Comment Avoid consumer-grade gear. (Score 2) 251

by djihz on Friday August 05, 2011 @09:34PM (#37003664) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Overcoming Convention Hall Wi-Fi Interference?

I have been setting up wired and wifi networks in trade shows for 10+ years now.
Welcome to wifi Hell :)

I do not think achieving 100% reliability is a sane goal in that context, but I found that there are simple ways to greatly improve the odds.

> Consumer-grade routers / AP are no good. They often do a fine job, and they always give up quickly.
In my view, using small-business equipment is a better way to go : still affordable, and a lot more resilient.
For about 400 $ you should be able to find a basic gateway and access point (new - I'm thinking sonicwall / netgear prosafe / hp pro curve...)
And if it matters, you still have web-based interfaces available to configure them.

> Use fixed ip when possible. Avoid encryption if you can, avoid wep if you can't.

> Reserve the network for your demo gear. If you also have to provide internet access to people working on the booth, use a separate network/gateway (your current linksys/d-link/... router might do the trick if less critical).

> Also : wired.
Not an option for your whole setup as I understand, but maybe part of it.

I am no sysadmin/network admin/whatever so this is basic stuff, but works for me on a regular basis in your exact predicament.
Hope this helps, and good luck to you.

GSM Association Slams Euro Call For Ban On Wireless In School 271

Posted by Soulskill on Monday May 16, 2011 @07:24PM from the don't-cloud-this-issue-with-facts dept.

jhernik writes "The ongoing debate over the supposed dangers posed by mobile phone usage and wireless signals has exploded once again. An influential European committee has called for a ban on mobile phones and Wi-Fi networks in schools – the GSM Association has denounced the report as an 'unbalanced political assessment, not a scientific report.' The report made its recommendation to reduce mobile and wireless use in schools, despite admitting that there is a lack of clear scientific and clinical proof. However, it said the lack of proof was reason enough to restrict use, just in case, comparing mobile phone radiation to other things whose dangers were once unknown, such as asbestos, leaded petrol and tobacco."

Submission + - Dropbox Attempts to kill Open Source Project (razorfast.com)

Submitted by Meskarune on Monday April 25, 2011 @11:32PM

Meskarune writes: Dropbox is trying to kill the Dropship project, A useful program that allows users to import files into their accounts using hashes and bypassing the need to make files public. Dropbox sent out fake DMCA requests to all parties involved, and is banning and censoring the program.

Comment from forums.dropbox.com : (Score 1) 333

by djihz on Wednesday April 20, 2011 @03:38PM (#35885118) Attached to: Dropbox Can't See Your Dat– Er, Never Mind

In our help article we state that Dropbox employees aren't able to access user files. This is not an intentionally misleading statement -- it is enforced by technical access controls on our backend storage infrastructure as well as strict policy prohibitions. The contents of a file will never be accessed by a Dropbox employee without the user's permission. We can see, however, why people may have misinterpreted "Dropbox employees aren't able to access user files" as a statement about how Dropbox uses encryption, so we will change this article to use the clearer "Dropbox employees are prohibited from accessing user files".

Thread here : http://forums.dropbox.com/topic.php?id=36835

Poor choice of words indeed.

Tim Berners-Lee Is Sorry About the Slashes 620

Posted by Soulskill on Wednesday October 14, 2009 @08:09AM from the as-long-as-he's-proud-of-the-dots dept.

Stony Stevenson writes "A light has been shone on one of the great mysteries of the internet. What is the point of the two forward slashes that sit directly in front of the 'www' in every internet website address? The answer, according to Tim Berners-Lee, who had an important role in the creation of the web, is that there isn't one. Berners-Lee revisited that design decision during a recent talk with Paul Mohr of the NY Times when Mohr asked if he would do any differently, given the chance. 'Look at all the paper and trees, he said, that could have been saved if people had not had to write or type out those slashes on paper over the years — not to mention the human labor and time spent typing those two keystrokes countless millions of times in browser address boxes.'"

