Duke reports Wi-Fi trouble with the iPhone
Were the iPhone designers North Carolina fans?
Network World is reporting that Duke University's Wi-Fi network is suffering from what appear to be rogue iPhones. Duke's Kevin Miller told Network World that the iPhone's Wi-Fi chips are flooding the university's Cisco access points with requests for MAC (Media Access Control) addresses. This is apparently knocking out dozens of access points as the 150 iPhones on campus wander around between different hotspots.
The Blue Devils are dealing with Wi-Fi problems, and they think the iPhone is to blame.
(Credit: Duke University)It seems a bit weird to me. No other reports of trouble with iPhones and Wi-Fi networks have surfaced, though of course it's very early in the iPhone's tenure on the planet and this may prompt others to come forward. Duke IT employees seem to think it's a problem with the iPhone, as opposed to a problem with Cisco's equipment or their network configuration. My colleague and resident networking expert Maggie Reardon contacted Cisco, but a company representative said Cisco couldn't comment at this time. An e-mail to Apple was not immediately returned.
We'll follow up on this one as we learn more about what might be causing the problems at Duke, still reeling from its first-round loss to Virginia Commonwealth in the NCAA tournament last spring. Perhaps its bitter rivals at the University of North Carolina are playing an MIT-style prank on the Dukies, but the university is genuinely worried about networking problems when students return to campus over the next month or so.
Tom Krazit writes about the ever-expanding world of Internet search, including Google, Yahoo, online advertising, and portals, as well as the evolution of mobile computing. He has written about traditional PC companies, chip manufacturers, and mobile computers, spending the last three years covering Apple. E-mail Tom. 
I guess they don't have problems when people open their laptops?
Apple fanatics can't have it both ways. They need to accept that the Zune has moderate sale figures and I have met a few people who have bought one that openly made it apparent that they had one; not by having white earbuds in their ears like iPod owners. But by saying that they had one and were looking for accessories for it, or saying that they wanted to buy a different color than her brother.
But reguardless of how many Zune users there are, it could not possibly be the reason for the problem at Duke. The Zune does not connect to access points or to the internet, they only connect to one another. Therefore, they cannot be the problem with Duke's network.
WITH APPLE
The story sounds a bit suss.
Sounds like it's doing something like this:
It connects to one wi-fi router, gets on the network fine, then the user wanders closer to another wi-fi router, and the iPhone then goes into a panic trying to request the MAC address of an IP address that no longer exists, as far as the new router knows... this floods the network with about 10Mbps of noise. The panic apparently stops when the user wanders back into the range of the first wi-fi device.
They don't appear know for sure where the IP address is coming from, or why the iPhone wants that IP's MAC so badly, but it IS requesting a MAC, and it IS a design irregularity on iPhone's end, at least according to other articles... (Google: "Duke iphone" for lots of detail.)
Because when people post like previous posters here, they just look very stupid, to those of us that work, live and breath this stuff eberyday.
Besides, wait for a second gen or a good software update from Apple. Besides they need to enable flash natively so people don't have to mess around with tweaks and fixes to get something so simple and prevalent on the web.
And for all iPhonies out there...better hope that Apple opens up their phone and you are able to carry it over to another network. Otherwise you are stuck in AT&T hell. I've said it before and after launch that iPhone will be causing congestion problems on AT&T network. I've tried to switch to them only to get very poor data connection no matter where I was, even in their fully covered areas such as D.C. Besides having that issue you could run into other "billing" issues or something something.
Not to mention you have to send the phone in to replace the darn battery. Apple needs to learn. It's one thing for your MP3 player to die out on you b/c of battery, it's another when it's your phone and you have to wait for repair. Yes, you can get the loaner while you wait but at the current price that will cost ya good $150, at least. Enjoy your phone.
had one problem with slow data transfer, nor have I ever had any
billing problems. The one time there was a miscommunication
about a feature of the plan I was on, they were very quick to help
me out, and even credited back my account since it was their
mistake.
I have an iPhone. I'm also in school... funny how Duke has these
problems, but other schools don't... There's at least 150 iPhones
running around my campus, with no problems expressed by the
school.
All in all, I think your predictions about the iPhone are pretty off
base... Sorry, I just don't see them happening at all...
throw your sim card back into an old phone if you want
As a systems admin for the company I work for we have seven iPhone users including myself. This is growing everyday.
I cannot believe the dribble that some people write when they have no foundation for their argument. Especially this poster I am replying too. I administrate multiple buildings and networks across vast buildings. Since we moved into these buildings just over a year ago, all of our Cisco gear is still pretty new and current.
None of us have this issue, and we have Wi-Fi everywhere, multiple subnets, I assure you allot more complex that what Duke has and we do not have these problems, none, period.
Please do not post your dribble when you have no idea what you are talking about.
The problem?s related to most of the issues the phone is having is user error plain and simple. I know all of my users don?t have an issue and my iPhone does not have any issues at all. Updates will come from Apple soon.
Please go back to using your malware, viri, infected Microsoft product and leave the intelligent conversation to the rest of us.
your make your pithy witicisms.
http://listserv.educause.edu/cgi-bin/wa.exe?
A2=ind0707&L=wireless-lan&P=2182
- Duke clears iPhone - it was Cisco
- by bigbwai2000 July 20, 2007 5:42 PM PDT
- The latest from Duke is that it's Cisco's network, and not iPhone,
- Reply to this comment
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- straight from Duke
- by scweezil July 20, 2007 6:27 PM PDT
- http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/2007/07/cisco_apple.html
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(35 Comments)that caused the problem, which is now fixed.
http://www.computerworld.com/comments/node/
9027279#comment-13586
Well I guess this story will now get buried.