It’s worth a shot, but they’re not “technically” doing anything wrong.
*Tim Cappalli* | ACCP / ACMP / CCNA Network Engineer | Brandeis University [email protected] | (617) 701-7149 *From:* The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [mailto: [email protected]] *On Behalf Of *John Kaftan *Sent:* Friday, January 10, 2014 12:00 AM *To:* [email protected] *Subject:* Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Myfi Could a complaint to the FCC help? Has anyone tried that? Remember how we signed a petition for Apple to get their act together about a year ago? Maybe if we all bombarded the FCC about this issue they would find the teeth to go after Verizon and ATT et al. I know. I am a dreamer...but I'm not the only one.... On Thu, Jan 9, 2014 at 5:30 PM, Lee H Badman <[email protected]> wrote: Fix the Mi-Fi situation and all will be forgiven. How one wireless technology sector can be so clueless about the issues they cause for another is confounding. See if you can get a sticker put on the devices that say "These aren't exactly welcome everywhere" for bonus points. :) Lee Badman Network Architect/Wireless TME ITS, Syracuse University 315.443.3003 -----Original Message----- *From:* Manish Rai [[email protected]] *Received:* Thursday, 09 Jan 2014, 17:07 *To:* [email protected] [[email protected] ] *Subject:* Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Myfi Sorry for blasting the group. This email was meant for internal consumption. My apologies. Best, Manish *From:* The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [mailto: [email protected]] *On Behalf Of *Manish Rai *Sent:* Thursday, January 09, 2014 2:03 PM *To:* [email protected] *Subject:* Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Myfi Ajay, There is a lot of discussion on Educause list about interference from Myfi devices from AT&T and Verizon. Can we check to see of we can somehouse cause the MyWi devices to switch to another channel than the one we are using? We can make a huge marketing windfall from this. Others use all the channels and cannot do this. Best, Manish *From:* The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [ mailto:[email protected]<[email protected]>] *On Behalf Of *Jim Florwick (jiflorwi) *Sent:* Thursday, January 09, 2014 7:09 AM *To:* [email protected] *Subject:* Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Myfi Today the only solution that we have had any luck with is wireless policy and spreading the word. It is an education problem – and the Carriers will likely start caring more as they themselves deploy more wi-fi and bear the burden of their creations. If you publish a policy – it's a lot like posting a speed limit – no one cares until someone gets a ticket. Policing the policy is an important part of the education process. In annual events we sponsor and support we police this using system location and then Fluke AirChecks to triangulate and identify an individual in a crowd (that's actually fun for me – but not as productive as running the network). Year on year since we started implementing policies, we have seen an improvement. It's often not worth trying to track the Mi–Fi's down now as they will be gone before you can get to them – and in reality the short time they are active doesn't really interfere all that much. It is my hope that one day this is like recycling – and neighbors will council neighbors on social responsibility. As far as blocking the MAC address – this is not possible as the Mi-Fi is not on your control plane – it is it's own Wlan and is not using your wired resources – just your spectrum. You can try rogue containment – and we have – eventually users get frustrated and quit – however this is only practical at normal user volumes – large events you can't afford to waste spectrum by attacking rogues over the air. Standards committees are well aware of the issue – but the hangup is that an IBSS or Mi-Fi is perfectly legal by the specification. Some hope can be seen in the WFA's adoption of an Enterprise Voice Certification. Perhaps one day we will have a consumer cert vs Enterprise Engineered cert – and hopefully a way to mandate what features are acceptable on a privately engineered enterprise network. Jim Florwick Cisco TME WNG *From: *Scott Allen <[email protected]> *Reply-To: *The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv < [email protected]> *Date: *Thursday, January 9, 2014 9:23 AM *To: *"[email protected]" < [email protected]> *Subject: *Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Myfi Has anyone constructed a wired/wireless set of tools that will allow us to manually detect WiFi rogues and then disable their MAC addresses on the wired network? I have Prime 1.3 running for APs so I can see the rogues but I don't know which wired port they are connected to. -Scott (we are the morlocks) Allen On Thu, Jan 9, 2014 at 9:03 AM, Lee H Badman <[email protected]> wrote: Is a frustrating topic for sure. Even if you have a good wireless guest network, many