Is there any plan to develop secure iPad mirroring over common ports?

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Is there any plan to develop secure iPad mirroring over common ports?

We're very interested in offering our faculty the option of projecting their in-class lectures from their iPads. Unfortunately, the lack of security and the special WIFI ports required are making this very difficult for our facilities and security staff to implement in our wireless infrastructure. We feel there is a real potential benefit in new, more interactive lecturing styles that could come out of this practice. Is Apple aware of the desire for this, and if so, is there any sense of when a secure solution might be available?

iPad 2

Posted on Feb 7, 2013 11:11 AM

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Answer 1

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varjak paw

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Feb 7, 2013 11:42 AM in response to bgarr

Sorry, but we're all just fellow users here and have no insight into Apple's plans for future updates. You can comment to Apple via their feedback page, if you wish:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/ipad.html

I'm not sure what you mean by "lack of security" and "special WiFi ports", though. Can you perhaps explain what you mean? Someone may be able to suggest methods or workaround.

Regards.

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Answer 2

bgarr Author

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Feb 7, 2013 1:58 PM in response to varjak paw

Oh, okay. I'll post to the feedback link you mentioned. Thanks!

By lack of security, I meant unauthorized users shouldn't be able to communicate with other machines over WIFI using a port left open to accomodate the Apple TV AirPlay option. It would be great if additional ports would not be required at all, since (probably like many institutions), we have a wireless router configuration that we use in many places, rather than maintain separate configurations for different WIFI routers.

Cheers.

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Answer 3

varjak paw

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Feb 7, 2013 2:05 PM in response to bgarr

AirPlay is only using pretty standard ports - 80, 443, 554, 3289 and 5353 - so it's not something most sites would have blocked or other normal network functions from most platforms won't work either. Hence is really shouldn't be a security issue. If you're blocking those ports, you may want to revisit that and see if it's really necessary. If you must block those, then AirPlay probably just isn't going to work for you. Changing would probably require Apple to revamp much of its networking structure and use even less common ports.

A more common issue in large institutions is the problem with dealing with multiple WiFi access points and the need to have the iPad and the Apple TV on the same subnet. Those are often more difficult issues to solve.

Regards.

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