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WPA3 not working on 6GHz in Windows 11
I would have put the Model in the appropriate field, but it wasn't available in the selection list. I have a Nighthawk AXE11000(RAXE500) router with firmware version V1.0.7.68_2.0.35, and four PCs w...
Windows 11 has been having a wide range of issues, along with many regressions where issues that were long since fixed on windows 10, have returned on windows 11 even though windows 11 uses a ton of code from windows 10. It has been a mess, for example on windows 10, Microsoft had 6GHz working for some time, and then released updates that broke it again. On windows 11, they added more support for WPA3, but broke many other network related things, such as handling of mapped network drives, WiFi connections when coming out of standby, WiFi connections when coming out of hibernation, and much more.
The WPA2 + WPA3 options were removed since they caused compatibility issues as well as not offering much protection over WPA2 because of downgrade attacks. Beyond that, for the 6GHz band, the standard mandates WPA3.
The WAP2/WPA3 issue isn't my main concern, my main concern is why WAP3 isn't working for me on the 6GHz band, when Enhanced Open works just fine. For the record, I *have* used WPA3 on 5Ghz before, and my PCs that supported it worked fine. I stick to WPA2 because I have other devices that connect on 5GHz but don't work with WPA3. I'm fine leaving 5GHz at WPA2. But WPA3 not working on 6GHz when what was specifically one of the things Win 11 and Win 10 21H2 were supposed to add support for. I'm glad the RAXE500 supports MAC address filtering so I can add some protection to the Enhanced Open setting, but I'd still like to now why WPA3 is not working.
The 6GHz WPA3 issues on windows 11 is largely an issue with windows 11. It has been a long running issue where some builds will have it work fine and others will break it again. Though on other devices, for example smartphones with WiFi 6e support, WPA3 on the 6GHz band works great. Intel has long since added full support for WPA3 on the 6GHz band, On windows 10, for a while they had support for 6gHz but incomplete WPA3 support unless you used an insider build, they then did something with subsequent updates where some systems would no longer see 6GHz APs at all, and on fresh installs, none seem to see 6GHz APs. Windows 11 while is has better 6GHz support, connection reliability has been an issue.
This has been the worst OS launch since windows vista. PS, upgrades from windows 10 to 11 have been far worse than fresh installs of windows 11, it has gotten to a point where many are recommending that people disable TPM (if they are not actively using it for things like bitlocker) in the bios to prevent an accidential upgrade until the user is fully ready to try it.
I know this thread is a few months old, but I want to share the fix that I found.
If you look in the log files or event viewer, you will find that Windows 11 is disconnecting and reconnecting due to security setting mismatch.
If you are using WPA2/WPA3 transition mode or WPA3 with some realtek and even a few intel wireless cards, it will keep happening.
I created a second SSID with just WPA2 and not a single issue.
It isn't the driver version or network card, it is Windows 11 and transition or WPA3 support.
It seems that every release, it is a crap shoot with WPA3. Hopefully they get it figured out.
That won't work for 6GHz, the only security options are OWE("Enahnced Open") or WPA3, WPA2 isn't allowed. WPA3 works just fine for me on the 5GHz band, it's just the 6GHz band where WPA3 isn't working for me. Even with the newest firmware for the RAXE500 and the latest drivers for the Intel AX210, it still isn't working.