some clients can't connect to WBE660S with firmware 7.00 and MLO enabled

BenHead · July 24

I upgraded my two WBE660S access points to firmware 7.00 when it was released, and enabled MLO. Since then, I found that certain devices could not connect to my 5GHz/6GHz SSID. Turning off MLO seems to fix the connectivity problem.

Affected devices included early Google Home devices (Home, Home Hub, and Home Mini), an Android tablet (Lenovo Yoga 13), and Nintendo Switch and Switch Lite. Other devices, supporting any of WiFi 6, 6E, or 7 were able to connect just fine.

I haven't yet tried running more than one SSID in those frequencies so I can separate traffic that supports MLO. I'm hoping not to have to increase my network complexity in that way.

George993 · July 25

I experienced this as well. The issue is that when you enable MLO, WPA3 is the only supported security. It does not drop down to WPA2.

Hope that makes sense.

George

George993 · July 25

I experienced this as well. The issue is that when you enable MLO, WPA3 is the only supported security. It does not drop down to WPA2.

Hope that makes sense.

George

BenHead · July 25

Thanks, that's a good tip! Do you know if that's part of the WiFi 7 spec, or is that purely a limitation in this Zyxel firmware? I know we're kind of on the bleeding edge here, even if the spec is now ratified…

George993 · July 25

I believe that's part of the MLO spec. I had to create a second network (SSID) for my old clients with WPA2 security. It works pretty well that way. I actually created a separate vlan for it and just added my IoT devices.

George