Wi-Fi Troubles for the iPad?
Posted by Wade Williamson, Director of Product Management at AirMagnet
Date: April 13, 2010
Last week, Apple rolled out its latest game-changing device, the iPad, to the sort of excitement and media frenzy that our culture usually reserves for hero pilots, astronauts and philandering golfers. However, as with any new product, there have been reports of a few rough edges, and one of the main sources of user complaints has centered on the iPad's Wi-Fi connectivity.
David Needle penned a great article on the issues that users have reported and Apple's response, which you can read here. In short, users are seeing the iPad drop Wi-Fi connections while other devices (including iPhones) are maintaining good Wi-Fi connections. Thus far Apple, has remained mum on the topic, while pointing to potential problems the iPad may have with APs supporting multiple networks (i.e. an AP with multiple bands, VLANs, etc). Now to be fair, it will likely take some time and digging to find the real source of this issue - whether it is a radio issue, driver/firmware issue, or compatibility issue - and just how widespread it is.
With that said, as network professionals, this is exactly the type of challenge that we are up against on a daily basis. Every day brings a new device - be it a new smartphone, netbook or tablet - each with its own unique combination of Wi-Fi radio, chipset, firmware and physical placement in the device. Each of these devices then needs to connect to an infrastructure that is also rapidly evolving with various .1x authentication options, QoS support and dynamically reconfiguring access points just to name a few common issues. With all of these variables bouncing back and forth, our end-users' complaints remain remarkably consistent: "The network isn't working". This is our challenge.
In the past, we had very standardized laptops, each running a virtually identical image and running on a network that was more or less static. A quick pass through the logs of our switches, routers and app servers would typically give us a decent answer of what was going wrong. In short order, we have converted to an ecosystem of highly variable client devices and a dynamic network environment that reconfigures itself on the fly. This is precisely why we need intelligent Wi-Fi tools and monitoring more than ever before.
The real black hole in most organizations is that critical piece between the end-user device and the AP - where hundreds of things can go wrong due to a problem on the client device, configuration conflicts between the device and the network, interference and the list goes on.
This is where AirMagnet and our ability to analyze and troubleshoot traffic directly will give you the root-cause answers that log files cannot. By watching actual client behavior and the real interaction between those devices and the infrastructure you can almost instantly pinpoint a problem, resolve it and move on with your day. This ability to quickly get to a conclusive answer will go a long way in determining your Wi-Fi happiness for years to come.
Simply put, Wi-Fi and device innovation is not going to slow down anytime soon and users' initial inclination is always going to be to "blame the network". So, as network professionals, our options are to build the tools and skills for fast, clear-cut analysis, or alternatively, to get comfortable with being a punching bag. We're in this together, so tell us your stories, both good and bad. Share how you have used AirMagnet to solve problems, and also where you've had problems that you couldn't solve, so that we can make our products better.
Wade Williamson is Director of Product Management at AirMagnet. Wade has extensive experience in delivering critical wireless security solutions for enterprise, clinical and government networks. He will contribute his expertise on emerging technologies and security vulnerabilities.