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nlagalle · 19th August 2008, 03:05 PM

Wednesday/Thursday 23rd/24th July.

Our last day of peace and quiet!

We have finally got our network up and running and we have a VPN tunnel back to Australia to handle all our IP phones, email, text and picture flow.

This is when we discover our problems. We have ordered a 10mb leased line and the performance is well under that. we are expecting pictures to take 20-30 seconds to send back and they are taking minutes.

We do some tests to try and nut it our with no success. So we have the network people here to test it all. They claim the link to Australia is the problem, but we are getting pathetic speeds. We also discover that sites are being blocked. This was against a promise made last year that internet access would be unblocked and unmonitored (we'll leave that until a bit later on).

The link speed would be an issue for us for at least the next 10 days. We employed some tricks to speed things up, and we did get our pic times down to 30 seconds in the end. We soon discovered another agency was having the same speed issues as us. so we weren't alone.

This was also the time my mate came up with the first of his phrases. he said it was being slowed down by the Great Firewall of China.

That aside we managed to have the office up and running by the end of the day which put us in front of our schedule. It's a pretty good set up here. we have IP phones connected to our PABX's in Sydney and Melbourne so we can call out back home for nothing. We have a wireless LAN in the office to save on cabling (don't get me started on the hoops we had to jump through to get a license for that!). Our IM client for chatting online and skype works a treat to call home!

My mate has done some good tricks so there is no configuration changes for when people are out of the office. They can plug in anywhere and the internet will work. Our aim is to make it simple and easy for they guys out there and file quickly.

We finish up and headed to Hou Hai (the lake "district" in the centre of Beijing) for dinner. It's a really happening place with so many bars around. We found a place and kicked back near the water for dinner. and kick back in the beer garden again awaiting the arrival or the crew. In the end they arrived at nearly 1am! There was issues at the airport as the name on some of the accreditations was different to their passports (short name on 1 long on the other). They got through ok in the end but it did take some time. To top it off some of the guys were staying at the Media Village were locked out and couldn't get in as it wasn't opening for another 2 days! after some frantic phone calls we got them into our hotel for a couple of nights.

Then we told them the bad news that we had to be up and out of the hotel by 7.30am due to lockdown happening! Needless to say they were happy about that!

Lockdown is where everyone is kicked out of the venue and the bombsquad go over it which a fine tooth comb and seal off each room after it is done. The hotel was first to be swept in the morning and it was off limits until 1.30pm. we sought refuge in our office until we had to leave there too shortly after 9am.

We headed up the road to a little bakery for a coffee.. A few of the guys weren't quite adjusted to the humidity and heat (coming from Melbourne) so we didn't last long there. In the end we were at Ya Show market. having a wander around all the "replica" stuff.. it was my first time in a chinese market and it can be a bit daunting, but you soon get used to it. The bargaining is always fun, and my mate is very good at it. He knows all the steps.. bargain down, walk away etc.. They have an excellent food court upstairs and it cost about $3 for a huge lunch. One thing I have noticed here is unlike most Australian Chinese food, a lot of the dishes we have had have either lots of spices or pepper. Great flavours.. I'm really loving the chinese food here.

After a bit more wandering around we finally jump in a cab and head back to the MPC. We still can't get into the MPC but we can go into our hotel rooms.

Now it all starts getting interesting.. The security is now in full swing. So everyone gets Magged and Bagged. And the metal detector is probably on the highest setting too. So coming back in I set off the metal detector - i never do this at the airports and I have to power up my laptop, phone, PDA, take a swig of my coke, use my hand cleaner and this is after i've been patted down after the wand went over me! I hope they don't keep this up for the next 5 weeks! There will be alot of grumpy people!

We head off for dinner somewhere in town - our translater is a local uni student and she takes us to a restaurant strip in town and we find a place and get a private dining room.. Once again a dirt cheap dinner.. about $15 worth.

Tomorrow is going to be busy getting everyone set up with SIM cards, laptops configured etc.

