Wanted to touch base with the list to see if anyone else has seen an odd
problem between Apple iPhones and Cisco 1200 APs?
We have a configuration that works with almost everything we can test
except for iPhones and the older iPod Touch. (2G iPods work fine)
Here is a cross-post of our details, any suggestions or ideas would be
most welcome.
-----------------
We have a WPA/WPA2 Enterprise (PEAP) network and are having trouble with
our users iPhones. (They work fine on the open network SSID, but would
like to migrate to the somewhat more secure WPA or WPA2 model.)
Apple iPhones 2.2.1 5H111 <http://discussions.apple.com/>
Apple iPods 2.2.1 5H11a <http://discussions.apple.com/>
Cisco 1231b/g APs 12.3(8)JA2 or 12.3(3)JEC2 (same results) (WPA TKIP and
AES support enabled)
OUR STANDARD AP CONFIG: and our results
OPEN SSID (hidden) = iPhones works fine, but fail to reconnect after sleep
WPA2 SSID (broadcast) = iPhones fail to connect (occasionally after
certificate)
(BUT iPod 2G work just fine, as does Ubuntu, XP, etc.)
TESTED config 1: (but this setup is incompatible with our network design)
OPEN SSID (broadcast) = iPhone works
WPA2 SSID (broadcast) = iPhone works
TESTED config2: (not desired configuration)
OPEN SSID (broadcast) = iPhone Works
WPA2 SSID (hidden) = iPhone works, but fails to reconnect after sleep
The Standard config needs to be implemented and supported for a variety
of reasons. (We use .1X to move clients to various VLANs behind that
SSID so can't enable multi-broadcast on our equipment.) We prefer to
broadcast our WPA network SSID instead of the OPEN SSID, but are having
issues.
As this problem ONLY seems to impact our iPhone users, and not newer
iPods, (with the same version of software) suspect there may be a simple
setting on the phones or APs that we are missing. Anyone else ran into
this and have any pointers?
---------------
On of our users summed the problem up best:
There are two problems (either one will leave us with a workable solution):
1) An iPhone 3G connecting to a hidden SSID on a Cisco 1200AP will be
able to connect, but as soon as the phone goes to sleep it will drop the
connection. Once that the phone is woken back up it will not reestablish
the connection to the hidden SSID unless you go to Settings->Wi-Fi and
wait for it to show up on the list of available network. If you fire up
safari before doing this you will be presented with only SSIDs that are
broadcast, canceling from that list will cause the iPhone to not look
for a wi-fi network and use the Edge network instead. It's worth noting
that in the Settings->Wi-Fi available networks list that the hidden SSID
(once learned) will show up every couple of seconds and then disappear
only to show back up a few seconds later (this is not the standard
iPhone behavior for hidden SSIDs)
2) An iPhone 3G does not seem to be able to connect to a broadcasted
beacon on a Cisco 1200AP if the Cisco is set for single beacon broadcast
mode. The phone can connect to hidden SSIDs (see #1 for problems with
this) and can also connect to broadcasted beacons if there are more than
one. The iTouch does not show this problem in newer hardware (older
iTouchs do show this problem)
--------------------
Thanks for any suggestions or recommendations.
--
Shane Allan Godmere
Senior Telecommunications Engineer II
Michigan Technological University
1400 Townsend Dr. EERC-B30
Houghton, MI 49931
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