Sleepy Idevice Clients and Wireless Guest Services

[shoudek]

We are using the wireless guest access service via the wireless guest server.

Apple Idevices (Iphones / Ipads) are forgetting their authentication credentials when they fall asleep. It is only a frustration at this point as it can be frustrating to end users to have to constantly re-authenticate to the network.

Is there any way to make authentications persistent for idevices when they go to sleep or is this purely a function of the client?

[Saravanan Lakshmanan]

Increase user-idle timeout, the default is 300secs, increasing this value will keep the client on WLC database and can avoid reauths.

Controller>> user-idle timeout.

[George Stefanick]

There are 3 timers to be aware of..

Session timeout - This is set to 1800 seconds <30 minutes> and is on the WLAN. This timeout will plum the client from the network and cause a reauth.

User idle timeout - This is when a user sits idle for 300 seconds <5 minutes> the client will get plumbed from the WLC and this will cause a reauth.

ARP timeout - The may cause some of my freinds here on the board to question this one. But it has been my expereince this will plumb the user as well. I always move the user and arp timers together.

Something to also note on "i" devices. Apps like VOCERA CONNECT, JABBER, MOBILE 8, and CITRIX keep the i device awake when these APPS are ran. Although the screen may go dark, it still on the network.

Hope this helps ..

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"Satisfaction does not come from knowing the solution, it comes from knowing why." - Rosalind Franklin
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‎"I'm in a serious relationship with my Wi-Fi. You could say we have a connection."

[shoudek]

Thanks to both of your for your guidance.

Our experience tells us Apple may be turning the radios in their devices off during periods of sleep. The behavior appears to be somewhat inconsistent between the iphone and ipad as well. We're struggling as I think most large corporations are with Apples support of a large enterprise. The answers aren't always readily available.

Has anyone tested this and can you verify this is this behavior in the Apple devices? Also, if the radio's are indeed being turned off do any of these timers even matter?

Thanks again!

[George Stefanick]

Yes, unless you run an app like i mentioned above the radios do go silent. If you sniff the traffic you will see the aps send tons of ACTION frames after the go to sleep.

__________________________________________________________________________________________
"Satisfaction does not come from knowing the solution, it comes from knowing why." - Rosalind Franklin
__________________________________________________________________________________________
‎"I'm in a serious relationship with my Wi-Fi. You could say we have a connection."

[Peter Nugent]

I thought Apple had sorted this out, my mistake.

When will they ever do stuff like everyone else. OK I understand creative thinking but when it just makes life awkward.

Sorry forgot its Apple! Doh!

[George Stefanick]

The bigger issue is the user perception. Ping a iPad let it go to sleep, normally 45 seconds. The pings stop but then hit the home button. And when you do, check the wireless fan and you will see its on. Giving the user the impression its been connected the entire time when it was in sleep mode.

Which just isnt the case.

Apple struggles, but this gives the user "it just works" in most cases. But drives nerds like us running large entperise networks a nervous breakdown.

Also know Apple is one of the first with 802.11r on the iPhone 5 with iOS6 .. Do you think Apple has release notes for this? Well i checked, checked and checked some more .. Didnt find anything ..

I also think when the MS "Surface" comes out, i think you will see a shift from apple to MS in the enterprise. Server teams are still very relutant to support apple and will say hey, you want a tablet get the surface and we will support it ..

just my 2 cent

__________________________________________________________________________________________
"Satisfaction does not come from knowing the solution, it comes from knowing why." - Rosalind Franklin
__________________________________________________________________________________________
‎"I'm in a serious relationship with my Wi-Fi. You could say we have a connection."