vendors/visitors and even some faculty/staff/students just prefer to pull their own devices out and use “their own WLAN” anywhere and everywhere- it’s just part of their lifestyle. And yes, frustratingly our friends at Verizon and AT&T who make these units increasingly cheaper could give a rip about interference or policy of the places the gadgets get used. My own rant: http://wirednot.wordpress.com/2013/02/25/mi-fi-not-kind-to-wi-fi/ Prevention is great if you can effectively spread the word, but the need to have a mitigation strategy is inevitable- as is the occasional scenario where a class or meeting (or stadium event) has its campus wireless crippled by people “bringin’ their own Wi-Fi”. Sadly. Our lot in life is to bear the criticism that the WLAN sucks when we’re simply a victim of physics, until we can deal with getting the devices eliminated. The move to 5 GHz by more devices helps, but doesn’t eliminate the problem as some Mi-Fis are showing up in 5 GHz as well. To me, this is just one of the negative (to us in the Enterprise WLAN business) effects of the general consumerization of IT, and of WLAN specifically. There is no fix, there is no answer, so you need a strategy that combines: · Education- frequent and non-threatening messages of why these devices are problematic · Get partners- IT staff/Deans, etc beyond the WLAN admins have to buy in and help with the message · Enforcement- when you can without obsessing about it · Tolerance- some you just have to let slide, either politically or because it’s just not worth the battle And you have to be able to apply these in varying weights depending on the situation. Nothing with wireless is simple any more. One man’s O-pinion. Regards- Lee Badman *From:* The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [mailto: [email protected]] *On Behalf Of *Anthony, Mark G *Sent:* Thursday, January 09, 2014 8:00 AM *To:* [email protected] *Subject:* Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Myfi We too have seen this issue in our conference center and other functions that go on around campus. As for policing them, we have in the past tried to shut them down and had good luck in doing so. Once everyone in the room turned off their Myfi’s they started working again on the campus wireless network. The down fall is that once you cleared the room and all is good a new group of people lets out and more Myfi’s show up. It’s fighting a losing battle is you ask me. Best we can do is get the person or person’s running the event and educate them about the possible situations before the event takes place. With that said, I’m also curious how others handle this issue during their large venues. ‘ Thanks, Mark G. Anthony Network Administrator Information Technology Services The Florida State University Email [email protected] *From:* The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [ mailto:[email protected]<[email protected]>] *On Behalf Of *John Kaftan *Sent:* Wednesday, January 8, 2014 10:34 PM *To:* [email protected] *Subject:* [WIRELESS-LAN] Myfi I got my hands on someone's Verizon Myfi today and it was set to Auto choose what channel to broadcast its SSID on. The crazy thing chose channel 2! It was putting out a pretty strong signal too. I was seeing a -50 dB from 10 feet away. To anyone else connected to channel 1 or 6 a signal on channel 2 is going to be noise, i.e. interference. When doing scans I have seen this before. I have seen these things on every channel but 1,6,11 now that I think about it. I logged into its web interface and was able to force it to use channel 1. There is also an easy to use interface right on the device where I could chose the channel. I'm just alarmed that these things choose non-standandard channels. If 3-4 or more of these things show up in room hosting a conference we may have a real problem. Its hard enough to put 120 laptops in a room and get them all on and happy let alone having these things out there. I'm curious, does anybody police these devices at high density events or make an announcement requesting folks turn them off? I can't imagine these Myfis perform well in high density situations due to their competing for bandwidth on both 2.4 and cellular bands. Thanks -- John Kaftan IT Infrastructure Manager Utica College ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/. ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/. ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/. -- Scott Allen Director, Network Services Georgetown University [email protected] mobile - 202-309-5739 ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/. ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/. ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/. ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/. ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/. -- John Kaftan IT Infrastructure Manager Utica College ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/. ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.
