Visitors to Internet Week (iWeek) this week report that there were some technology mishaps involving the conference`s WiFi hotspot in Houghton, Johannesburg, this week. The communications hiccups included a denial of service attack and accidentally disconnected equipment.
The hotspot was set up by M-Web. Sentech provided the bandwidth and D-Link the networking equipment.
"Whichever [the origin of the errors], the network appears to be working today," said one subscriber to the IOZ.WiFi list, where iWeek delegates aired their complaints. According to several postings, equipment errors complicated the problems, which, according to the Internet Service Providers` Association (ISPA), further combined human error and an infected PC.
Ant Brooks, head of regulatory at ISPA, cited routing problems on the Sentech link, a worm on one of the Internet caf'e machines producing an internal denial of service attack, someone tripping over a cable and disconnecting the WiFi hub from the router in the Internet caf'e, and the event caterers 'tidying up` an antenna.
Brooks says M-Web offered to provide connectivity and a hotspot for the event. "However, both Sentech and D-Link have worked very hard to solve all the technical problems as quickly as possible, and their efforts are appreciated."
ITWeb was unable to confirm details of the errors in time for publication with ISPA or M-Web, beyond public postings by the organisers on the IOZ.WiFi list.
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