LAN XXVII Wash up List

[BrotherTobious]

Hows the letter coming guys?

[Penfold]

Doing it now.

[Penfold]

What about something like:

Hi Rob

Problems around our last gaming weekend.

As you know we had significant and ongoing problems at our last visit to the OC. The issues surrounding the internet connection and network meant that Thursday, Friday and some of Saturday we wiped out for us defeating the object for what is meant to be a games-based weekend.

We’re really concerned that this problem (which has been intermittent for years now) is going to continue and cause severe problems again in October. This is of particular concern as the October weekend is normally much more heavily subscribed and we have people flying in from all over Europe.

We really enjoy the relationship we have with the hotel, think it works well on both sides and would love it to continue. However we do need to solve these technical issues if we’re going to have to avoid finding somewhere more adaptable for our needs.

Specific issues this time included:

• A break in the network cabling â€" taking Toby hours to find
• The router needed updating
• We couldn’t access the router
• The router kept needed to be rebooted  

Talking to IT Rob, he suggest we get a direct line and router into the Noble Suite. This would certainly help. He also suggested getting a fibre connection for us to use. These are not expensive and would make a big impact for us. Can we please consider that?

We think we need to work together to come up with a mutually-acceptable solution that will enable us to continue to visit you twice a year for the foreseeable future but without the associated problems we always have?
How can we drive this forward?

It's light on the technical stuff as I don't know what I need to say but it's a start....

[smilodon]

I wasn't there so am probably not aware of all the issues. So it's with less than complete confidence that I am going to say that I don't like the angle we're taking on this at all. The Oliver Cromwell is a hotel not a LAN venue. The sort of Internet service we are looking for is not something we'd get for free at any other hotel. So we need to be very careful with our expectations. I'm sure we can get the service we're looking for but not by complaining. Personally I think the tone is to confrontational and sounds like we're giving them an ultimatum.  I don't think we should even suggest that we might move elsewhere at the moment. We need to pitch this more as a problem we have and not something the  hotel is failing to provide. We had a problem, we would like to be able  to fix it. Will the hotel help us?

Again I wasn't there to experience the problem. But as an 'outsider' to the problem it's not how I would approach things.

[Penfold]

That's fair enough but  I guess I'm taking the 'resolve or we'll move' route.

I know we need them probably more than they need us but it was so frustrating for Toby etc that I think we need to make a stand.

[smilodon]

A fair point. But I don't think it was the hotels fault. They aren't advertising that they offer LAN party facilities. If they respond with a 'We don't honestly care about helping you, it's not our concern.' Then maybe we should think about a move of venue. However how we are going to sort out a new venue that charges £50 a night for a double and nothing for the function room is far from certain. I'm worried we might walk away from the Oliver Cromwell due to a fixable problem and end up with no LAN at all.

[TeaLeaf]

How about changing its emphasis a little?

Hi Rob

As you know we had significant problems during our last LAN party and we wanted to work with you to try to ensure that we do not lose Thursday, Friday and half of Saturday at future events.   We have people flying in from all over Europe for our LANs (particularly our autumn LANs), so we need to be able to provide them with the advertised event!

We anticipate that the autumn LAN (LAN XXVIII) will have higher attendance again and in particular have half an eye towards our autumn 2016 LAN party which will not only be our 30th dMw LAN party, but is also the dMw community's 20th birthday and the 25th dMw LAN party to be held at the Oliver Cromwell!  As such, we're expecting a massive turn out for LAN XXX.

In order to make sure everything works when we arrive, it might be sensible to work through a checklist with Rob(IT) prior to our arrival.  Specifically we should cover:

• network cable checks (there was a break in the network cabling last time that took Toby hours to locate and identify as a problem)
• router issues - various as discussed with Rob(IT)

Talking to Rob(IT) he suggested that we get a direct line and router into the Noble Suite (which I believe was what you had in the past prior to your most recent IT change). This would allow you to give us access to the Noble's router configuration without impacting the performance or setup of the hotel's main network.   This would certainly help, but there might be other aspects which would be beneficial, like the fibre connection Rob(IT) suggested getting for the Noble Suite.  These types of changes are not expensive and would have be a hugely positive impact for us.

We really enjoy the relationship we have with the hotel, think it works well on both sides and would love it to continue. However we really don't want to suffer the embarrassment of another LAN like the last one where we lost 2.5 days to network issues.

With this in mind, would it be possible for us to arrange a telephone conference between us and Rob(IT) to agree how best to resolve these problems prior to our next LAN party in the autumn?   We can then work with you to make the event a success.

Please let us know if this is ok and if you could provide us with Rob(IT)'s number and times when we can call him then we can sort out a teleconference and get your and our 'tech-heads' together for a talk!

Many thanks.

Any network detail can be sorted in a chat with Rob(IT).  Rob doesn;t need to know the details, he'll just worry about budget afterwards, so the emphasis should be on identifying the problems and how best to resolve them, which needs Rob(IT) and Toby ont he line at the same time.  

:2cents:

[Penfold]

That looks fine to me.

[smilodon]

Yep looks good.

[Gone_Away]

I dig it..

[Penfold]

OK I'll get his email address and email it on to him and we'll see how he comes back.

[BrotherTobious]

We had anything back from the Hotel?

[Penfold]

No and it's starting to **** me off to be honest.

I sent the email and followed up personally with Belinda who told me she would come back to me but still nothing.

[Penfold]

Apparently they've sorted this or are in the process of and will come back to me this week.

[BrotherTobious]

Thanks Pen