iPhone and iPod Touch, 802.1X and LEAP

This is more a note for people who were wondering like myself: the current OS X that comes with the iPod Touch and iPhone cannot handle either 802.1X or LEAP (before anyone tells me it handles 802.11x just fine, please remember that 802.1X and LEAP are specific forms of encrypting a wireless connection, not types of wireless connections. 802.11x is instead a generic term used for the varying speeds of wireless, i.e. 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n, ….)

This is really too bad, as both are have been built in to Mac OS X since at least version 10.3, and also both are the main ways I can get wireless at OSU. I have every intent on finding out if this gets fixed with subsequent OS updates. Incidentally, a big reason I am posting this is due to some Apple Store employees erroneously telling me it should work on the iPhone and iPod Touch, since it is built in to Mac OS X, which shares a lot of common code with the OS X on both devices (as far as anyone seems to know). I don’t fault them for saying this; I mean, who would think something like this would be left out?

Update (2007/01/18): I have posted an update to this here, but long story short, it appears that the 1.1.3 update has not fixed this, at least for the iPod Touch.

Update (2008/03/05): As of 1.1.4, still no 802.1X.

Update (2008/03/06): Looks like 802.1X is coming, (for the iPhone at least).

Update (2008/07/25): And it’s here, for both the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Technorati Tags: ,

Comments

George (gk4) said…
Not having LEAP is a big hindrance and is one reason why I have not purchased an iPhone. If I cannot use it on my company's IntrAnet, then why have it.
January 25, 2008 at 1:50 PM
Anonymous said…
I have really missed the LEAP authentication for my iPhone since I got it several months ago. As Bruce said, it is the only way to get online (wirelessly) at OSU. I really hope someone either writes a 3rd party app for LEAP, or Apple includes in its software update soon!
January 30, 2008 at 11:30 PM
Anonymous said…
Thanks for keeping this updated. LEAP support is a strong reason why I've stuck with my Nokia, rather than upgrade to an iPhone.
March 18, 2008 at 4:53 PM
Jeff said…
LEAP support is suppose to have been added to the 2.0 upgrade. I will plan to test this tomorrow at work.
July 24, 2008 at 11:37 PM
Bruce M. Adcock said…
Thanks, Jeff. I added a little bit about my experience with it here, but I'd love to hear how other people are doing with it.
July 25, 2008 at 7:43 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Comics without the newspaper

I happen to love newspaper comics, but over the years I’ve either not gotten a newspaper, or not gotten a newspaper carrying all the comics I’d like to read. I know I’m not alone in loving comics; just take a look at Comics Curmudgeon . The people who both read and post comments there clearly love comics, which is half of what makes it fun. Add in to it with some of the cartoonists clearly joining in with the joke, and really its a lot of fun. The lack of print has made things difficult in the past, but I have tended to get by. The general solution most people use is to go to the online sites of newspapers carrying the comic of their choice, in particular, one that also puts it up online. The more industrious of us use things like the Perl tool dailystrips . Basically, you tell it the pattern for finding a comic of a particular date, and it scrapes the website for that comic. This works, but has some hangups. Most importantly, it means the newspaper is not getting a...
Read more

Xcode 3 language specification changes

So much has changed in Leopard that I am not surprised I cannot find anything about this yet. Basically, the plugin interface for Xcode 3 has severely changed. In particular, over the past few days I have been trying to make a *.pblangspec file for the programming language used by my group for software verification purposes (who, it ought to be noted, I do not speak for on this website). It turns out, that’s not what I really wanted to do. I am still trying to figure out what all has changed, but here are a few key differences: The file format is totally different. This is somewhat superficially noted by the fact that the file’s extension should now be xclangspec as opposed to pblangspec . For instance, I am using Resolve.xclangspec . The file format is totally different. I’m mentioning it twice, mainly to point out that there are no guides out there for it yet. It seems to make sense, if you realize that Xcode is now doing a lot more than just keyword matching a...
Read more