Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2000/02/27/exhibitors_less_than_gruntled/

Exhibitors less than gruntled with CeBIT crash

DT 'nearly overwhelmed'

By Linda Harrison

Posted in On-Prem, 27th February 2000 22:18 GMT

CeBIT 2000 CeBIT 2000, the world's biggest technology fair, had a problem with its technology, this week. Hundreds of exhibitors were left without Web access on their stands following a hardware crash on the show's main telecomms system. Deutsche Telekom was "nearly overwhelmed", according to CeBIT organisers, by the flood of calls from disgruntled exhibitors who were paying through the nose to show off their latest hi-tech offerings. The problem sprang from around 40,000 ATM, ISDN, LAN and Ethernet connections having to be configured in one week. The first time the network was fully tested was 9am Thursday morning - when the show opened. As a result, 160 stands - only around two per cent of CeBIT's exhibitors, but a no-doubt expensive glitch for those involved - were left without Internet services. It took technical teams until 3.30 that afternoon to replace the two crashed DNS servers and get the system up and running again.® CeBIT 2000: Full Coverage