Duke University: home to world's largest 802.11n wireless network

We know, most of you Blue Devil fans are still reeling from that recent loss to Wake Forest, but if it's any consolation, at least your campus is about to become home to the "world's largest" 802.11n wireless network. Last we heard, The Ohio State University held the crown for Earth's biggest WLAN with 1,700 access points lit, but according to Cisco, Duke's campus will soon house 2,500 Aironet 1250 Series APs. The installation will leave more than six million square feet of central North Carolina blanketed in WiFi, and will supposedly be the "largest planned 802.11n wireless network in the world by any organization to date." Watch out, Dukies -- we hear those folks in Chapel Hill have a thing for swiping unsecured signals.

[Cahlito @ Feb 19th 2008 2:12PM]

wow this is cool.
I wish NYC can be covered in WiFi

[brian peppers @ Feb 19th 2008 3:36PM]

Forget Duke and UNC, they're both jealous of NC State. UNC, if anything, can kiss our ass since the know we're better than them.

[Sam Winter @ Feb 20th 2008 5:48AM]

@brain peppers
"Forget Duke and UNC, they're both jealous of NC State. UNC, if anything, can kiss our ass since they know we're better than them."

I see you are getting quite a quality education. Are you also one of the half-naked, painted-chest lunatics frolicking about during their basketball games?

[Chuckles McGee @ Feb 20th 2008 6:14PM]

@brian peppers

NC State=big high school

[travis @ Feb 19th 2008 2:13PM]

Swiping unsecured signals? You mean Bill Belichick is a Tar Heel?

[Justin E @ Feb 19th 2008 2:22PM]

I'm glad someone else knows that it's Tar Heel and not Tarheel.

[Dan S. @ Feb 19th 2008 3:26PM]

The proper spelling is "Tar Hole"

[phanbouy @ Feb 19th 2008 2:13PM]

that must be an awful lotta Airport Exxxxxxtremez!!!

[Buckley @ Feb 19th 2008 2:21PM]

I remember senior year ('98), they set up a wireless antenna and aimed it at Krzyzewskiville. They had to pass out PCMCIA wireless receivers to us in that no one had wireless cards yet.

[Brad Green @ Feb 19th 2008 3:12PM]

Some people just don't realize how rich and spoiled Duke students are...
"They had to pass out wireless receivers"

[Buckley @ Feb 19th 2008 3:48PM]

Relax, "they" were a private company manufacturing the cards and they passed out like 20 at most... It was a pilot program where they were hoping to get coverage of their product in conjunction with its use in K-ville leading up to the Duke vs. UNC game.

[Sam @ Feb 19th 2008 9:44PM]

I'm so sick of duke.Given, this does make me think for a second about transferring to duke instead of chapel hill next year... if only I had scored higher on the prick section of the SAT... *sigh*

[sitruc @ Feb 19th 2008 2:23PM]

Is the 802.11n standard a standard yet?

[phanbouy @ Feb 19th 2008 2:27PM]

standardly, standards take a standard amount of time to become the standard. it's standard operating procedure

[Chris in CA @ Feb 19th 2008 2:29PM]

Product literature states it conforms to 802.11n draft 2.0. At any rate, I believe the 1250 also supports removable cards for multi-standard support.

[teslasnp @ Feb 19th 2008 4:59PM]

I wondered that myself when I read this. According to this table:

http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/802/11/Reports/802.11_Timelines.htm

Not until 2009 will the .11n be standard. Unless I completely missed something

[Bender Bending Rodriguez @ Feb 19th 2008 2:34PM]

1) Is this going to be a hybrid network with b and g on the 2.4GHz frequency or a dedicated n network on the 5GHz frequency?

2) Wasn't this the campus that claimed the iPhone was responsible from bringing down their network?

[Crayola @ Feb 19th 2008 2:36PM]

I thought Singapore has the world largest Wifi network, since it has blanket coverage through-out the entire island, and it is free! Surely that title is not worth any salt.

http://www.engadget.com/2006/08/30/singapore-to-have-nationwide-wifi-by-years-end/

[CarpeD1em500 @ Feb 19th 2008 2:39PM]

Actually over here in Chapel Hill we have a network that covers all of the classrooms that I have classes in, so no worries about us "swiping" signals...

Oh and in other news, Duke sucks.

Go Tar Heels!

[Brad Green @ Feb 19th 2008 2:50PM]

Hah, lets not kid ourselves, if we could get the signal from Duke, we would use it...if for no other reason to waste their bandwidth and cost them money. That said, the state of wireless on our campus is not as good as you make it out to be. Sure most of the rooms have wireless points, but some of the larger lecture halls don't. I get terrible reception in the big hall in the global center. A campus wide rollout of 802.11n long range access points on campus (covering all academic buildings and common areas, including dorms) would be really great. For now, I have my cheapo belkin router in the room...

[CarpeD1em500 @ Feb 19th 2008 2:53PM]

...Valid point, but it's illegal in the city of Chapel Hill to acknowledge that Duke is better than us in any way, shape, or form...

(I'm kidding...kinda)

Though I am all for stealing bandwidth and costing Duke money....

March 8th is so close! Ty better be healthy by then!

