Mansur and Najib are the two Internet gurus for the pressroom at the World Trade Organization meeting in Doha, Qatar. And the operative word in the above sentence is "two" as in "only."

And they sometimes eat, and sometimes sleep.

It is times like those when they aren't around, and when security is-and security is always around-that things are a little difficult for members of the fourth estate, or so they said in interviews. Otherwise from a media point of view, things are going well, they said.

Abdulla M. Sadiq, head of the pressroom in the Sheraton convention center said "almost all" of the 808 journalists and technicians who registered have showed up. Add 200 more from Qatar press and you get roughly an even 1,000, he said.

The center provides 30 desktop computers with fast access to the Internet, and several dozen-telephone lines for reporters to use with their laptops to attempt their own Internet connections. Therein lies the rub. The drill is to buy a Q-card from Qtel, the Qatari telephone company, scratch off the cover of the hidden number and use that number to connect to Qatar.net and you're logged in.

"It doesn't work," said Jossef el Alfy, of Egypt, a television producer.

"It doesn't work," said Juliana Licini of Italy, a news agency reporter.

"It takes about an hour and a half to set up," said Hugo Cameron, a newsletter writer. And that was with Sohil's help.

"Basically you have to reconfigure your computer," said an American newspaper reporter who didn't give his name. Also the organizers shut down all the floppy disk drives on the PCs because of reports of a virus, said Sadiq, so using a laptop as a typewriter and the desktops as transmitter didn't work.

"It was a complete disaster the first day," said a press official in the room who didn't want to give his name. "No one could get their stories out. It is getting a little better now." xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"

He's right. On any given afternoon some two dozen reporters plug away at their laptops, connected to their offices. The Japanese journalists said they had almost no problem connecting.

Otherwise reporters battle for the 30 desktops, wait around staring over other reporters' shoulders, camp out on the rich red carpet, smoking despite fire regulations to the contrary, or, if they are fit, take a ten minute walk down to the exhibition center where there are another three dozen machines. They walk down and up because, even for television crews carrying heavy equipment, walking is the only efficient way. If a reporter wants a ride from the Exhibition Center to the Sheraton, he has to take a bus to the Dona Club, a staging area a few kilometers away, and another bus back to the Sheraton.

"The security is hard," said El Alfy. "No, wait, it is not hard. It is ridiculous."

He said on Friday he was 10 meters from the door to exhibition center when he was stopped and told to board a bus, which took him around the Sheraton to another entrance, with the same type of metal detecting device that was at the first door.

"We have to allow at least an hour to get in here," he said. "So that means if someone calls at 3 AM and says he wants a transmission at 4 AM, we say we can't do it."

At night the free, guarded vans supplied by the organizers go from the Sheraton to the Dona Club. From there reporters must attempt, often with difficulty, to get a second ride to their hotels.

On the other hand the access to the diplomats is relatively easy, in comparison with other WTO meetings, according to senior reporters. Delegates pop in regularly for chats with reporters-the Swiss economics minister was in Saturday-and to use the computers.

But if they wanted to check their e-mail, that's another matter.

A reporter for the South China Morning Post, having heard the horror stories about the connections, asked the tweed-jacketed salesman for Qtel, "Does it really work? Can I get connected?"

"Buy a small card, just $15 and find out," he said.