RALEIGH N.C.
A problem with Duke
University’s wireless network
caused outages at the school, officials said Friday, exonerating the initial
suspect, Apple Inc.’s new iPhone.
“A particular set of conditions made the Duke wireless
network experience some minor and temporary disruptions in service,” Duke
spokeswoman Tracy Futhey said in a written statement posted on the university’s
Web site. “Those conditions involve our deployment of a very large
Cisco-based wireless network that supports multiple network protocols.”
San Jose, Calif.-based Cisco Inc. said it worked with Duke
and Apple this week to identify the network issue that was causing the problem.
Elizabeth McNichols, a Cisco spokeswoman, declined to be more specific, and
officials at Duke did not immediately return a message seeking additional
comment.
“Cisco has provided a fix that has been applied to
Duke’s network and the problem has not occurred since,” the company said in
a written statement.
The school’s Wi-Fi wireless network had jammed nine times
for spans of about 10 minutes, and a review of network traffic led Duke’s
technology team to iPhone users.
The gadget can access the Internet through San Antonio-based
AT&T Inc.’s Edge network or through Wi-Fi. When a Wi-Fi hotspot is
unavailable, it automatically switches to the slower network but continues to
check for a Wi-Fi signal.
