IPhones Flooding Wireless LAN At Duke

coondoggie sends us to a Network World story, as is his wont, about network problems at Duke University in Durham, N.C. that seem to be related to the iPhone. "The Wi-Fi connection on Apple's recently released iPhone seems to be the source of a big headache for network administrators at Duke. The built-in 802.11b/g adapters on several iPhones periodically flood sections of the school's wireless LAN with MAC address requests, temporarily knocking out anywhere from a dozen to 30 wireless access points at a time. Campus network staff are talking with Cisco, the main WLAN provider, and have opened a help-desk ticket with Apple. But so far, the precise cause of the problem remains unknown. 'Because of the time of year for us, it's not a severe problem,' says Kevin Miller, assistant director, communications infrastructure, with Duke's Office of Information Technology. 'But from late August through May, our wireless net is critical. My concern is how many students will be coming back in August with iPhones? It's a pretty big annoyance, right now, with 20-30 access points signaling they're down, and then coming back up a few minutes later. But in late August, this would be devastating.'" So far, the communication with Apple has been "one-way."

Re:sigh

[Icarus1919]

Hey guys, no breaking the fourth wall!

Re:Interesting problem

[Icarus1919]

That's preposterous. Summer is when teachers return to their coffins to rest. Who would the students learn from?

No wonder

[marcosdumay]

"So far, the communication with Apple has been "one-way."

No wonder there is no answer... Apple people weren't able to receive any network package with all those iPhones around.

HOWTO please

[Nikron]

I want to request a mac address from my access point. Anyone want to post a HOW-TO?

Re:No wonder

[User 956]

"So far, the communication with Apple has been "one-way." No wonder there is no answer... Apple people weren't able to receive any network package with all those iPhones around.

Communication with Apple is always "one way". Or the highway.

Re:sigh

[slamb]

coondoggie sends us to a Network World story, as is his wont,

At least the editors admit that coondoggie is filling the queue up with network world stories. Maybe they'll do something about it at some point

You're setting the bar too high. I'm impressed that they correctly used the word "wont".

Re:sigh

[HTTP Error 403 403.9]

"18,000 address requests per second"

It's like me at the discotheque on Saturday night.

Re:HOWTO please

[flyingfsck]

Well, it is an Apple device - of course it would request a Mac address.

Re:Taking out Cisco Router with ARP Floods?

[RealGrouchy]

Smells like a spanning tree loop to me.

Oh, sure. Blame it on Tarzan!

- RG>

Re:Interesting problem

[StikyPad]

anti [answers.com]
ante [answers.com]
auntie [answers.com]

Re:sigh

[ls671]

common, never ask for addresses, it's eitheir tonight (preferably right away) or never. Be proud ;-)

Re:Interesting problem

[winomonkey]

Isn't the term "zombie" a little bit redundant?

Re:MAC address REQUEST?

[itwerx]

No wireless hardware requests a MAC address.

But the iPhone is from Apple, of course it would ask for a Mac address! Heck, they should be glad it didn't ask for a Mac-II address, things would be twice as bad!
(You can do the math for a Mac-IIcx :)

All your base...

[Ecuador]

But that's exactly the problem. The iPhone handshakes with a "How are you gentlemen." and asks for a MAC address, at which point the WLAN's response is "What you say !!" and it goes downhill from there...

Re:Well tested

[Anonymous Coward]

...using 802.11g and 802.11n. I don't see how other hardware could cause a problem with such a standard.

Re:All your base...

[Anonymous Coward]

All your wireless access points are belong to us!!!11!1

Well actually..

[BlackCobra43]

He probably meant "adress request" as in "Your place or mine?"

Least I hope he did, or he was really missing out!

Re:Well tested

[bberens]

Well, obviously the Airport access points will give the iPhones MAC addresses as the summary suggests... unlike most brands of access points. =)

Re:Critical?

[elrous0]

I'd love to hear that help desk phone call at Apple:

Student: I'm at Duke and my iPhone's wifi just stopped working.
Apple rep: I'm sorry sir, but Apples just work
Student: Yeah, well mine isn't just working right now!
Apple rep: Sir, do you BELIEVE in the power of Steve?
Student: The what?
Apple Rep: Sir, maybe if you had more faith in Steve, you wouldn't be having problems...
Student: Look, I just want my damn phone to work.
Apple Rep: Then I think you need to attend our Apple Reaffirmation Camp
Student: Will it help get my wifi signal back?
Apple Rep: No, but it will help you get your FAITH back, and stop questioning the infallability of Apple products
Student: Um, okay. Anything to get my smug sense of superiority back.

Re:Interesting problem

[Random832]

Don't you mean the Dynamic DHCP Protocol?