Do you want to create some #Merakimagic with your Wi-Fi network?  We’ve got some really cool features coming out with our next firmware release - MR29.1 - ready now for public beta.

While this release offers a host of enhancements, the top features that I am most excited about include Wireless Personal Network (WPN), Band Steering & Client Balancing, as well as expanded IoT support.

Top Features:

• Wireless Personal Network (WPN) - offering the ability to segment the wireless network on a per-user basis to provide a home-like personal network experience on a shared network (single VLAN).  This feature is particularly well suited for shared environments such as university dorms, hotels, senior homes, etc. 

Do you have a high-density environment in which users complain about performance issues?  MR29.1 adds both Band Steering and Client Balancing to optimize performance and improve the user experience.  

• Band Steering  detects clients capable of 5GHz operation and steers them to that frequency, leaving the more crowded 2.4GHz band available for legacy clients; while Client Balancing uses information about the state of the network and wireless client probes to steer the client to the best available access point - improving download and upload performance while reducing loss and latency for mission-critical applications.  

This is a WIN-WIN for everyone! 

Are you wondering what do you do with that USB port on your MR57?  How about some IoT applications! One in particular is Electronic Shelf Labels (ESL):

• MR29.1 offers Expanded IoT Support via USB port (6E APs only) for SoluM and Hanshow USB gateways.

Other features include enhancements to Mesh Networking and IPv6. 

If you need more information on how to manage your firmware upgrades, check out this article or the FAQs page on firmware.

MV 4.16 beta is now available, and include updates to MQTT, object detection, and Motion Recap image generation.

The MS 15 beta is now available for download in the Meraki dashboard. Head on over to the firmware management page to schedule your upgrades. 

Check out the article in Documentation to get the step-by-step instructions.

But simply:

1- Login to your Meraki dashboard.

2- Visit the Firmware Upgrade page in the dashboard and schedule a firmware upgrade, selecting the MS 15 beta version.

3- By heading to Network Wide > General and turning the “Try beta firmware” to Yes on any individual networks, you’ll be the first to automatically have new beta firmware scheduled for upgrade in the future. Note that this is per-network so you could opt-in your lab and a low-risk site without affecting your production areas elsewhere.

 ** Always be sure to read the release notes for any notable changes or behavioral differences

With MS 15, you’ll get powerful new network security and analytics capabilities, streamlined policy management, and enhanced PoE capabilities. Let’s get into the specifics: 

New in the MS390 only:

• 802.3bt - Enable your network with the industry standard for 60 Watts of PoE per port to power next-generation Access Points, Cameras, and Smart building automation
• NBAR based Netflow export - Built for Cisco Secure Network Analytics and many other flow collectors, providing full NBARv2 traffic analysis
• Encrypted Traffic Analytics - Get in-depth analysis of traffic without decryption for use with Cisco Secure Network and Cloud Analytics
• StackPower status - Verify and monitor StackPower status and StackPower budgeting information for the respective switch in a StackPower pool

New in MS390 but already available in other MS switches:

• Critical/Failed Auth - Provide limited access VLAN assignment for a failed authentication
• Group Policy ACLs - Per-session 802.1X inbound ACL enforcement

New in both MS390 and others:

• FIPS mode - now available for those requiring FIPS compliance - please contact your Meraki rep if required

• Named VLANs - Send VLAN names rather than ID numbers from the RADIUS server and let the switch automatically map to the appropriate VLAN ID

• Dynamic config for Voice VLAN - Further streamlining policy management across networks

Get a jump on your competition, prepare your next-generation network, and shape the market in your way. For our part, Meraki provides a seamless pathway to Beta test this software with unparalleled support along the way.

Meraki MT sensors can connect to most WiFi-5 MR access points as gateways to the Meraki platform!

What are the firmware management endpoints?

These firmware management endpoints are network level endpoints that allow you to get, set or rollback firmware.  This should allow an admin to fully manage firmware at a network level via API. 

New updates are designed to make it easier to identify underperforming access points, solve sticky client issues more quickly, and trigger alerts by implementing anomaly detection by using Meraki machine learning models. 

Low-latency HLS (LHLS) is now available for second generation MV smart cameras. LHLS reduces the delay in live streaming caused by the buffering period with HLS. Using LHLS, the LAN direct stream has a delay of less than 2 seconds. 

We are delighted to announce MR26.6.1 as the new Stable Firmware for your MR access points! This is now available on the Meraki Dashboard via the firmware upgrade tool.