19th August 2008, 03:05 PM	#5 (permalink)
nlagalle Member Join Date: May 2007 Location: Melbourne Member of: QF SG, DJ, PC Gold, SPG Gold, Rydges Posts: 580	Re: Beijing Olympics 2008 Wednesday/Thursday 23rd/24th July. Our last day of peace and quiet! We have finally got our network up and running and we have a VPN tunnel back to Australia to handle all our IP phones, email, text and picture flow. This is when we discover our problems. We have ordered a 10mb leased line and the performance is well under that. we are expecting pictures to take 20-30 seconds to send back and they are taking minutes. We do some tests to try and nut it our with no success. So we have the network people here to test it all. They claim the link to Australia is the problem, but we are getting pathetic speeds. We also discover that sites are being blocked. This was against a promise made last year that internet access would be unblocked and unmonitored (we'll leave that until a bit later on). The link speed would be an issue for us for at least the next 10 days. We employed some tricks to speed things up, and we did get our pic times down to 30 seconds in the end. We soon discovered another agency was having the same speed issues as us. so we weren't alone. This was also the time my mate came up with the first of his phrases. he said it was being slowed down by the Great Firewall of China. That aside we managed to have the office up and running by the end of the day which put us in front of our schedule. It's a pretty good set up here. we have IP phones connected to our PABX's in Sydney and Melbourne so we can call out back home for nothing. We have a wireless LAN in the office to save on cabling (don't get me started on the hoops we had to jump through to get a license for that!). Our IM client for chatting online and skype works a treat to call home! My mate has done some good tricks so there is no configuration changes for when people are out of the office. They can plug in anywhere and the internet will work. Our aim is to make it simple and easy for they guys out there and file quickly. We finish up and headed to Hou Hai (the lake "district" in the centre of Beijing) for dinner. It's a really happening place with so many bars around. We found a place and kicked back near the water for dinner. and kick back in the beer garden again awaiting the arrival or the crew. In the end they arrived at nearly 1am! There was issues at the airport as the name on some of the accreditations was different to their passports (short name on 1 long on the other). They got through ok in the end but it did take some time. To top it off some of the guys were staying at the Media Village were locked out and couldn't get in as it wasn't opening for another 2 days! after some frantic phone calls we got them into our hotel for a couple of nights. Then we told them the bad news that we had to be up and out of the hotel by 7.30am due to lockdown happening! Needless to say they were happy about that! Lockdown is where everyone is kicked out of the venue and the bombsquad go over it which a fine tooth comb and seal off each room after it is done. The hotel was first to be swept in the morning and it was off limits until 1.30pm. we sought refuge in our office until we had to leave there too shortly after 9am. We headed up the road to a little bakery for a coffee.. A few of the guys weren't quite adjusted to the humidity and heat (coming from Melbourne) so we didn't last long there. In the end we were at Ya Show market. having a wander around all the "replica" stuff.. it was my first time in a chinese market and it can be a bit daunting, but you soon get used to it. The bargaining is always fun, and my mate is very good at it. He knows all the steps.. bargain down, walk away etc.. They have an excellent food court upstairs and it cost about $3 for a huge lunch. One thing I have noticed here is unlike most Australian Chinese food, a lot of the dishes we have had have either lots of spices or pepper. Great flavours.. I'm really loving the chinese food here. After a bit more wandering around we finally jump in a cab and head back to the MPC. We still can't get into the MPC but we can go into our hotel rooms. Now it all starts getting interesting.. The security is now in full swing. So everyone gets Magged and Bagged. And the metal detector is probably on the highest setting too. So coming back in I set off the metal detector - i never do this at the airports and I have to power up my laptop, phone, PDA, take a swig of my coke, use my hand cleaner and this is after i've been patted down after the wand went over me! I hope they don't keep this up for the next 5 weeks! There will be alot of grumpy people! We head off for dinner somewhere in town - our translater is a local uni student and she takes us to a restaurant strip in town and we find a place and get a private dining room.. Once again a dirt cheap dinner.. about $15 worth. Tomorrow is going to be busy getting everyone set up with SIM cards, laptops configured etc. Last edited by nlagalle; 19th August 2008 at 03:12 PM.