John D. Mitchell's Blog

Why can't I WiFi?!?

Hmm... Java Everywhere and Mobility have been pushed at us all week long. Great. So then, why isn't there ubiquitous, open access wifi throughout the conference? There's a handful of private networks that are available in various areas but nothing at all in most of the conference rooms.

Not a very coherent message that the Java community is leading the technology world. :-(

Comments

• wifi
  Last year Wi-fi was everywhere but then again Sun was selling the Zaurus with an optional network card. Seems like they'll only offer the convience if it is connected with a product they are pushing or a vendor partnership that is improtant to them.
  In today's economic condition it's hard to complain too loudly.

  Posted by: terrybone on June 13, 2003 at 02:01 PM

• WiFi is available around the conference
  I used WiFi every day at the conference.
  There were some areas where I didn't
  find sufficient coverage, but many others
  provided a very strong signal.

  My suggestion for next year: Warchalkers
  indicating where the signal is good. Let's
  go Java.net community, make it happen!

  PS Yes, I work for Sun, but I want my WiFi
  the same as everybody else. :-)

  Posted by: billday on June 13, 2003 at 05:39 PM

• WiFi is available around the conference
  It's not just a question of signal coverage but of open access. I too was able to get to a wireless connection buts that just because I had access to one of the private networks.

  Posted by: johnm on June 13, 2003 at 07:13 PM

• It was way too popular...
  I wondered about this too so I tracked down the guy responsible for the WiFi at JavaOne this year, Dale (co-constructor of the trebuchet with James Gosling). I told Dale that while I'd had pretty good coverage in the Pavilion (where there were apparently around 90 different WiFi networks set up by exhibitors), it had been much harder to get access elsewhere on site.

  He told me that he set up WiFi as widely as possible on site, including the concourses, lobbies and pavilion, but that the connections he set up (the SSID sunnetwork) were soon maxed out as WiFi ws in much greater demand than last year. He also told me that the WiFi in the General Session had to be turned off in all but Scott's keynote as it was clogging up the net connection used by the on-stage demos. Access on the rest of the site was patchy because of the construction of the building, and certainly would need a much more focussed approach next year if there were to be access in the meeting rooms.

  Dale said they had learned a lot from providing access at JavaOne this year - I'm betting that access at the Sun Network conference later in the year will prove to be even better than at JavaOne.

  Posted by: webmink on June 14, 2003 at 01:26 PM

• It was way too popular...

  Great! Thanks for the info.
  

  Posted by: johnm on June 15, 2003 at 09:07 PM

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