Forum

"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers."

Are they really a necessary evil? Even Bill knew the devils in the details.

Chris

Update with a related news story.   Perhaps the real culprit was the venue management:

http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/marriott-fined-600-000-fcc-blocking-wi-fi-n217886

And another story from this morning:

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/03/travel/marriott-fcc-wi-fi-fine/

BTW I really like the "edit/update" button, in addition to the ordinary "reply" button, on the Forums.

Wow, I can't imagine Marriott's lawyers signing off on that (the blocking, not the consent agreement).

-MikeG

Some schools are being affected by the new ban - Austin College for one:

“Any devices brought by students will interfere as the spectrum is fully used by the school’s wireless,” he said. “In the past we’ve used the countermeasures to ‘persuade’ students not to use the devices.”

The above quote is from the article at:

http://www.networkworld.com/article/2692976/wireless/unlawful-wifi-hotspot-blocking-ruling-highlights-academic-it-headaches.html?source=NWWNLE_nlt_wireless_2014-10-08#tk.rss_wireless

Seth,

Sorry your original topic got hijacked.    I hoped the culprits behind your problems would get spooked by all the headlines regarding Marriot.

Howard,

No worries, I enjoy reading all the tangentially related information.

Through the forum, we were able to find someone to catch our competitors in the act, so thank you all for your contributions.

Best,

Seth

Any more details on your situation would be interesting.

Not that you can mention the culprits name yet.

Howard,

Happy to discuss "offline" at any time.

Best,

Seth

(866) 385-150 four x702

Yet another article on this subject, titled:

"Prudence in the Wake of the FCC’s Ruling on Marriott Jamming WiFi"

http://itcblogs.currentanalysis.com/2014/10/08/prudence-in-the-wake-of-the-fccs-ruling-on-marriott-jamming-wifi/#more-3303

While looking for information unrelated to this topic, I found a CWNP Blog Entry from 2011 which discusses some of the same issues.

http://www.cwnp.com/why-my-wlan-hates-your-pan

There was a new article on the Marriot subject on the BBC today; http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-30827706

An investigation by the regulator subsequently confirmed that the hotel was using a wi-fi monitoring system that de-authenticated guest-created hotspots.

This meant that if a guest connected their laptop, smartphone or tablet to either a mi-fi add-on or a hotspot created by a device already linked in to the hotel's internet system, then it would disconnect after a short time.

This seams to suggest that Marriot are not even allowed to stop the installation of rouge Access Points on to their network!

Seams harsh, I can understand stopping them from de-authing MiFi and personal hotspots that are using mobile boardband backhaul.

But then I am not sure how much you can trust the BBC on the finer detail.