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Beer Fridge Caught Interfering With Cellular Network
aesoteric writes "A man's backyard beer fridge in Australia has been busted interfering with the cellular network of major carrier Telstra. Engineers used an internally-developed software 'robot' to crawl log files from the network and sent a field team out to pinpoint the cause of the interference."
It was nice knowin' ya.
Fosters! Australian for beer.
Incidentally, Australian beer fridges have the honor of being among the first commercially successful applications of refrigeration technology(the principles and some early prototypes were developed elsewhere; but Australia's not-exactly-robust ice-harvesting industry didn't imperil the cost effectiveness of the systems in the way that it did in places that actually have ice). Telstra should turn down whatever RF 'noise' the kids are listening too these days and let Grandpop play what he wants!
Irrelevant history aside, what kind of dodgy does a motor have to be to generate enough RF to degrade a cell system in the course of performing relatively modest compression duties for a small refrigerator?
News at 11!
Goodness me, this is like filing a patent about something, except "on the Internet" for all the interest it really provides.
Repeaters are devices used to strengthen weak phone signals. They are not illegal to buy but are illegal to switch on, unless registered with the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).
Isee. So if one is getting shitty service (what else) from their cell phone company and decides to improve the service on their own at their own cast, it's illegal. And you're stuck with the shitty service.
I see.
And if there is interference from other equipment, you have to wait for the day or year that these engineers get around to "fixing" the problem.
I think the people in charge at cell phone companies are folks who were thrown out of the mafia for ethics violations.
I know a little about radio networks, not a massive amount but enough to get by. The fridge must have been somehow sending out a noise signature which was in tune with the radio conditions of the network. That is what I don't understand, a properly designed radio cellular network should operate outside of the range of frequencies put off by a simple compressor motor that would be a in fridge. So now I have to wonder either the fridge was designed in a very strange manor, or the fridge malfunctioned in a very strange manor or the network was poorly designed. Does anyone have more details as to the exact details of what happened? I would be interested in seeing the hardened data from the logs, fridge and network. I call BS that the fridge was the issue until someone can produce hard log data showing this.
You want reliable network performance or ice cold beer? That's a tough question.
"Cases where the owner refuses are referred to the ACMA, and large fines can result."
Australlians are obedient people.
The fact that others can tell you what t do and you have to obey them is infuriating
Do they mean a "program" or do I have to welcome our beer-sniffing, robotic overlords?
This actually happens a lot, especially in social networking startups.
Why can't we have more stories like this? Why does it always have to be something political or an advertisement for a product or the usual MS bashing stories? This title alone is more interesting than any "news" story I've seen on Slashdot in the last year.
We'll start to realise why the sudden jump in cancers and tumors over the last hundred or so years radio has been widespread...
The linked article is far more about the internal 'robot' and very little about the beer fridge. While perhaps the intent of the /. post, I was far more interested in how the beer fridge could have caused such an issue. Thankfully, TFA has a link to another, far more interesting, FA:
It includes an image of said fridge, which looks like something from the 50s/60s (maybe? I don't know, I still have people yelling at me to get off their lawns.) More modern models probably have much better, efficient motors that don't cause this kind of issue.
No mention of the resolution, but I assume it involved unplugging the fridge. (I wouldn't be surprised if he paid more in electricity for that thing per year than just buying a new, medium-sized fridge.)
Did the guy have to repair his fridge at his own expense? Did they repair it for him? It isn't his fault his fridge works for him.
Engineers used an internally-developed software 'robot' to crawl log files from the network.
Seriously? I know it's actually stated that way in TFA, but are people that stupid that they can't simply say "program"? In all likelihood, it's probably a 10-line Perl script. (Said as Perl fan, myself.)
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Slightly related, here are a few threads about radio-based baby monitors causing trouble in the ham bands:
http://www.eham.net/ehamforum/smf/index.php?topic=76680.0
http://forums.qrz.com/showthread.php?310670-Bad-Baby-Monitors-on-50-125-FM
http://www.techzonez.com/forums/showthread.php/23722-HAM-Radio-and-Eavesdropping!!!!-LONG-ONE!
