WIFI roaming for WPA3 broken again (somewhere from 7.17.1+- to 7.18beta5) (edit: solved)
Posted: Sat Feb 08, 2025 1:15 am
( edit: solved! Long story short: for WPA3-PSK users to successfully roam, you need to include following:
/interface/wifi/security/connect-priority=0/1
)
Hi.
I have 3x Wi-Fi APs (hAP ax^3) and 1x CAPsMAN controller (on hAP ac^2, Wi-Fi interfaces disabled there).
Until yesterday, I had some stable version (probably 7.16.2), and Wi-Fi roaming was working fine there.
Yesterday, I updated to 7.17.1, and Wi-Fi roaming stops working.
Clients just "reconnect" with about a 0.5-1 second interruption to the other AP, and "disconnected" and "connected" messages appear in the log:
C8:9B:D7:0E:B8:39@ap_bdr_wifi-5G disconnected, connection lost, signal strength -80
C8:9B:D7:0E:B8:39@ap_lvr_wifi-5G connected, signal strength -53
and back
C8:9B:D7:0E:B8:39@ap_lvr_wifi-5G disconnected, not responding, signal strength -88
C8:9B:D7:0E:B8:39@ap_bdr_wifi-5G connected, signal strength -56
Before the update, only one "roaming" message was appearing there instead:
C8:9B:D7:0E:B8:39@ap_bdr_wifi-5G roamed to C8:9B:D7:0E:B8:39@ap_lvr_wifi-5G, signal strength -48
or back
C8:9B:D7:0E:B8:39@ap_lvr_wifi-5G roamed to C8:9B:D7:0E:B8:39@ap_bdr_wifi-5G, signal strength -48
I think the problem is, that I cannot select both "WPA2 PSK" with "WPA3 PSK" together in the security settings.
Perhap issue is combination with the "Management Protection" setting.
1) "WPA3 PSK" only:
When only option "WPA3 PSK" is selected, "Management Protection" must be set to "required".
Otherwise, no clients are able to connect with "allowed" or "disabled".
But even with "required", the "roaming" is not working.
It seems that clients try to roam (client's SW show connected=roamed to the new AP) but are immediately "disconnected" and "connected" again.
2) "WPA2 PSK" only:
When "WPA2 PSK" only is selected, and "Management Protection" is set to "disabled|allowed|required|not set", roaming starts working fine again, as beffore.
3) In the older version of 7.16.X, I had the option "WPA2 PSK + WPA3 PSK" with "Management Protection" set to "required", almost all clients were connected with WPA3 PSK, and roaming was working fine (as expected).
So some changes in mikrotik SW code was changed, perhaps some BUG introduced, which stops roaming worked for all my clients.
I am prepared to create ticket for support, but I am still waiting for registration email to register there.
Please check what can be wrong and perhaps if there is better sollution, than turning WPA3 PSK OFF, and also "Protection Management" to OFF.
It was working few versions behind.
Note:
I see a positive change in version 7.18beta5.
Probably due to option ".2g-probe-delay=yes" clients now ROAM more on 5G, while before they usually tended to roam to 2.4G instead 5G.
Note2:
I added more explanation and my configuration below (3rd post).
Thank you.
/interface/wifi/security/connect-priority=0/1
)
Hi.
I have 3x Wi-Fi APs (hAP ax^3) and 1x CAPsMAN controller (on hAP ac^2, Wi-Fi interfaces disabled there).
Until yesterday, I had some stable version (probably 7.16.2), and Wi-Fi roaming was working fine there.
Yesterday, I updated to 7.17.1, and Wi-Fi roaming stops working.
Clients just "reconnect" with about a 0.5-1 second interruption to the other AP, and "disconnected" and "connected" messages appear in the log:
C8:9B:D7:0E:B8:39@ap_bdr_wifi-5G disconnected, connection lost, signal strength -80
C8:9B:D7:0E:B8:39@ap_lvr_wifi-5G connected, signal strength -53
and back
C8:9B:D7:0E:B8:39@ap_lvr_wifi-5G disconnected, not responding, signal strength -88
C8:9B:D7:0E:B8:39@ap_bdr_wifi-5G connected, signal strength -56
Before the update, only one "roaming" message was appearing there instead:
C8:9B:D7:0E:B8:39@ap_bdr_wifi-5G roamed to C8:9B:D7:0E:B8:39@ap_lvr_wifi-5G, signal strength -48
or back
C8:9B:D7:0E:B8:39@ap_lvr_wifi-5G roamed to C8:9B:D7:0E:B8:39@ap_bdr_wifi-5G, signal strength -48
I think the problem is, that I cannot select both "WPA2 PSK" with "WPA3 PSK" together in the security settings.
Perhap issue is combination with the "Management Protection" setting.
1) "WPA3 PSK" only:
When only option "WPA3 PSK" is selected, "Management Protection" must be set to "required".
Otherwise, no clients are able to connect with "allowed" or "disabled".
But even with "required", the "roaming" is not working.
It seems that clients try to roam (client's SW show connected=roamed to the new AP) but are immediately "disconnected" and "connected" again.
2) "WPA2 PSK" only:
When "WPA2 PSK" only is selected, and "Management Protection" is set to "disabled|allowed|required|not set", roaming starts working fine again, as beffore.
3) In the older version of 7.16.X, I had the option "WPA2 PSK + WPA3 PSK" with "Management Protection" set to "required", almost all clients were connected with WPA3 PSK, and roaming was working fine (as expected).
So some changes in mikrotik SW code was changed, perhaps some BUG introduced, which stops roaming worked for all my clients.
I am prepared to create ticket for support, but I am still waiting for registration email to register there.
Please check what can be wrong and perhaps if there is better sollution, than turning WPA3 PSK OFF, and also "Protection Management" to OFF.
It was working few versions behind.
Note:
I see a positive change in version 7.18beta5.
Probably due to option ".2g-probe-delay=yes" clients now ROAM more on 5G, while before they usually tended to roam to 2.4G instead 5G.
Note2:
I added more explanation and my configuration below (3rd post).
Thank you.