening to a vendor. They all have your needs and best interest at heart when they quote you the bare minimum you absolutely need to buy.
Re:Happens all the time (Score:2, Insightful)
The access points have been turned back on, but on different channels. The transmit power has been upped to the default value again as well. In the end the best result came from just changing the channels: http://www.ietf.org/proceedings/83/slides/slides-83-iesg-11-ietf-operations-and-administration-plenary.pdf
If the hotel fired the IT guy because he had not provided them with as good a network configuration as a hotel full of IETF engineers did, I think they're going to be surprised when they hear what kind of salary a top notch network specialist can command in Paris. (Their first attempt even made things worse for some attendants! Getting Wifi right for a lot of heavy users is not easy.)
Re:Happens all the time (Score:1)
I suspect that the channel reallocation was the most important change, but the time is too short to test all combinations and determine the impact of each change.
Chris.
Extreme Wifi Makeover (Score:5, Interesting)
I would so watch that show! Every week, they take us to a company to look over their pathetic network and re-do it properly and with moar power. I can see it now...the teary-eyed IT manager is brought in to see his new network...it'd be like Bob Vila for geeks.
Re:Extreme Wifi Makeover (Score:2, Insightful)
I would so watch that show! Every week, they take us to a company to look over their pathetic network and re-do it properly and with moar power. I can see it now...the teary-eyed IT manager is brought in to see his new network...it'd be like Bob Vila for geeks.
Wrong. The Teary-eyed IT manager is fired. And the ensuing publicity is enough to blacklist him for some time.
Re:Extreme Wifi Makeover (Score:2)
Heh, I'm renting a room right now, and pretty much had to do a wifi makeover to get good connectivity in the basement. The signal was very spotty, and it seemed like we would have to reconnect every few minutes if anyone upstairs was also using the signal.
They didn't want to run wires down to the basement, but I found that there was great wifi signal in the wine cellar around the corner. I bought a wifi extender [google.com] to bounce the signal around the corner. It helped a little bit, but my system would still bounce between the repeater signal and the weak access point upstairs every once in a while. I guess the repeaters only work well if you're well beyond the range of the original access point, and I'm sure it was causing more congestion since it was repeating everything on the same channel.
Then I found if I set it to wifi-tether mode and ran a CAT5e cable to my computer, it would work much better than my computer's wifi. With the big antennas, it did a much better job holding on to the weak signal. But the bandwidth still wasn't ideal, was only getting 15Mbps instead of the full 25Mbps.
Also there were more devices we wanted hooked up to wifi, so I ended up setting it up in wifi-tether mode, and ran the long cable to an old wifi access point I had in our area running on a different channel. I'm actually using the old wifi access point as a wifi bridge (it's plugged into one of the LAN ports instead of the WAN port), so it doesn't act as another router hop, and the DHCP / gateway is served directly by the landlord's wifi AP. Not exactly an advertised setup with the wifi repeater, but now all of our devices get a wonderful and stable signal... definitely happy to have this flexible wifi repeater unit in my toolbox.
And in a related story... (Score:1)
And a taste of the prequel... (Score:1)
Imagine using an elevator that required calling security to enable it to go to the top floor, winding around and ducking under giant HVAC equipment in a dust-covered room, and turning on the lights to see a 8-foot high equipment cage. Imagine the staff member using a pallet as a stepping stone to get into said cage. Imagine that the lights are on a timer and go off automatically in 5 minutes, leaving said staff member to try to climb out in the dark. Fortunately, I was there, outside the cage.
It's always interesting when we know things about the facility that the staff doesn't.
That said, both the convention center and the hotel staff have been great to work with, the key has been found--and no one has been fired, as far as I know. Certainly the same folks I've been dealing with are still employed here.
Chris.
Re:And a taste of the prequel... (Score:2)
Re:Wheres the Beef?? (Score:5, Insightful)
Because they are a Hotel, and don't give a shit if their network is flaky. They have been using Microsoft products for more than a decade, so when things sometimes work and sometimes don't, then that is just them darn computers behaving flaky as always.
Re:Wheres the Beef?? (Score:5, Informative)
You know those 802.11 wireless standards implemented in just about every wireless network device in the world? These guys wrote them. Literally. Rest assured they understand what they're doing.
You have a point about future support, but characterizing them as just a bunch of guys with badges who barely have a clue makes you seem ignorant.
Re:Wheres the Beef?? (Score:2)
Re:Wheres the Beef?? (Score:2)
Suggestion to the Hotel... Instead of relying on a bunch of guys with flashy badges talking endlessly about how smart they are, why not just hire a network consulting firm to do a generic network topography and build out the network correctly? The stuff is not rocket science...
That is what they did.. but as we all know.. while it's not rocket science.. there are a lot of "network consulting firm"s that can't do it.
and while some of it was guessing - remember that this isn't "their" network.. and they had no working set to start with and no idea where some of these AP's where.. and again.. it wasn't their job or reason for being there.
in hind site they might want to think about going the way of defcon and bring in their own network to their next get together.
Re:Wheres the Beef?? (Score:1)
in hind site they might want to think about going the way of defcon and bring in their own network to their next get together.
