|
|
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
07-18-2007, 12:23 PM | #1 |
Gizmologist
Posts: 11,615
Karma: 929550
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Republic of Texas Embassy at Jackson, TN
Device: Pocketbook Touch HD3
|
Duke University's WLAN suffers a Denial of Service attack ... (NOT) from the iPhone!
In an extremely ironic twist of fate, the wireless network at Duke University has been overwhelmed and crashed by an invasion of Apple iPhones.
Apparently, the iPhones are making massive numbers of MAC address requests (18,000 IP addresses per second or about 10Mbps in bandwidth), and the system can't cope, with as many as 30 nodes at a time reporting themselves “out of service” for 10~15 minutes per incident. During which time, the nodes are completely unresponsive to anything the network techs can do. They're guessing that it may be an issue with the way the iPhones request the MAC addresses -- if they don't get an answer, they just ask again, and again, and .... They're not too concerned just yet, as they're between semesters, so they've got a bit of time to resolve the problem, and are working with Cisco and Apple to that end. But if it's not resolved by the time the fall semester starts ... they seem to feel that would qualify as a "Bad Thing." Source article available here. |
07-18-2007, 01:32 PM | #2 |
Technologist
Posts: 488
Karma: 585237
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: I'm between Cities
Device: SONY Reader PRS-500
|
Wow.
It is amazing how many people's parents can afford to purchase $600 phones for them. Wonder if this will become a chronic problem on other campuses, like the bandwidth being hijacked by students stealing copyrighted material from the interweb a few years back. Of course, all those kids with fancy new gadgets is what keeps technology moving forward, right? ;- |
Advert | |
|
07-18-2007, 01:43 PM | #3 |
Gizmologist
Posts: 11,615
Karma: 929550
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Republic of Texas Embassy at Jackson, TN
Device: Pocketbook Touch HD3
|
And this is just the summer semester. I'm less surprised by it at Duke (It is a private university, right? Or do I just think that?) than I would be at a less upscale (read: expensive) state university, but I expect there will be enough of this problem to go around come September 1st.
|
07-21-2007, 12:20 AM | #4 |
Member
Posts: 19
Karma: 10
Join Date: Feb 2007
|
It should be noted that Duke has retracted it's comment that the iphone caused the outage.
|
07-21-2007, 12:23 AM | #5 |
Gizmologist
Posts: 11,615
Karma: 929550
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Republic of Texas Embassy at Jackson, TN
Device: Pocketbook Touch HD3
|
That's very interesting, indeed, texag -- do you have a reference for that? I'd like to see what they said, exactly.
|
Advert | |
|
07-21-2007, 01:24 PM | #6 |
Member
Posts: 19
Karma: 10
Join Date: Feb 2007
|
|
07-21-2007, 01:26 PM | #7 |
Member
Posts: 15
Karma: 10
Join Date: Jul 2007
Device: Sony eReader (PRS-500)
|
The problem was apparently the Cisco routers--not the iPhone
|
07-21-2007, 11:42 PM | #8 |
Gizmologist
Posts: 11,615
Karma: 929550
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Republic of Texas Embassy at Jackson, TN
Device: Pocketbook Touch HD3
|
Cool. That's a good thing, then. With the number of iPhones headed out into the wild, it could have been bad if it had been them.
|
07-23-2007, 08:13 AM | #9 |
Zealot
Posts: 138
Karma: 12
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: New York USA
|
In related news, Mike Nifong still thinks the iPhone was guilty. ;P
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Denial of Service 5: End of Line. | Steven Lyle Jordan | Writers' Corner | 19 | 11-10-2009 10:58 PM |
Denial of Service 4: L.A. Conspiratorial, or: Only DOS facts, ma'am! | Steven Lyle Jordan | Writers' Corner | 18 | 10-20-2009 01:45 AM |
Denial of Service 3: The Ukrainian Connection | Steven Lyle Jordan | Writers' Corner | 18 | 10-08-2009 03:02 PM |
Denial of Service | Steven Lyle Jordan | Writers' Corner | 50 | 09-20-2009 03:31 PM |
Denial of Service Book 2: Meet the Trojans | Steven Lyle Jordan | Writers' Corner | 25 | 09-19-2009 08:21 PM |