‘Is the wifi down?’: Checking in on 'Dukeblue'

Students and staff expressed their frustrations with "Dukeblue,” the new, mandatory wireless network for Duke's campus.

"Dukeblue" was introduced across the University in January to replace the former network, “DUKE,” which was phased out as students returned to their dorms at the start of the Fall semester. The network's new features add an additional layer of security for the University’s 70,000 users, said Richard Biever, Duke's chief information security officer. Many students noted, however, that its implementation has not been without issues one month into its roll-out.

“I normally consider Duke to have one of the better wifi systems that I’ve known,” senior Adam Schutzman said. “And so this year has definitely been a downgrade from that.”

A post on the Fix My Campus Facebook group Wednesday—which detailed issues with the new network—received 125 likes, making it the most popular post of the Fall semester so far.

“The new Duke wifi Dukeblue sometimes disconnects itself and also sometimes randomly gets really slow,” wrote senior Jessica Van Meir in a Fix My Campus post.

Connectivity and speed issues

“The wifi's very inconsistent,” wrote junior Andrew Bihl in a email. “It will randomly disconnect your device, and then reconnecting can take a long time.”

Schutzman also described instances in which his devices did not display the "Dukeblue" network as an option to connect to.

“Sometimes it won’t even come up as a [network] in the area, which is unusual,” he said.

Students also complained about the unreliability of network speed, even when they were successfully connected to "Dukeblue."

“I’ve found that the wifi in general is slower than the previous network now that it has the password on it,” Van Meir said. “The fact that it takes longer to connect in the beginning when I start up my computer is annoying and then there are times when it slows down or randomly disconnects.”

Biever explained that certain parts of campus also have slower wifi speeds due to the distribution of access points in routers that devices must connect to. He suggested using a speed test to check connection strength.

However, sophomore Grahame Evans found download speed—used for most web activity, such as loading a webpage or streaming a video—to be variable even in the same location. Evans ran three consecutive speed tests using an online service within 10 second intervals of each other and found variable download speeds ranging from two to seven megabits per second.

“The variability in download and upload speed is very weird and was definitely not the case last year,” he said. “If you want to play a game online or you’re downloading something, it shouldn’t switch that much.”

Evans also noted that wired Ethernet connectivity to "Dukeblue" did not live up to expectations. The OIT website states that the “standard connection speed” via Ethernet is 100 megabits per second, but Evans said he found the speed to generally be around 30 to 40 megabits per second. A test on Ethernet in his Keohane dorm room showed 6 megabits per second download speeds.

'Pressure points'

Biever highlighted three “pressure points” that affect the reliability of the new network: the number of devices, encryption and the five gigahertz access points.

Around February, OIT alerted faculty and Duke Student Government members about the availability of the new network.

Although no concentrated effort was made to spread awareness to the general student body at the time, Biever estimated that about one-third of students found the network on their own. By April, approximately 3,400 total users were connected to "Dukeblue," but some students who discovered the network apparently reverted back to "DUKE” soon after.

"I had tried using it but found that it was less reliable, so I stopped using it, and I used the previous one, ‘DUKE,’” Van Meir said.

Now, approximately 12,000 unique users are connected to “Dukeblue.” Students make up 10,000 of those users and own a total of 32,000 connected devices, resulting in a volume of traffic multiple times higher in scale than in the Spring semester.

“Since school started, it feels like the bandwidth speed has been completely throttled,” Evans said.

Unlike the previous network, “Dukeblue” adds a layer of encryption that requires users to input their netID and password to connect.

Biever said that although the authentication process provides security to the user, it also slows the initial connection to the network because the access point needs to identify the user each time.

Many devices now also connect to access points through the five gigahertz frequency band, which has the advantage of faster speeds but also makes the radius of connection smaller, Biever said. The new band could especially cause issues in dormitories, he added, which are often built with steel, glass and metal—materials which are known to cause interference .

Submitting complaints

Despite the frustrations students have voiced, Sato noted that OIT has received fewer tickets, or formal notifications of problems, this year than it did last year.

During the 2015 “back to school” period—from one week before move-in through the end of September—Sato noted that OIT received 38 tickets concerning wireless issues. This year, OIT has received only 15 tickets so far.