How GNOME and KDE Spend Their Money 167

Posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday September 17, 2009 @09:46AM from the they-balance-their-budget-in-windows dept.

bluescarni writes 'A side-by-side analysis of GNOME's and KDE's quarterly reports sheds some light (and dispels some myths) on the nature and the quantity of the funds of the two projects.'

Technical Specs Released For Aussie Net Filtering 231

Posted by timothy on Wednesday December 03, 2008 @05:41PM from the for-a-limited-time-only dept.

smallkathryn writes "Technical specifications have just been released for the Australian net filtering trial. The trial, which aims to prove that ISP-level filtering is a viable way to stop 'unwanted content' from reaching users, will go live on 24 December. The trial will involve ISPs choosing a commercially available hardware filter from an internet content filter (ICF) vendor, adding it to their networks, then loading the blacklist of unwanted sites. Still no indication of how peer-to-peer information will be addressed."

Irish GSM Providers Asked to Track Users' Web Use 102

Posted by timothy on Sunday November 09, 2008 @04:01AM from the jes-keepin'-an-eye-an-ye-boy-oh dept.

With the disclaimer "I'm both Irish and work for the EU Commission," reader VShael writes "The head of the Irish police force has requested that Irish cell phone providers (Vodafone, 02, Meteor, 3) retain detailed information on the web pages that people view over their handheld devices. This information would be held over for 'possible future criminal investigations', but would be gathered without a warrant, probable cause, or without the citizen being suspected of a crime. This request goes way beyond the European Union's data retention directive, which never included retention of web-based email. Representatives of Vodafone, O2 and 3 discussed the letter at a meeting with Mr Davis (6th November 2008) and questioned the legal basis under which they could retain this data. It is their understanding that the content of calls or e-mails, or details on webpages browsed, are excluded from the EU directive. As such, any retention or disclosure of that information would be a violation of existing EU data protection legislation."

RIAA Litigation May Be Unconstitutional 281

Posted by timothy on Wednesday October 29, 2008 @05:05PM from the what-about-ritchie-chaz-and-margot? dept.

dtjohnson writes "A Harvard law school professor has submitted arguments on behalf of Joel Tenenbaum in RIAA v. Tenenbaum in which Professor Charles Nesson claims that the underlying law that the RIAA uses is actually a criminal, rather than civil, statute and is therefore unconstitutional. According to this article, 'Nesson charges that the federal law is essentially a criminal statute in that it seeks to punish violators with minimum statutory penalties far in excess of actual damages. The market value of a song is 99 cents on iTunes; of seven songs, $6.93. Yet the statutory damages are a minimum of $750 per song, escalating to as much as $150,000 per song for infringement "committed willfully."' If the law is a criminal statute, Neeson then claims that it violates the 5th and 8th amendments and is therefore unconstitutional. Litigation will take a while but this may be the end for RIAA litigation, at least until they can persuade Congress to pass a new law."

Microsoft Announces Windows Azure, Cloud-Based OS 419

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday October 27, 2008 @08:24PM from the do-you-feel-azure-after-use dept.

snydeq writes "Microsoft today introduced Windows Azure, its operating system for the cloud. The OS serves as the underlying foundation of the Azure Services Platform to help developers build apps that span from the cloud to the datacenter, to PCs, the Web, and phones. Cloud-based developer capabilities are combined with storage, computational, and network infrastructure services, which are hosted on servers within Microsoft's global data center network."

Mozilla Admits Firefox EULA Is Flawed 312

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday September 16, 2008 @01:25PM from the sudden-outbreak dept.

darthcamaro writes "Mozilla has now come around and is taking seriously the concerns of Ubuntu and others about the Firefox EULA, which we discussed vigorously the other day. In fact Mozilla told InternetNews.com that the EULA itself is flawed and will be replaced with something else. Quoting Mozilla Chairperson Mitchell Baker from the article: 'There is a need for something, something to explain the license[.] I'm not sure I would call it a EULA because that has a meaning to many people of adding restrictions to software and we won't be doing that. We'll be having a license agreement much as Red Hat has a license agreement that says the software is available under the GPL and don't use our trademarks et cetera. So we'll have a license agreement but we won't think of it as a EULA.'"

Slashdot Top Deals