Wireless firmware versions MR 26.5 changelog

[cmr]

New

• Added ability to disable 802.11r r0 key timeout given some client incompatibilities with the default 3600 second timeout. Please contact support. (802.11n/ac/ac Wave 2 MRs)

General

• Numerous stability patches implemented for MR26, MR32, MR34, MR72
• Numerous single & multi-client performance improvements implemented for 802.11ac Wave 2 MRs
• Stability improvements for MR45, MR55

Bug fixes

• Unexpected beacon behavior after channel changes with 11ax mode disabled (MR45/MR55)
• Mesh stability fixes (MR18 / 802.11ac Wave 2 MRs)
• Upon losing default gateway connectivity, and regaining connectivity, the MR would not broadcast it’s SSIDs as expected (802.11ac Wave 2 MRs)
• The MR26 (2.4 / 5 GHz radio) & MR34 (2.4 GHz radio) would broadcast corrupted beacons when minimum bitrates differ across SSIDs. This has been addressed by ensuring that all client SSIDs (as well as the mesh SSID) for these radios are configured to use the same minimum bitrate by selecting the lowest common denominator across the enabled client SSIDs. (MR26/MR34)
• Potentially exhaust memory of MR30H when sending traffic at high rates between two wired LAN clients connected to the same MR (MR30H)
• MR still broadcasts mesh beacons when meshing is disabled (802.11ac Wave 2 MRs)
• Mesh beacons sent at maximum transmit power if 2.4 GHz radio disabled (MR45/MR55)
• Gateway IP was being spoofed by certain types of clients resulting in incorrect gateway IP information being propagated to other clients (All MRs)
• Invalid Implicit Beamforming operations from certain clients leading to MR reboot (802.11ac Wave 2 MRs)
• Meraki Proxy ARP interoperability issue with radio vendor implementation leading to MR reboot (802.11ac Wave 2 MRs)
• Fragmented packets dropped by gateway MRs when destined to clients behind a wired mesh repeater (All MRs)
• Clients unable to pass traffic on Open SSIDs (MR26/MR32/MR34/MR72)
• TPC report element missing from beacons & probe responses (MR45 / MR55)
• Prevent gateway MRs from forwarding BPDUs received from wireless clients (All MRs)
• Disable 802.11k Client Beacon Measurement due to client interoperability issues (802.11ac Wave 2 / 802.11ax MRs)
• Inconsistent formatting of User-Name and Calling-Station-ID attributes when using MAC-Authentication with Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) Authentication Splash (All MRs)
• Clients able to associate & send traffic prior to MR receiving Access-Accept from RADIUS server when using MAC-Authentication (All MRs)
• Some MRs were unable to download configuration due to required internal parameters not being properly stored in flash memory (802.11n/ac/ac Wave 2 MRs)
• Control frames sent at OFDM rates to non-OFDM clients (802.11ac Wave 2 MRs)
• Power Constraint IE missing from beacon/probe response frames for non-DFS channels (802.11ac Wave 2 MRs)
• Windows clients unable to reauthenticate after Change-of-Authorization (All MRs)
• Group policy not applying to clients immediately after MR boot (802.11n/ac/ac Wave 2 MRs)

Known issues

• Downstream VOIP RTP Packet Loss (MR42/MR42E/MR52/MR53/MR53E/MR84)
• Issue under investigation where DHCP intermittently fails for bridge mode SSIDs (MR32)
• Sporadic packet loss & instability on Layer 3 roaming & Teleworker VPN SSID’s
• Reduced aggregate upload throughput for Windows clients (MR45/MR55)
• When upgrading from MR25.x firmware to MR26.x firmware, mesh repeater MRs may be slow to upgrade (802.11ac Wave 2 MRs)

[PhilipDAth]

Mmm, bug fixes.  Tastes good.

[merakichelsea]

This is still under known issues:

Issue under investigation where DHCP intermittently fails for bridge mode SSIDs (MR32)

But has there been any improvements on this before i try to upgrade again?

[cmr]

I have only upgraded a network of MR34s so far so not sure about MR32 issues with it, sorry.

[bigben386]

Curious about this myself. This issue is preventing us from using 26.x. It was much more than intermittent for us! It is frustrating when you see the same known issue in so many consecutive firmware releases.

[pjc]

Issue under investigation where DHCP intermittently fails for bridge mode SSIDs (MR32)

A deal breaker for us, I'm out

[RumorConsumer]

Sorry - is this available? My APs aren’t finding it

[cmr]

It is a beta firmware, along with all 26.x ones.  We installed it over a week ago at one site and have had no issues.  Do you not see it when you go to Organisation / Firmware Upgrades as per below:

If you do, then you can apply it by selecting All Networks and ticking the ones you want upgraded as below then clicking on Schedule upgrades:

[RumorConsumer]

Ah got it. I read up on the process. How long does beta usually take to mature around here??

