Wi-Fi 6 and Windows 10

[The_Roo]

I have just rebuilt a network, replacing old EOL Wi-Fi 5 Aruba APs with Meraki Wi-Fi6-capable CW9166 APs. The 2.4 and 5 GHz works fine and is in use. The 6GHz looks fine on the Ekahau survey and the logs are running clean. However, the customer is saying that nothiong will connect to the 6GHz, which is not unreasonable, I only put 6GHz on his corporate wireless, and all he has to connect are a bunch of Win10 PCs.

I know there is an issue where, to get Win 10 to connect to 6GHz, you have to down-grade the Wi-Fi driver, but I'm wary of doing that, for two reasons: 1 - its an outdated driver, so may have weaknesses and 2 - He's going to go to Win 11 in the next couple of months anyway, so any effort will be wasted.

All that notwithstanding, are there any quick and simple fixes I can do, that don't involve messing with driver regression, that have worked for anyone else in this situation? or am I making any inappropriate assumptions?

Thanks for any thoughts!

Roo

[alemabrahao]

This has nothing to do with the system itself, but his workstations must have at least wireless cards that support Wifi 6, I think this is kind of obvious, isn't it?

[The_Roo]

Hi Alemabrahao,

Yes, you are quite right, and he does actually have cards in the workstations that are specified for Wi-Fi 6, I should have said in my write-up.

I'm at the point where I know moving to Win11 will fix the problem, but I'm interested in other's experience when they hit this kind of situation and there was going to be a delay before Win11 would be an option.

Thanks

Roo

[ww]

Wifi6 is 2.4 &5Ghz.

Wifi6e can use the 6Ghz. 

Your customer has wifi6e wifi adapters?

[mlefebvre · Accepted solution]

Assuming your adapters are actually WiFi 6E capable and not just WiFi 6....in my personal experience there is no way to get it working on Windows 10 outside of that outdated driver, Microsoft has explicitly made WiFi 6E dependent on Windows 11. Also, if you deploy only 6GHz on that SSID you may run into problems with devices taking a long time to discover 6GHz or not seeing it at all as 6E relies heavily on Reduced Neighbor Reports for discovery.

[UKDanJones]

This isn’t quite right… RNR happen in the 5 GHz band regardless of the SSID. So if you have a 6 GHz only SSID as long as that same AP has any 5 GHz SSIDs it’ll broadcast the 6 GHz only SSID in the RNR. 

[PhilipDAth]

Also note to use Wifi 6E, you have to use WPA3.  In my experience, support for WPA3 is unusable at the moment (too many driver bugs or devices that can not connect at all) making WPA3 is unusable at the moment.

Also note that not all countries have ratified the 6Ghz bands yet.  If you are in a country where it is not ratified yet - you won't be able to connect at all as the 6Ghz radios won't allow a connection.

[UKDanJones]

You have to use WPA3 or OWE. 

I’ve found WPA3 not too bad. OWE however is much harder to rely on. 

[The_Roo]

This thread has some really good info and discussion, thanks guys, I'm still feeling my way with Wi-Fi 6 (obviously!) but you have all been a great help!

Roo