Many students who have experienced issues with the network, including Bihl, Evans, Schutzman and Van Meir, noted that they did not submit a ticket to OIT.

“Complaining to your friend isn’t going to get it fixed. They have to tell us,” Sato said. “But you can go to the Link and tell them, call us, chat or email.”

The lack of formal complaints by users has led to differing perceptions of the network’s success between students and administration.

“I have not personally experienced nor heard about anyone else experiencing an interruption in service,” said Sue Wasiolek, associate vice president for student affairs and dean of students. “From that standpoint, I would [say] the new system has been a success.”

Meanwhile, Van Meir referred to the number of likes on her Fix My Campus post as evidence that “clearly other people are having the same problem.”

Following the post, OIT contacted a number of students who commented to help resolve their issues, but other students continue to experience issues that the University is not aware of.

“I don’t know what efforts have been made thus far by students who have concerns about the current system, but those concerns need to be shared with the IT folks,” Wasiolek said.

Security 

As the network for a high-profile university with a large user base, Duke's networks are subject to an estimated two to five million attacks per month. Approximately 100 accounts are compromised each month, Biever said.

The switch to the new network, he explained, adds new encryption to ensure that users do not connect to a misleading and malicious network in disguise. Devices were more susceptible to these attacks, known as phishing, under the previous network because “DUKE" did not require username and password authentication.

“Somebody could set up an access point, say in a dorm room, and they could call it ‘DUKE,’” Biever said. “They could have no encryption on it—it’s just an open network—and the user could connect to it.”

Biever said that in accidentally connecting to these "fake" networks, students are at risk for exposing their personal data, a risk that is much less probable under "Dukeblue."

In the new network, encryption requires authentication so that if a different network with a copied name pops up, a user’s phone or computer will not connect to the fake network because it would not authenticate.

“I equate connecting to an open network to going swimming in a public pool with 200 other people and not knowing which one has a communicable disease,” Biever said.

'Good to bad to going back toward good'

Although “Dukeblue” has been live on campus for months, most Duke community members said they did not use it until late August. More than one month in, users reported mixed feelings about the network.

“Now that they’re trying to totally switch to it, I’ve kind of been forced to switch to it, but I haven’t seen a huge improvement,” Van Meir said.

Schutzman similarly noted that he had not seen “much change or progress in the connectivity” over September.

Biever said that he does not think the current issues are due to the new setup of “Dukeblue,” but rather due to increased demand on the network.

“We have seen demand grow on the wireless year after year, and we have seen the technology and usage change,” he said. “Regardless of if we encrypt it or not, we have to grow the network with that use, whether it’s coverage or whether it’s density.”

Other students said they feel that OIT efforts to improve the network are noticeable. Evans said that auto-connecting issues “sorted themselves out,” while speed consistency is trending up.

“It went from good to bad to going back toward good for speed. It’s been getting better,” Evans said.

Biever explained that OIT will also be implementing new technologies to improve the user experience, including new software to prevent disconnections for students on the move.

“As you’re walking down the hallway, you might be connected to this access point, but the farther away you get from it, the closer you should get to the next one,” he said. “So you should just automatically pick up on that next access point and not see a drop.”

OIT is “very aware” of issues on campus and is working to improve or expand the network, but working towards these solutions takes time, Biever said. 

In an email, a group of OIT staff members wrote that "additional wireless upgrades are currently underway for the Perkins and Bostock libraries and the Trent Center." 

By Summer 2017, Biever anticipates the addition of approximately 700 access points throughout campus, on top of the current total of approximately 3,800. This will accommodate a user base that he expects to increase to between 25,000 and 30,000.

Bihl, a computer science major, conceded that although no transition can be “completely error-free,” OIT and Duke should realize that resolving the issues is a huge priority.

“I’ll have interviews soon for tech recruiting, which means I'll have to do live coding and web chat with companies offering internships,” he wrote. “If the wifi cuts out in the middle of one of those interviews, it could ultimately make the difference between a rejection and an offer.”

Correction: OIT will be adding approximately 700 access points throughout campus by Summer 2017. This article has been updated to clarify the "back to school" time period in which OIT received notifications of problems. The Chronicle regrets the error.