I recently upgraded to iOS 14 & I'm noticing that the Orbi is not playing nice with the Private Internet Address feature. I keep loosing connectivity even though it shows that the wifi is connected. I think it has something to do with this feature not working or causing some connectivity problem when the iPad roams between Satellites. Is anyone else experincing this??

IOS 14 introduced a feature which "randomizes" the WiFi MAC address as a security feature. This is not unique to Apple. Other operating systems have a similar feature. This feature can be turned off. This would most likely "solve the problem." My (limited) understanding is that the randomized MAC feature is supposed to create a new MAC address for each WiFi system that the IOS device connects to. Once it creates a MAC for an Orbi WiFi system, that MAC should remain the same. (Can someone comment if this is indeed what is supposed to happen?) So, (1) disabling this feature would solve the problem, and (2) it would be interesting to understand exactly "what is going on" with respect to this specific iPhone and Orbi system. Does it have a consistent MAC address? What is happening when it "roams"? Is "Access Control" enabled on the Orbi?

To further expose my ignorance..... If rather than creating a new MAC address for each WiFi SSID, the new IOS 14 feature creates a new MAC address for each access point MAC address that the iPhone encounters, this will create havok for every mesh system that exists. What the heck is a WiFi system supposed to do?Wow, here is a device with MAC address xxx that knows my SSID/password and wants to connect. Great. I'll give it an IP address.Oh, goodness. Here is another device with a different MAC address that knows my SSID/password and wants to connect. Cool.Oh my. Here is yet another device with a different MAC address that knows my SSID/password and wants to connect. Fine dea. Oh, now it MY responsibility to know that those three different devices were actually the same device that was creating new identities every time it wanted to connect? Holy Crap. No wonder the message boards are full of posts about IOS 14.

While I understand that. The Orbi firmware needs to be addressed with an update to fix this incompatibility.

CrimpOn wrote:Once it creates a MAC for an Orbi WiFi system, that MAC should remain the same. Correction: Once it creates a MAC for a network, that MAC should remain the same. CrimpOn wrote:Once it creates a MAC for an Orbi WiFi system, that MAC should remain the same. Can someone comment if this is indeed what is supposed to happen?It's supposed to happen that the device does use the same randomized MAC when connecting to the very same network. However, the iOS 14 implementation s***s. It appears that iOS 14 does create random MAC for the same network under various conditions. That's of course not what the tin hats want - large scale WiFi networks which can be located at many places can represent the same network. By the way: Every decent OS is already identifying the (wireless) network, based on SSID, default gateway MAC, and more - for the "connect to this network" automatically.

:smileyfrustrated:Ya think someone would have seen in this in the open beta...

iOS 14 Private Network Address makes my iPad loose connectivity..

15 Replies

schumaku
Guru
Sep 27, 2020
Disable this junk for your own secure home or office network. Nobody is tracing you there. No f**g reason to enable this for your Orbi system.

Yes: JUNK! Apple (and Google) does illegally use harmonized MAC OUI either assigned to other vendors or coming from the reserved non-assigned MAC OUI space.
- computersteve
  Apprentice
  Sep 27, 2020
  While I understand that. The Orbi firmware needs to be addressed with an update to fix this incompatibility.
  - CrimpOn
    Guru
    Sep 27, 2020
    IOS 14 introduced a feature which "randomizes" the WiFi MAC address as a security feature. This is not unique to Apple. Other operating systems have a similar feature. This feature can be turned off. This would most likely "solve the problem."
    
    My (limited) understanding is that the randomized MAC feature is supposed to create a new MAC address for each WiFi system that the IOS device connects to. Once it creates a MAC for an Orbi WiFi system, that MAC should remain the same. (Can someone comment if this is indeed what is supposed to happen?)
    
    So, (1) disabling this feature would solve the problem, and (2) it would be interesting to understand exactly "what is going on" with respect to this specific iPhone and Orbi system. Does it have a consistent MAC address? What is happening when it "roams"? Is "Access Control" enabled on the Orbi?
FURRYe38
Guru
Sep 27, 2020
IOS 14 users need to post about this or give feed back to APPLE. This is a APPLE issue and they are repsonsible for making sure it works with wifi routers networks. Please ensure you make contact with APPLE support and give them feed back on there products and systems.
Remember, this all worked prior to you installing iOS 14.

computersteve wrote:
I recently upgraded to iOS 14 & I'm noticing that the Orbi is not playing nice with the Private Internet Address feature. I keep loosing connectivity even though it shows that the wifi is connected. I think it has something to do with this feature not working or causing some connectivity problem when the iPad roams between Satellites. Is anyone else experincing this??
- schumaku
  Guru
  Sep 27, 2020
  FURRYe38 wrote:
  Remember, this all worked prior to you installing iOS 14.
  There is still the option to use the default WiFi MAC and cross check if the issue is related to the random MAC *****.
  
  FURRYe38 wrote:
  IOS 14 users need to post about this or give feed back to APPLE. This is a APPLE issue and they are responsible for making sure it works with wifi routers networks. Please ensure you make contact with APPLE support and give them feed back on there products and systems.
  It the devices don't play nice e.g. flipping MAC addresses between he random and the default one very quickly while "seamless" roaming or during short disconnections from an SSID (that's what does make up the "network") - this can and will interfere with the any WiFi network - it's up to the WiFi client maker to address this.
  
  The Android 11 implementation seems to be very robust against such issues - no noise in the net 8-)
  - computersteve
    Apprentice
    Sep 28, 2020
    So it seems that iOS 14 is a mess with WiFi .. Read more about it here - IOS 14 WiFi
anthonyng5p
Apprentice
Dec 19, 2020
I just wanted to add to this thread because it caught my attention. I had a problem with an iPhone 7 on my home network with an RAX50 and an EAX20 range extender. Indeed, the iPhone7 would lose wifi connectivity when it would initially associate with the EAX20, then move out of range and into an area of higher signal strength with the RAX50. The private MAC address setting seemed to be the culprit, very likely for the same reasons mentioned here. Interestingly, this does not seem to affect an iPhone XR (or, I have yet to experience that problem). It could simply be that the WiFi performance of the phones differ. However, changing the private MAC address setting to "off" fixed this issue.

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iOS 14 Private Network Address makes my iPad loose connectivity..