[cmr]

It depends on how many people install it, the way Meraki releases work is that beta should be production ready, just new and not installed in very many places.

There are sometimes some features missing or not fully working but the release notes will detail those

We use beta MX 15.x firmware to run our SD-WAN for 9 sites and 1500+ employees and haven't had any significant issues with it.  We also run 26.5 at our HQ where there are about 75 users, but haven't installed it in the venues as we did have the clients dropping off problem when we used earlier MR 26.x firmwares. We are going to install it at one venue this week and carefully monitor. 

In summary at can take a few weeks, to over a year, depending on uptake and bugs found in the field.

[FiberOps]

Have a question about one of the bug fixes which is reason we are slowly implementing MR26.5 into our network. Specifically "Gateway IP was being spoofed by certain types of clients resulting in incorrect gateway IP information being propagated to other clients (All MRs)." 

1. Does anyone the the mechanism which prevents the spoofing? We tracked it down to Bonjour Proxy arp on some Apple devices which does the spoofing in our network. 
   • Does this disable bonjour proxy? 
   • Does this affect mDNS? 
2. We currently have a few APs running on the new firmware and are testing to see any negative behavior before we roll it out entirely. 
   • For the known bug, "Sporadic packet loss & instability on Layer 3," is this sporadic packet loss during actual roaming of clients or in general if layer 3 roaming is enabled clients will see packet loss? 

As of right now our testing isn't showing any type of packet loss but are worried if we deploy network wide we will be implementing more problems than before. 

[cmr]

Just FYI, 26.6 is out now.  We have rolled it out to three sites and it seems okay so far.

The release notes are below and the issue you highlighted hasn't yet been addressed but others have:

Wireless firmware versions MR 26.6 changelog

New

• Added a delay mechanism to RADIUS Accounting-Start packets so that the MR can learn the newly obtained IP address of the client and insert into Framed-IP-Address attribute. Previously, Framed-IP-Address attribute contained 0.0.0.0 for newly connected clients. Contact Support for this functionality. (All MRs)

General

• Additional stability patches implemented for MR26, MR32, MR34, MR72

Bug fixes

• Download throughput regression when MR negotiated mGig speeds with upstream switch port (802.11ax MRs)
• Fixes for various conditions that could lead to the MR rebooting (802.11ax MRs)
• Receipt of DELBA frame from client leading to packet loss on 2.4 GHz radio (802.11ax MRs)
• Unexpected beacon behavior & instability following a channel change (802.11ax MRs)
• Degraded mesh throughput for repeaters after the mesh gateway upgraded to MR26.x firmware while the repeater is still on MR25.x firmware (802.11ac Wave 2/ 802.11ax MRs)
• 802.11ax MR's unable to mesh with non-802.11ax MR's operating on MR25.x firmware (All MRs)
• Clients may be unable to receive traffic for a given type of traffic (QoS TID) when entering power save mode (MR26/MR32/MR34/MR72)
• MRs may begin operating as 802.11n after DFS event (802.11ac Wave 2 MRs / 802.11ax MRs)
• Group policy not applying to clients immediately after MR boot (802.11ax MRs)

Known issues

• Downstream VOIP RTP Packet Loss (MR42/MR42E/MR52/MR53/MR53E/MR84)
• Sporadic packet loss & instability on Layer 3 roaming & Teleworker VPN SSID's (All MRs)
• Reduced aggregate upload throughput on 2.4GHz radio for Windows clients (802.11ax MRs)
• EAPOL Key 3 is not sent from AP to 802.11b/g clients on PSK SSIDs (802.11ax MRs)

[FiberOps]

Sounds like a dumb question but 26.6 works off of 26.5 right? The only bug fix that I see that was resolved with 26.6, reported in 26.5, was DHCP intermittently fails for bridge mode SSIDs (MR32). 

Just trying to figure out if i should stick with 26.5 or just start with 26.6. 

[bigben386]

My concern is that the release notes do not specifically mention that the dhcp issue was fixed. It has just disappeard from the known issues section.

[pjc]

Yep, pretty shoddy release doucmentation.  If it's fixed or still a know issue it should be documented accordingly.

As an organisation using bridged SSiD's and with a large number of MR32's, we will be going nowhere near a newer version of firmware until it's definately confirmed this DHCP issue is fixed