Meeting network and technology

We use a variety of technologies to support meetings which we recommend participants are familiar with to get the most from the meetings.

Meetecho participation tool

All meeting participants, both onsite and remote, need to use Meetecho in order to participate in an IETF Meeting. This is used for:

  • Watching the in-room video, remote participant video and presentations (these are also displayed on screens in sessions)
  • Accessing session materials
  • Participating in the session group chat
  • Joining the queue to speak
  • Recoding your attendance in a session
  • Responding to a poll called by the chairs.

Meetecho is WebRTC based and runs in any browser. There is a separate cut-down version that works on mobile browsers. The following guides are available:

Meeting networks

The dedicated IETF Network Operations Center (NOC) team works with meeting venues before and during each meeting and hackathon to engineer and deploy a network free and unfiltered WiFi in every venue that it visits and the main hotel, advertising a number of different SSIDs with different features. Please see Meeting Network Information for full details.

Meeting rooms

WiFi (802.11 a/g/n/ac/ax) is provided throughout the meeting venue on 2.4 and 5GHz bands with IPv4 and IPv6. Most users should choose the 'ietf' SSID, using the following authentication:

user: ietf
password: ietfietf

A dedicated ethernet cable is provided for the use of session chairs in each IETF meeting room.

Guest rooms and public space WiFi

The IETF NOC team works with IETF meeting hotels to provide guest room access to the IETF meeting network using the hotels' existing wifi networks via the 'ietf-hotel' SSID.

External connectivity

IETF meeting networks have redundant, multi-gigabit connections provided by sponsors for each meeting location. See the main meeting page for each meeting's sponsor details.

Additional information and support

Please see the IETF NOC website, updated just before each IETF meeting, for detailed information about the meeting network.

During IETF meetings, report issues with the IETF meeting network by sending email to: support@ietf.org

Webex conferencing

For some interim meetings and side meetings, we use Webex. The following guides are available:

Zulip group chat

The group chat inside Meetecho is Zulip, which is also available in dedicated desktop or mobile clients.

The IETF Zulip server (zulip.ietf.org) authenticates you using your IETF Datatracker credentials. Datatracker accounts can be created for free.

To send messages to, or view archives for, a particular stream, you must be subscribed to the stream. You can browse streams by name, which typically match the acronym for the IETF group to which it relates.

For general chat and nonspecific conversations, subscribe to the IETF Hallway stream.

Please note that all group chat message on our server are subject to the Note Well.

Online Gather community space

The IETF has a persistent online meeting space and we encourage the IETF Community to use this space to socialize or meet informally.

Please be advised that conversations in the IETF Gather are subject to the Note Well.

The space is established on the Gather.Town collaboration platform, which uses peer-to-peer WebRTC to share audio and video. Prior to joining Gather for the first time, we strongly recommend you review Gather’s documentation. Please use Chrome or Firefox as your browser (or download the Desktop app).

The persistent space can accommodate a handful of individuals at anyone time. IETF groups interested in using the space for a planned event with more participants should contact the IETF Secretariat at least a week in advance.

Need help?

If you need any help with meeting technology then please send an email to support@ietf.org.