Meraki SSID Names Appearing With Generic "WAP Profile" name in Win 10

[knewyousir]

Hi all,
I have a somewhat strange issue to present to you all.

I created some new SSIDs for my Meraki lab deployment.

The SSIDs appear with the correct name when first detected, however, sometime later, after a reboot or sleep, so far only on Win 10 machines (Macs + Android seem fine), they become only visible with the generic name "WAP Profile" (see screenshots):

When this happens, if I haven't previously authenticated to the SSID when it's correct SSID name was visible, I can't connect to them.

Sometimes they will reconnect to that "WAP Profile" network via saved creds and, when viewing through properties, I am able to see the SSID name, but it is not reflected in the SSID name shown in the list of available wifi networks.

In some cases, the correctly named SSID will appear as available, alongside the incorrect "WAP Profile" SSID name, which shows the correctly named SSID in the network properties. In certain of those cases I have been able to connect to both SSIDs- the "WAP Profile" named one (with cached creds), and the correctly named one.

I have scoured the interwebs for info about this error, but have had little luck finding posts or documentation of this error.

Has anyone seen this kind of thing before?
Any idea of the root cause and/or fix for it?

Thanks for your kind help.

-KYS

[DarrenOC]

Hi @knewyousir , what firmware are your APs running? Have you looked through the release notes to see if there’s anything noted there?

[knewyousir]

It's just one AP right now, and is running the latest firmware as of 4/20/20.

I haven't checked the release notes to see if this issue is noted there yet.

Any idea where I can find that?

I have to imagine if it was a more widespread WAP firmware + win 10 issue though, there'd be more threads about it elsewhere, right?

[DarrenOC]

Under Organisation > Firmware Upgrades you should be able to navigate your way to the release notes from there

[knewyousir]

Just as some more background, in my lab deployment I am using wpa2 enterprise auth with a radius server. The radius server is only using a self-signed certificate right now. Not sure if that is affecting this issue at all but wanted to put it out there in case it is.

[PhilipDAth]

Using a self-signed certificate won't have any impact on the issue.

I'm more suspicious of the WiFi driver in your machine, especially since other devices are not affected.  Have you checked to see if there is a newer driver for your machine?

[knewyousir]

Thanks for your reply PhilipDAth.

Hmm in looking at this more I'm starting to wonder too if the common thread is driver compatibility.

The SSIDs on the test network are being broadcast from a Meraki MR36, which is an 802.11ax device.

It seems that certain types of network adapters are having trouble interfacing with 802.11ax broadcasted SSIDs.

Here are the results of some testing I've done so far- network adapters and driver versions:

Works:

Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6235

Driver version: 15.18.0.1

Win 10 Enterprise 1903

AirPort Extreme

Firmware version: Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0

macOS Mojave 10.14.6

Android Moto e5 Play

OS version: 8.0.0

Broken:

Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 8265

Driver version: 20.70.16.4

Win 10 Enterprise 1909

Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 8265

Driver version: 20.70.12.5

Win 10 Enterprise 1909

Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260

Driver Version: 18.33.17.1

Win 10 Enterprise 1909

I guess my next step is to try and isolate if 802.11ax WAPs and Win 10/Intel WiFi are causing this issue. I'm going to try and get a demo license for an older MR42 I have laying around, add it to my org's test network, turn it on and my demo mr36 off, and see if I have different results with Win10/Intel WiFi compatibility.

Will reply when I have results.

If you have any ideas for further testing/isolation of the issue I would appreciate it.

[PhilipDAth · Accepted solution]

There is an option somewhere to disabled 802.11ax.  Perhaps try that to isolate the issue.

[knewyousir]

I searched the web UI pretty thoroughly but couldn't find any option to disable 802.11ax.

Anyone have any ideas where I could find it?

[PhilipDAth]

Under Wireless/Radio Settings.

[knewyousir]

Awesome- thank you PhilipDAth

I made a new test profile with 802.11ax off and will test after giving 5-10 minutes for the profile to take on the AP...

[PhilipDAth]

Also note it can be disabled in both the 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz bands - so there are two tick boxes.

[knewyousir]

Ok looks like turning off 802.11ax fixed the issue!

The "WAP Profile" entry in the SSID list didn't go away however (it could not be forgotten due to somehow being placed there by group policy- very bizarre).
I was able to clear it though by deleting the contents of "Windows/wlansvc/Profiles/" and restarting the WLAN service.

I will probably have to manually do this on any affected Win 10/Intel Dual Band machines that picked up the 802.11ax networks while they were live... Definitely a pain.

What a terrible rabbit hole to fall into while setting up my first Meraki network! At least I made it back to the other side of the looking glass though.

Thanks for your help all!