While the Blue Devils may have their basketball program running like a well-oiled machine, apparently its wireless LAN structure is in dire need of an upgrade. Reportedly, so many Dukies have snatched up iPhones and began using the campus WiFi network to surf on the go that the hordes of requests have been "temporarily knocking out anywhere from a dozen to 30 wireless access points at a time." Cisco, the university's main WLAN provider, has been called in to find out exactly why the overload has brought the network to its proverbial knees, and we'd say they better resolve the problem pronto -- after all, this issue could be magnified immensely with the commencement of the fall semester.

http://tinyurl.com/yvajq3

[Edited on July 17, 2007 at 1:01 PM. Reason : asdf]

7/17/2007 1:00:17 PM

pretty amusing - this will continue to be a problem wherever the wireless network sucks and is open to a large amount of people - usage will only increase

7/17/2007 1:06:13 PM

how does our wireless network rank? do you think this kind of thing could be a problem at state if we had a large number of people with iphones this fall?

7/17/2007 1:12:05 PM

Really? iPhone usage is that much more prevalent than a full load of laptop users? I find that kinda hard to believe.

7/17/2007 1:12:26 PM

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/071607-duke-iphone.html
original article with more details

i'm not very familiar with networking protocols - what's the difference between how the iphone is behaving compared to laptops with wifi? wouldn't even more people have laptops that are polling their wireless network?

7/17/2007 1:12:49 PM

Does the iPhone try to log onto multiple access points at the same time? Is that why they're causing problems were laptop seem to not. I had the same thoughts that El Nachó had.

7/17/2007 1:20:38 PM

Quote :

"how does our wireless network rank? do you think this kind of thing could be a problem at state if we had a large number of people with iphones this fall?"

probably not because you have to authenticate to use the network

7/17/2007 1:28:37 PM

who designed their network

7/17/2007 2:02:27 PM

way to go apple and dookie edu!

7/17/2007 2:20:48 PM

there's only one way to solve this: give the duke students free ipod nanos for their troubles

7/17/2007 2:37:48 PM

^priceless

7/17/2007 2:48:50 PM

A+ thread


why do the phones use so much bandwidth ?

7/17/2007 6:19:40 PM

IIRC, it had to do with overload on the IP/MAC resolution requests, and the iPhone not giving up when it received a failure. Something that can be resolved by an upgrade to the firmware.

7/17/2007 6:31:36 PM

i didn't know Metricula knew anything about technology???

7/17/2007 6:34:32 PM

It warmed my heart to slam Duke, even in a not-slamming sort of way

7/17/2007 8:47:40 PM

Quote :

"Cisco did their hospital stuff, but i assume they did their own university infrastructure, as they're not listed as a customer of our consulting arm."

correct

7/18/2007 2:04:00 PM

I've studied networking, but don't know what you mean when you say flat network.
a little insight?

7/18/2007 4:20:18 PM

it's amazing what you find in the first google search result

A network in which all stations can reach other without going through any intermediary hardware devices, such as a bridge or router. A flat network is one network segment. Large networks are segmented to contain broadcast traffic and to improve traffic within a workgroup. Contrast with segmented network. See broadcast traffic and LAN segment

http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia_term/0,2542,t=flat+network&i=43287,00.asp

7/18/2007 4:30:23 PM

Guys, I have to disagree here... I know some things about Duke's network, and its not flat. In fact, its heavily routed. Not only that, but Kevin is using some pretty crazy MPLS implementations. They dont span much layer 2 (to my knowledge).

Duke uses a mix of primarily (I believe) Cisco's LWAP (thin) access point technology. it basically means that no matter how you scope the wireless subnets, they are going to be tunneled through the network and dump out at a controller. Depending on how you have the controllers deployed, this could mean even a small defined subnet scope could propogate to a large network (since the tunnel traverses the network).

UNC has well over 1,000 access points. We also use LWAP, but we [knock on wood] havent seen this yet.

[Edited on July 19, 2007 at 3:45 PM. Reason : .]

7/19/2007 3:43:38 PM

does the iphone scan out all the access points and hammer them to get a connection?

i guess i dont see how all this is any different than [with a PC] sending out masses of requests to connect on a network and just ignoring the ones that ask for authentication and moving on. thats pretty illegal, and it sounds like the only possible way to cripple a network, unless you have 75000 devices under the same mask and get a nice virus going on

7/19/2007 4:16:24 PM

i find this even more hysterical now that i know what's actually going on


wral was just like "they don't work, hehehe! apple is trying to fix it!"

7/20/2007 6:36:35 AM

Cisco's fault, not Apple's:
http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/2007/07/cisco_apple.html

7/21/2007 11:45:02 AM

Does that mean that this thread has mostly been people talking out of their asses about something of which they know nothing?! I'm shocked.

7/21/2007 12:41:41 PM

^^Reminds me of, "There's a conflict. That's what's causing your computer to crash, not our software. Damn, I'm good!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNEJHpThhH8

7/21/2007 1:38:39 PM

remember this?

http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2007/corp_022107b.html

Quote :

"SAN JOSE & CUPERTINO, Calif. – Cisco® and Apple today announced that they have resolved their dispute involving the "iPhone" trademark. Under the agreement, both companies are free to use the "iPhone" trademark on their products throughout the world. Both companies acknowledge the trademark ownership rights that have been granted, and each side will dismiss any pending actions regarding the trademark. In addition, Cisco and Apple will explore opportunities for interoperability in the areas of security, and consumer and enterprise communications. Other terms of the agreement are confidential."

7/21/2007 2:07:08 PM

Apple: 2
Cisco: 0

7/24/2007 7:42:20 PM

http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/707/cisco-sa-20070724-arp.shtml#vulnerability

7/24/2007 9:29:28 PM