[Brad Green @ Feb 19th 2008 3:13PM]

Sucks to be the DTH sports editor...(inside joke)

[Justin E @ Feb 19th 2008 2:39PM]

2) Yes

[paragraph @ Feb 19th 2008 2:41PM]

While not as out there as claiming to own more of Mars than anyone else, i find this highly illogically concidering that there is technically no such thing as 802.11n yet. AFIK The IEEE has yet to make n officiall... so right now it really dosn't mean anything...

However, it is still an impressive feat... it'd be nice for them to tack a "draft" before the n...

unless i'm wrong... then ignore me...

[snapplez @ Feb 19th 2008 2:46PM]

What security method does it use? can the iPhone/iPod Touch connect to it? (or does it use the non-iPhone friendly 802.1x like many universities). Apple really needs to fix that...

[phanbouy @ Feb 19th 2008 2:48PM]

wouldn't matter cuz they're not "n"-enabled anyway (right?)

[Brad Green @ Feb 19th 2008 3:07PM]

There is no way they wouldn't run it as a hybrid network. Probably most of the laptops on their campus are not n compatible, so they just just wouldn't do that. UNC uses 802.11g routers, but only secures them with 64bit WEP, probably because they also MAC address secure the network too.

[snapplez @ Feb 19th 2008 3:15PM]

I am certain they are supporting some of the older protocols (802.11b,g). No, the iPhone does not support 802.11n -- it goes up to 802.11g -- which I think most people would be thrilled to have.

Many universities/businesses/public organizations use 802.1x authentication to avoid having to pre-register MAC addressess of devices.

I am simply *stunned* that Apple does not support this authentication protocol on their iPhone/iPod products. Sadly, it doesn't look like Apple really cares.

Similarly, I am surprised how much easier it is to use 802.1x on Windows machines (vs OS X). It just seems to work with Windows - not so with MacOS -- at least that has been my experience. Anyone else have the same?

[Chuckles McGee @ Feb 20th 2008 6:26PM]

Wi-fi N is backwards compatible with Wi-fi g, so it iPhones will be all happy.

[Ellianth @ Feb 19th 2008 2:50PM]

I'm tempted to send their (hopefully uneducated) school newspaper one of those "wifi causes " news articles or science reports.

[Justin E @ Feb 19th 2008 2:50PM]

2) Yes

[Dan Davis @ Feb 19th 2008 2:54PM]

Ohio State is hit with ANOTHER crippling defeat!

GO BLUE!

[OSUQaid @ Feb 19th 2008 3:11PM]

once again, another Michigan fan who lashes out at Ohio State because his school can't make the top two.

to snapplez, no, the iPhone/touch cannot connect to OSU wifi

oh and GO BUCKS

[Dan Davis @ Feb 19th 2008 3:21PM]

We'll just use our superlaser to zap your puny WiFi network! :P
http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/16/university-of-michigan-creates-most-intense-laser-in-the-univers/

[a ham sandwich @ Feb 19th 2008 4:27PM]

@Dan

you sir win 5 internets!

btw, im in couzens :)

[anonymous @ Feb 19th 2008 2:55PM]

We use a net registration system where you register your MAC address with the network. iPhones and iPod Touches connect just fine.

[anonymous @ Feb 19th 2008 2:57PM]

PS. Dear Tar Heels,
Couldn't beat us in your stadium. Not gonna beat us in ours.

[Brad Green @ Feb 19th 2008 3:16PM]

PS, dear afraid to show your face,

We will have our PG back when we play again, not to mention due to other injuries a team more experienced and with a deeper bench than we have had all year. Watch out, and hope we dont figure out what Wake did on defense, or y'all are toast...buttered toast...

[anonymous @ Feb 19th 2008 3:18PM]

We'll see. we may have lost to wake but you lost to maryland who we beat cleanly. Plus you'll be in Cameron.

It should be a good game at least.

oh and uhhh on topic.... GO TECHNOLOGY

[George @ Feb 19th 2008 3:57PM]

Dear Anonymous,

Maybe you should try beating Wake in their place first. Then you can talk.

Go Deacs!

[Brad Green @ Feb 20th 2008 12:45AM]

Just make sure your guys are wearing Duke blue...y'all had a scare there with the green shirts against State when we had that hippie program going on...what was it, face the nation or something...

[JPH @ Feb 19th 2008 3:15PM]

Duke sucks indeed.

Go Tar Heels.

[casemoney @ Feb 19th 2008 3:18PM]

go devils... can't be stopped!!

[Dan S. @ Feb 19th 2008 3:29PM]

GTH,C

9f 9f 9f

[phanbouy @ Feb 19th 2008 3:51PM]

uh oh.. dan is phoning home

[phanbouy @ Feb 19th 2008 3:18PM]

uh oh.. let's not replace gadget fanboys with sports fanboys

[AirB @ Feb 19th 2008 3:36PM]

I think It's important to point out that UNC/Duke Fanboyism isn't merely a sports competition. Every aspect of the two universities is in direct competition with the other.

[granny down east @ Feb 19th 2008 4:04PM]

...and the rivalry is an old North Cackalacky tradition.
Some things are more important than gadgets.

[Dan S. @ Feb 19th 2008 3:28PM]

While the signal itself is not encrypted, the network relies on a list of authorized MAC devices -- if your machine isn't on the list and you don't have a current account with OIT, joining the network doesn't let you do anything.

[Shadyman @ Feb 19th 2008 4:11PM]

Mac spoofing, FTW.