Poor WiFi connection in Intel AX210,AX211

[Hiro]

Hello everyone.

Thank you for all your great tips.

We are currently experiencing the title trouble in the following environment.

Controller: vSZ-H (ver. 5.2.2.0.317)
AP: Ruckus R650 (ver. 5.2.1.0.698)

Client PC environment: Windows11
WiFi driver: Intel AX210
(Latest ver. as of 2/22/2023)

Authentication method: 802.1X EAP (WPA2)

The symptom is that I cannot connect to 802.11ax and 802.11ac WiFi.

We have investigated here and found the following.

After disabling WiFi6E, the authentication succeeded. →After that, after updating BIOS, I can't connect even if I enable or disable it.

When I set the authentication method to OPEN (WPA2,WPA3-Mix), the authentication succeeded.

I want to keep 802.1X EAP (WPA2) as the authentication method.
Do you have any ideas as to the cause or how to fix this? Any and all are welcome.

Thank you again for all your help.

[mark_pledl · Accepted solution]

Dear Hiro,

there are 2 possibilities for you.

6.1.1.0.595 supports AP Zones with 3.6.2.0.795 there you can run R700 with even new WIFi 6E APs on same Controller but in different Zones.

6.1.0.0.935 has some nasty bugs and you need to run it with ap firmware 6.1.0.0.9240 that you cannot get APs with broken Firmware field in Controller. In that state AP is unusable and blocking, better causing failing API requests if the AP is included in request. No R700 possible.

5.2.2.0.1563 is best solution for you or you stick with 5.2.2.0.317 and consider to use 5.2.2.0.2064 AP firmware (downloadable as Ap patch and is a 5-10 minutes things install it). It will bring R650 some good benefits and fix bugs that can cause a AP reboot)

I am glad that your issue seems to have been solved even with 5.2.2.0.317 already.

Best regards,

Mark.

[Hiro]

P.S.
Actually, we believe that 118.1.0.1098 is not practical because it needs to be updated individually on a stand-alone basis.

Therefore, we are currently validating AP firmware 5.2.2.0.301, which is included in controller ver. 5.2.2.0.317, in our test zone.

Is there any possibility of improvement with this version?
If you know, please let me know.
Thank you again in advance.

[mark_pledl]

Dear Hiro,

I am not sure if this will fix. if you have download access you could use 5.2.2.0.2064 AP firmware patch. If not I think the Fragattch AP firmware patches are accessible withoout login. then you would get at least 5.2.2.0.1080.

https://support.ruckuswireless.com/fragattacks-ruckus-technical-support-response-center

Unfortunatelly it is a little bit try and error game with AP firmware atm...

Br,

Mark.

[Hiro]

Dear Mark, thanks for your reply.

I see that considering the flag attack, at least 5.2.2.0.1080 is preferable.
As far as the supported models, the R700 is not included, but is there any problem if we apply it all at once with the AP patch?
Or is there a version of ximg that includes 5.2.2.0.1080?

Please let me know if you know.

Thank you again.

[mark_pledl]

Dear Hiro,

there is no ximg only an ap patch for 5.2.2.0.1080. There is a ximg for 5.2.2.0.1563.ximg which includes 5.2.2.0.2069 AP patch.

The R700 you need to keep in a separate Zone unfortunatelly. There is also a AP Patch that make them Fragattack secure, but that is 3.6.2.0.795 It can be installed also in paralell. Don't upgrade the zone to 5.2.2 else it will drop the R700 from zone.

The problem is more that you need to have created the zone with 3.6.2 or eralier that you can use this AP Patch. It can be simply applied via upgrade ap patch. So I would recommend to spread them in 2 zones and maybe move the R700 to 3.6.2.0.795 Zone. The disadvantage is that the R700 to R650 roaming will not be there any more if they are in 2 differnet zones.. There will be always a short disconnect and connect..

Unfortunatelly the R700 was dropped from support before reaching a LTS version which is in my personal opinion not a good move from product management..

Br,

Mark.

[Hiro]

Mark, very clear explanation. Thank you very much.

I then tried a mini-update solution before doing a major firmware update.

Specifically, I updated the R650 AP firmware 5.2.1.0.698 to 5.2.2.0.301.
Then, the terminals with AX201 and AX211 now connect smoothly.

If this kind of compatibility problem with the newest client PCs is going to occur, we are currently considering raising the version 5.2.2.0.317 up to 6.1.0.0.935.

As for R700, we need to use it for a little while longer for budget reasons.
If updating to 6.1.0.0.935 causes problems with R700 operation, we will revert back to a backup.
Apply only the mini-update to R650 and I plan to hold off until R700 is gone.