– By Joaquim P. Menezes- The Wi-Fi network at Duke’s University has been clogged following a volley of requests for MAC (Media Access Control) addresses, NetworkWorld is reporting.The IT folk at the Durham, N.C. campus believe “rogue” iPhones are responsible for the problem.They say that built-in Wi-Fi chips from several iPhones are flooding the university's Cisco access points.As there are apparently around 150 iPhones on campus, the impact is quite significant – as anywhere from a dozen to 30 wireless access points are being knocked out at a time.Right now, though, the issue is more of an annoyance than a huge problem at Duke’s, as most students are on summer break outside the campus.But, according to a senior IT official at the university, from August to May the wireless net is critical. Also, he says, if a good number of students return with iPhones this could exacerbate the problem.The university’s IT folk are ascribing the problem to the iPhone, rather than Cisco’s equipment, or their network configuraiton.This, admittedly, does sound odd – given that no other such instances of iPhone-triggered Wi-Fi problems seem to have surfaced so far – though this is still “early days” for the device.So far, it seems, we have more questions than answers.For instance, if the issue is traced to the iPhone, could it be a malfunction with one or a few units that are on campus – or is there some more fundamental defect with the device itself?A lot of theories are being advanced about what could be causing the problem.Another hypothesis is that the root of the issue is a poor Apple implementation of a proposed IETF standard, a set of steps called Detecting Network Attachment for IPv4 (DNAv4).Do you have a theory? Share it with us.
