Were they actually jamming the signals?
I imagine that a contract that says, "You won't run a hotspot, and if we catch you doing it, we'll kick you out" would be fine. But actually jamming the radio signals would not be.
I imagine that a contract that says, "You won't run a hotspot, and if we catch you doing it, we'll kick you out" would be fine. But actually jamming the radio signals would not be.
They weren't using a radio jammer, but using techniques just like were described in the article. We tried getting our gear setup and couldn't get anything working, even trying to use Internet connection sharing over Wifi between a Macbook and an iPad right next to each other wouldn't work. Until we got a hold of the network engineer for the convention and got him to whitelist our MAC addresses on their own APs. Then all of a sudden all our gear sprang to life. He told us they were looking for rogue APs and were sending frames to their clients to disassociate. If you were an attendee and not an exhibitor you could use the free public WiFi that was available. But we were warned that was far too flaky to use for product demos and would require re-registration every hour.
We also had to use commercial grade APs (like Cisco, Aruba, etc.) that could have the signal strength turned way down so it wouldn't bleed too far out of our booth. The WiFi APs at your local Staples don't usually have this option; they only boost the signals, not lower them.
They have no authority to be able to interfere with your use of spectrum, just as you have none to interfere with theirs.
i think if a teenager did it to the Marriot then a closest DA or an FBI office would be immediately having the teenager on "unauthorized access" at minimum if not on some nice terrorism charge
Congratulations, first DDOS of a geographical site instead of a virtual one. :P
Note: This is kinda a dick move because you're probably screwing over the customers more than you are the IT douchebags. Maybe a better plan is to find the Marriott headquarters, mockup a visitor badge, and do it there.