Realtek RTL8192CE can't see hAP ax2

robmaltsystems · Tue Mar 05, 2024 12:32 am

I occasionally get old computers to rebuild. One today surprised me - it was unable to see my Wi-Fi running through a hAP ax2. Just not shown at all. Fortunately, I've got a hAP ac lite on the bench and it could see that. Appreciate it's only going to see the 2.4GHz interface. Specific bit of the configuration:

/interface wifi security
add authentication-types=wpa2-psk,wpa3-psk disabled=no name=middle-earth passphrase=****
add authentication-types=wpa2-psk,wpa3-psk disabled=no name=shire passphrase=****
/interface wifi
set [ find default-name=wifi2 ] channel.skip-dfs-channels=10min-cac configuration.country="United Kingdom" .mode=ap .ssid="Middle Earth" disabled=no name=private-2g security=middle-earth
set [ find default-name=wifi1 ] channel.band=5ghz-ax .frequency=5500,5660,5260,5580,5180 .skip-dfs-channels=disabled configuration.country="United Kingdom" .mode=ap .ssid="Middle Earth 5G" disabled=no name=private-5g security=middle-earth
add configuration.mode=ap .ssid="The Shire" datapath.vlan-id=10 disabled=no mac-address=4A:A9:8A:64:E9:B9 master-interface=private-2g name=guest-2g security=shire
add configuration.mode=ap .ssid="The Shire" datapath.vlan-id=10 disabled=no mac-address=4A:A9:8A:64:E9:B8 master-interface=private-5g name=guest-5g security=shire

Going to have a play. Thoughts are it's an old card (in a PC) that doesn't support wpa2-psk (!) or the 2G AX mode?

PS. Intrigued that there isn't a channel.band=2ghz-ax in there. Added it and no difference. I did a factory reset earlier to see if that worked (it didn't) and the default script had the channel-band in it. Not the first time I've come across quirks like that. Guess ROS v7 is rapidly changing.

PPS. Stuck a USB RTL8188ETC that I had lying around - no problem there.

robmaltsystems · Tue Mar 05, 2024 12:45 am

Later... yes, it's channel.band=2ghz-ax that's the "problem". Change to channel.band=2ghz-g and this old card can see Wi-Fi. So the next question is a) is there a problem with the 2G AX implementation in ROS 7 or b) are some old Wi-Fi network chips just not compatible with 2.4GHz AX?

My ten year old Kindle can't see 2G AX either.

Doing a bit of Googling and found this "The good news: Wi-Fi 6 routers are completely backward compatible with all older Wi-Fi devices that support earlier versions, including 802.11 ac/n/g/b/a". Hmm... completely backward compatible suggests it should work...

Although I'm guessing it's a driver/Realtek issue as there are quite a few posts about problems connecting to AX on different vendors like Netgear:

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi-P ... -p/2205374

mkx · Tue Mar 05, 2024 8:34 am

... are some old Wi-Fi network chips just not compatible with 2.4GHz AX?

I'd attribute this to driver for that wireless card. Some are brain damaged enough to barf on features they don't recognize. As AX AP sets some bits to capability/feature list, which were "reserved for future use" back in time, it's up to driver to ignore those. But some drivers program hardware in a way that those are not ignored. Or, even worse, some vendors implemented some proprietary features and indicated availability by hijacking those "reserved for future use" bits ... now drivers barf because they see those bits set and mis-interpret their meaning.

TL;DR: when old devices running old drivers have problems with modern standard-conforming hardware, it's always the problem in those older devices.

Realtek RTL8192CE can't see hAP ax2 [SOLVED]

Realtek RTL8192CE can't see hAP ax2

Re: Realtek RTL8192CE can't see hAP ax2

Re: Realtek RTL8192CE can't see hAP ax2 [SOLVED]

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