CRT runs WiFi Hotspots at all of NAR’s yearly conferences. At the latest conference (The Leadership Summit in Chicago) we had a great setup. Excellent location- adjacent the ballroom, a great view of the Chicago river and tasteful decor. Because the area looked so nice I made an extra effort to keep our already small form factor technology hidden.
Our display table had our brochures, full page hand-outs, 22″ LCD display, Mac Mini with Bluetooth mouse/keyboard and a white tablecloth to complete a clean functional look. I was feeling very satisfied.
Next, I had to place the most important technology used at our Hotspot; the WiFi access point. Unfortunately the network drop was right near the elevator. This meant the access point was going to be in full view. All of my careful design work was for naught! Thankfully Humphrey, a tech manager at the hotel had an idea. They would run a cable from the drop to a large potted plant. I could hide the access point under the fluffy mulch! Design faux paus averted. Now all I had to do was settle in and provide support for the Hotspot (which requires very little as our members are becoming quite adept with the latest computer technologies).
The first two days went well. We had many users and there were few problems. I showed up the third day expecting the same. But it wasn’t the same, our access point was off the air! I quickly changed gears and donned my super tech sleuth hat. I don’t actually have a super tech sleuth hat, for some reason I can’t get Mark to approve the purchase. Anyway, I first checked my laptop for problems because it had been acting up.
Everything seemed fine. Then I walked over to someone in the Hotspot seating area pecking away at his laptop and asked if he was able to connect; he wasn’t. Hm, I thought, I really need that hat. Ah ha! I’ll see if NetStumbler (a software tool that detects wireless networks) can detect it, It can detect anything. No luck.
Finally I trudged over to the plant to see if the access point was plugged in. it was. I visually inspected it and low and behold no lights! I picked it up and water poured out. It had been watered. Apparently the gardener failed to notice the multiple cables and flashing LED’s and poured a large amount of H2O on our Access point and its companion plant. Thankfully I had a backup access point and the Hotspot was back up in no time, plus I learned a valuable lesson. All of my technical knowledge and preparation are useless against a gardener on a mission.
