July 08, 2003
O'Reilly Open Source Conference: Tuesday
For a conference full of geeks you'd think they would have the WiFi problems figured out in a matter of minutes, but apparently this is not the case. The wireless network at the conference has been up and down all day, apparently caused by either a rogue network called "oreilly" that is causing a conflict or a hosed DHCP server. No one is sure exactly and I've been unable to track down someone who knows the whole story. All I know is if they don't have the problems sorted out by tomorrow when most of the people show up there may be a spontaneous riot as email withdrawal sets in. It's even more disturbing that I can't even get the DHCP server to assign me an IP number from the hub in the Press Room. Most likely the blame will eventually be pointed to the IT people the hotel hired to set up the network, who likely have little experience dealing with hordes of laptop-wielding geeks demanding WiFi access points.
Posted by Cameron Barrett at July 8, 2003 05:23 PMThese are classic symptoms of a rogue DHCP server on the network. Find it, unplug it and your problems will be resolved. I ran into this before, one thing you can do to "steal" an IP is by hardcoding your IP under the correct subnet right in your system's settings. Typically it helps if you know this IP was previously working on the net.
Posted by: Nick at July 8, 2003 05:35 PM
It looks like they might have solved the problem. Some people connected directly to the hubs are broadcasting temporary WiFi networks and sharing their bandwidth.
The official "oreilly" WiFi access point also seems to work now, but is a little slow - probably due to the amount of people connected to it.
Three cheers for bandwidth!
Posted by: Cam at July 8, 2003 06:06 PM