We do. However, most of the time that gear is used for the convention center and not for the hotel. This time we deployed 50 Cisco 1200 APs, 11 24-48-port switches, 9 smaller 8-port switches (mainly for rooms needing multiple wired connections), and two Juniper routers, each connected to a 1Gbps uplink using different paths to the rest of the Internet.
We did consider deploying some of our leftover APs (some 20 more 1200s, and some 1131s that we only use for outlying areas) in the hotel, but there really wasn't time, nor was it practical due to the number of floors (33) and the number of access points already on each floor (10). In Taipei we deployed around 20 APs in the main hotel. Each venue is unique.
Chris.
Re:Wheres the Beef?? (Score:2)
I fully understand that each venue is unique but to come into something like this - and have that many professionals unable to do their jobs, should be considered unacceptable especially for this group of people.
The only real way to avoid this problem is in planning, I understand you plan on the convention center, but you should also plan on the logging. (i made the assumption in my first comment that the conference was being held at at the same place as logging (30+ floor hotels normally can handle conferences of that size)
In the future you should plan ahead for this, not so much in bringing your own hardware (only if you have to) but rather ensure that the venue you select can actually support what you are doing, in this case it couldn't.
Everyone seems to love fixing on the fly, firefighting is glorious, but in reality planners are the people that make things happen. and we are only reading about this because of the failure of planning.
Re:Wheres the Beef?? (Score:2)
Sorry, but I don't think you understand. Planning for IETF meetings now start 3 years in advance. We send people to every hotel months before the meeting, specifically to check out the network. We always ask for permission to modify the hotel network (and, generally we get it). (We just went through a long involved process to convince a future hotel of the benefits of doing this.) The NOC team moves into the hotel a full week before the meeting to set this up. But, even with all of this, shit happens. The IETF stresses really stresses the network, and has a history of uncovering problems.
Re:Wheres the Beef?? (Score:2)
That sounds great - but what is seemingly described here does not reflect what you just said. I understand "shit happens" but what is described here (having to re-config it on the fly without knowing where things are) shows a lack of planning, particularly proper scoping of the facility ahead of arrival.
Re:Wheres the Beef?? (Score:5, Insightful)
No, these guys are really, really good. They know what they are doing, and have been doing it, successfully, for several years. For several years before that, we didn't do so well. These guys have all the tools, and mostly, the experience. They can do it quick, and work within the constraints of the existing system. A regular network consulting company would take a couple of weeks, do a poorer job, insist a lot of new equipment is needed and charge an arm and a leg, which is why the hotel didn't do it. In a few hours they mapped the network, analyzed the configuration, designed a new plan, deployed it, tested it, and made it work. They did it on a product line they had not dealt with before. It was very impressive.
The actual fun issue is: they logged all the original state. They have a tool that maintains the entire configuration. They can leave it in one of two conditions: exactly the way it was before they changed everything, or in the state it is now. The hotel can make that choice.
Re:Wheres the Beef?? (Score:5, Funny)
These IETF dudes sound like the A-Team of IT. They just roll into town, unfuck the network, and are gone just as mysteriously.
Re:Wheres the Beef?? (Score:2)
These IETF dudes sound like the A-Team of IT. They just roll into town, unfuck the network, and are gone just as mysteriously.
I wish they'd roll into ICANN and do the same.
Re:Wheres the Beef?? (Score:1)
http://cavebear.com/index.php?option=com_bookmarks&Itemid=67&mode=2&catid=-1&navstart=0 [cavebear.com]
Search for ICANN.
Chris.
Re:Wheres the Beef?? (Score:2)
Fascinating reading, thanks. It confirms my knowledge of the situation adding much interesting color. However, I can't see any dates in there later than 2003. Might it not be time to revisit the issue, perhaps with more than one guy's efforts (bright and insightful though he may be)?
FYI, this [eff.org] (bottom of the page) doesn't exist. I'll see if I can find it at EFF (they probably moved it in the interim).
Re:Wheres the Beef?? (Score:2)
Beef (Score:3)
The changes made by the IETF makeover team included:
- Decreasing the AP receiver sensitivity ([changing] HP/Colubris configuration "distance" from "large" to "small");
- Increasing the minimum data and multicast rate from 1Mbps to 2Mbps;
- Decreasing the transmit power from 20dBm to 10dBm;
- And, turning off the radios on numerous APs to reduce the [RF] noise.
"In the process, we've hacked netdisco [a network management tool that maps MAC addresses to IP addresses to pinpoint switch ports] to be able to discover the hotel infrastructure and rancid [a free tool that monitors a device's configurations and maintains a history of changes in a Concurrent Version System (CVS) repository] to be able to at least minimally work with HP/Colubris APs, and added their private subnet to our management station to facilitate discovery, scripted changes, and monitoring," Elliott wrote, describing something close to a NOC trouble-shooting system put together on the fly.
Re:83rd meeting? (Score:2)
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the 'Internet' hasn't been around for 83 years. So, how many meetings per year are needed?
In the early days, it was less regimented, and sometimes as frequently as 4 times a year. For the past few decades, it's been a pretty steady spring/summer/fall meeting schedule.
Re:This is unusual? (Score:1)
Awesome vacation. And, no, not unusual, for this crowd.
Chris.