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.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 19th 2008 4:07PM]

I hate reading things like this. A school has enough money to spend on getting wifi everywhere, when most of the students will probably connect via cable. And a major metropolitan city can't get that kinda blanket!

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 19th 2008 4:23PM]

Great- 2500 new ways for Duke President Brodhead to scapegoat folks the way he did to the FORMER lacrosse coach at duke.

[brent98 Posted Feb 19th 2008 4:51PM]

"A school has enough money to spend on getting wifi everywhere, when most of the students will probably connect via cable."

At Wake hardly anyone hooks up using a cable, since WiFi enabled Thinkpads are included in tuition. I know on most campuses there are tons of people who use laptops as their primary computer. I dont see why campus wide WiFi is excessive.

Go Deacs!

[clayj Posted Feb 19th 2008 5:09PM]

Great... so now the Dookies can steal music from anywhere on campus! The lawyers at the RIAA are sharpening their pens as we speak.

Oh, and Dook sucks.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 19th 2008 5:26PM]

What am I missing? 6 million square feet? That's only 1/5 (0.21) of a square mile. That seems like an absurdly small area for 2500 access points.

[Jamus Posted Feb 19th 2008 5:55PM]

Hmm, hope the guys who claimed all those new fangled iPhone-things were mucking up their wireless network are not in charge of setting this one up!

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 20th 2008 9:34PM]

it'll have backward compatibility with 802.11g
Duke!