The first and second one are about hams tracking down the problems. The second goes into great detail on how the user of the monitor was busted by the FCC. The third is from a user of a baby monitor going full-retard.
Now I understand why, after I have 20 or 30 beers, why I have such a hard time finding my way home.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
That should be, used an internally-developed piece of software. The word "software," like "hardware" or "clothing" is plural. You have a piece of hardware, a piece of clothing, a piece of software -- not "a hardware" or "a clothing" or (ugh) "a software."
Since when does a log parser (Splunk much?) get such a lofty title of "Robot". I think perhaps they are mistaking it with their call centre staff!!!
At least it wasn't the cellular network interfering with the beer fridge. Could have been a disaster.
Isee. So if one is getting shitty service (what else) from their cell phone company and decides to improve the service on their own at their own cast, it's illegal. And you're stuck with the shitty service.
To play devil's advocate on this one, if doing so can actually further fuck the mobile phone network, then it being illegal isn't such a bad thing.
And people wonder why they are asked to turn off devices on planes!
What I really want to know is what happened to the man's beer. Did Telstra buy him a new fridge or what?
The Fosters Group brewery (formerly CUB) in Queensland still brews it. However on my last trip there they said it's one of their smallest production runs of any product passing through the brewery. It's outdone by all other beers brewed there even by import licence like Guinness, and even Smirnoff Vodka beats it by production volume.
The robot, apparently code-named 'Bender' was apparently not concerned initially until it determined that the fridge contained beer, at which point it flagged this as a priority.
Coopers is one of the few good Australian beers. The factory beers taste like chemicals and the craft beers all taste like a fairy's window box...
As the other AC stated, "Your comment just make(s) no sense"
You DO NOT have enough RF understanding "to get by". Rather, you are firmly in the "knows just enough to be dangerous" camp. AC has already explained in enough detail why cellular sites can't just put up with a wideband noise generator nearby, nor should they, even if they could. The noise source gets the axe. End of story.
BTW, tell us more about this "very strange manor" the fridge was designed in. Is it an Ozzy Osbourne design or something? That could explain a lot.
"How that information is collected isn't mentioned, but "syslog" would be one way."
Each site controller maintains a small mountain of stats - BER levels, the number of dropped calls / handoff failures, busies (no available voice slots), yadda yadda up the ying yang...
These stats are forwarded to the main controller (MSO, etc.) and system operators are supposed to data mine these stats, looking for problems like this. And wouldn't you know it, they actually do just that. The story is a non-story, other then the beer fridge.
http://xkcd.com/1171/
Or maybe because he was breaking the law. Not intentionally, but once notified if he'd continued then he becomes a criminal. According to your logic if he had a weapon, he'd be an armed criminal.
No, somebody mentioning a word which has previously been mentioned in an xkcd does not warrant the includion of the "obligatory" xkcd.
Is 1563649 a prime number?
Beer?
Cellular?
Beer?
c...e...l...l...
b...e...e...r
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
Good post, but slightly off.
The US part is actually part 15b. AC conducted emissions. This is measured conducted via the power cable and also in a semi anechoic chamber. Normally up to 1GHz.
In Australia, you can apply the measurements used for R&TTE, (Europe) This uses the EN 55022 standard. This measures the same like 15b except at 50 Hz at 220v up to 3GHz.
In non digital devices and devices without radios, there is no grant needed. You need only to perform the verification testing and keep that in your compliance folder in case something like in the article happens.
On the other hand, if the fridge had a built in display that can connect to a computer via cable, you would need to have part 15b grant. This would be "certification".
If you see a FCC logo on your device, that means it has either used a DoC (declaration of conformance) or the manufacturer performed the verification testing.
If you see "FCC ID:XXX-YYYYYY", this means that the device has undergone Certification at a FCC approved lab.
...This Baud's For You!
Care killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.
What exactly is a rogue beer fridge? To me that kinda implies malicious behavior, which seems to indicate that we're personifying an inanimate object. I get that it's cool that they made a robot to detect sources of interference on their network, but it's not a freaking crime fighter exacting justice upon an unscrupulous sentient refrigeration device.
Long signatures suck.