Internet to be allowed at Events

[rich2202]

Seems like some type of internet access will be allowed at events. Tethering through your phone?

Q413 Q. What is the intent of the below bullet for section 4.14 of the Admin Manual? -Do not arrange for Internet access or phone lines on the site or attempt to connect to the Internet.

A. "Do not attempt to connect to the Internet" sound a little harsh, doesn't it? What, are we planning to confiscate everyone's smartphones as they walk in the door? Sorry, this is an antiquated rule, thanks for pointing it out! We'll fix it in Team Update 2015-02-24. What we care about in this context is that teams not make their own phone (sorry dial-up users) or internet arrangements with venues or attempt to use the internet connection intended for the field for their own purposes. All other wireless and networking rules in the manual must continue to be followed, of course.

Maybe I should give the rule book another good read to see what else they may want to update.

[notmattlythgoe]

Sweet, I'm glad this got cleared up. Means we can use an internet connection through a phone or wireless card to pass data from the stands to the pit.

[cgmv123]

Remember that creating your own WiFI access point is still prohibited. Any internet solution absolutely cannot interfere with the field.

[Bryan Herbst]

I would expect any change here to allow you to connect to the internet via your data plan, but I wouldn't expect any changes to the restriction on setting up your own wireless networks.

In other words, you will probably be able legally use your own phone to surf the internet, but you still won't be able to set up an internet connection for your entire team or try to use the venue's WiFi.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Tanis

In other words, you will probably be able legally use your own phone to surf the internet, but you still won't be able to set up an internet connection for your entire team or try to use the venue's WiFi.

Change the bold portion to "field" and I suspect this to be the case--we'll see for sure when the rule is changed tomorrow.

For scouting, this would make it fairly simple to use a remote server--PROVIDED that you could connect through the public wifi or your cell phone data plan. (If there's a venue without public wifi--well, let's just figure that they're behind the times.)

The way I see this reading is this, or something similar: Teams may arrange for phone and Internet access only via existing publicly available networks. Special arrangements for such access directly with the venue are not allowed. Use of field networks and Internet connections is strictly prohibited.

[GaryVoshol]

Originally Posted by EricH

(If there's a venue without public wifi--well, let's just figure that they're behind the times.)

Or it's a District event at a school, and it's restricted.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by GaryVoshol

Or it's a District event at a school, and it's restricted.

True--though I think many such institutions at least try to have some sort of "guest" network these days. Admittedly, it's usually not the fastest connection in the area.

[rich2202]

My guess is that they arrange for the venue to turn off any public wifi, at least for the field/arena area. It is not an internet bandwidth issue, it is a wifi bandwidth issue. If everyone is clogging up the wifi channels, then that will impact the ability of the robots to get their 7 megabits of wifi throughput.

[hardcopi]

We are trying to bring a giant hotspot for the teams at kentwood. So far it seems a go. This is a big unit meant to provide for the arena. It should be run on what ever band they tell us is ok but so far no one has told us no and we are going through the channels. This spot should be able to handle several thousand people. Worse comes to worse we will shut it off.

[pathew100]

See rule T4 in section 5.5.1 of the Tournament section. No wireless access points or ad-hoc networks allowed. This includes smartphone hot spots.

[techhelpbb]

In the past Bluetooth was allowed.
So does this mean Bluetooth tethering is allowed to the Internet on a smartphone?

[Bryan Herbst]

Originally Posted by techhelpbb

In the past Bluetooth was allowed.
So does this mean Bluetooth tethering is allowed to the Internet on a smartphone?

If today's update doesn't address your question, I would ask in the QA.

I would imagine that this will be allowed under the updated rules though. Bluetooth should not interfere with the field in any way, and most teams are out of Bluetooth range of the field anyway.

[hardcopi]

Our network engineer was able to provide wifi too everyone at Kentwood.

Learned a lot. Worked great and didn't interfere with the FMS system at all. We will be running it at St Joe as well and gonna see if they will let us set up at the Michigan Championship as well.

[GeeTwo]

Originally Posted by EricH

True--though I think many such institutions at least try to have some sort of "guest" network these days. Admittedly, it's usually not the fastest connection in the area.

While we don't host an FRC event, our high school (as well as all the others in our parish (county)) does not have a guest login on the in-house wifi - a student or teacher account is required by school board policy.