New CW9166I APs no 6e?

[mak2018]

We recently purchased and installed a bunch of these to replace MR36s but I am not seeing anywhere that I can enable 6Ghz band on them for Wifi6e.  Nothing in RF Profiles and ax is not disabled.  I looked at Meraki's documentation here and I don't even have an option for Flex:   https://documentation.meraki.com/Wireless/Install_and_Get_Started/Installation_Guides/CW9166_Install...

I don't have any of the options below:

RF Profile on our end:

[PhilipDAth]

You need to migrate to WPA3 to be able to use the 6Ghz band (assuming that it is permitted in your country).

[alemabrahao]

The availability of the 6 GHz band depends on your country/regulatory domain. If set to a region where it's not permitted, 6E options won't appear.

Also, ensure your CW9166I is running a firmware version that supports 6E. Although the device is capable by design, very early versions might not expose the 6 GHz settings in the Dashboard.

[mak2018]

These APs are in India and running MR 31.1.8.  Does every SSID being broadcasted needs to be WPA3?  Cause our primary ones are already WPA3 only but we have a couple hidden ones that are set to WPA2 which I don't care for 6e on them.

Ok since they are India I guess that is why.

[PhilipDAth]

Only one needs to be configured for WPA3.

Note that with Wifi6E and WiFi7 the SSIDs are put into groups of 4.  SSIDs using 6E or 7 should only be in an SSID group containing only 6E and 7 SSIDs.

For example, if you have a WPA2 SSID in slot 1, then don't place a 6E/7 SSID in slots 1-4.  Put it into slot 5.

https://documentation.meraki.com/Wireless/Design_and_Configure/Configuration_Guides/Encryption_and_A...

[mak2018]

Thanks will keep that in mind when we start rolling this out.

[rhbirkelund]

Wow - that was not something I had expected.

I really feel like the amount of gotcha's in Meraki lately if going through the roof. 

[PhilipDAth]

This is not a Meraki issue.  It's a WiFi-6E and WiFi7 issue.  The "slot" restrictions affect all vendors.

Another gotcha.  If you want to use WPA3-193 and WiFi7 then you can only use the last 3 slots (13-15).

https://documentation.meraki.com/Wireless/Design_and_Configure/Configuration_Guides/Encryption_and_A...

If you are using Active Directory and group policy to configure WiFi7 - WPA3-192 is the only "natively" supported option.  Ordinary "WPA3" is not supported in the GUI.

[Brash]

That's super interesting. I had no idea about either of these 2 gotchas.

Good to know!

[PhilipDAth]

Google is telling me that 6 GHz isn't allowed in India yet, but it is close.

https://wifinowglobal.com/news-blog/india-delicenses-lower-6-ghz-band-unleashes-massive-wi-fi-equipm...

[mak2018]

Yeah that is exactly why I don't have that option even though the APs support it.