You have to manually update your router/nodes for both versions. v2 firmware is 2.1.14.203054 that add HK support.
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Linksys Tri-Band Velop Routers Gain HomeKit Support
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I upgraded, so far so good. Added to HomeKit w/o issues, able to restrict a specific device within HomeKit as well. All devices remain online that need to be online, etc.
Just pulled the trigger on a WHW0303B setup, moving from airport. Amazon had the white kit down from 255 to 220 for Black Friday, but I found a "like new" black kit for 220 which had an additional 30% "warehouse discount" for Black Friday. 155 all in, so pleased with that.
3 nodes. Had some issues with initial set up and dropouts but factory reset and started again and all seems ok.
Download the correct firmware from the Linksys site (v1 and v2 hardware have different firmware versions)
Connect to each node via web browser and update the firmware from the downloaded file. May say doesn’t recognise the file name format but it works.
https://www.linksys.com/us/support-article?articleNum=217426
Thanks, MrGimper!
I was able to update the main node connected to the modem but could not seem to get the update to stick on the other two nodes. System just seemed clunky overall. Decided to return. Probably going to go with the Eero mesh system.
I did look at the Eero, but it was dual-band so didn't really do it for me. The Linksys has been flawless for me since the firmware upgrade and initial setup issues which were solved with a hard reset on all nodes. I use it in bridged mode.
Since I have a mix - Linksys Velop tri-band WiFi 5 and MX WiFi 6 nodes as my main - I don’t see the ability to add HomeKit after the firmware update finally pushed to my Velops.
I assumed the main node would have to be the Velop with HomeKit for it to be detected and used but I asked Linksys out of curiosity and surprisingly they said any node on your network that has HomeKit should be detected and working. I don’t understand how that’s possible if the main node connected to your modem doesn’t have the security feature - which is essentially what this is.
anyone have any similar experiences?
It would seem that the main node would determine that. I added a 4th tri-band the other day it came with older firmware. Immediately I got a message to upgrade the software or it would not have homekit on that node. It did say it would not affect the others though. And as I understood the HomeKit firmware release did not cover MX WiFi 6 versions at this time.
This doesn't work, the version that delivers Homekit is buggy and Linksys have recommended that Homekit is disabled due to various issues and most of us have rolled back to the previous version.
It would be nice for MacRumors to press Linksys for a real answer on this.
It would be nice for MacRumors to press Linksys for a real answer on this.
The latest firmware was released this month 02/04. It is only manual download but seem to fix many issues that were problematic.
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It doesn’t, especially if you have wired backhaul. Othere are reporting issues with wireless backhaul, especially if you are using a newer model at the parent node.
Where are the others reporting this? I would like to read their issues. I’m not having any issues at all. I do not have wired backhaul on my network. When you say newer model are you referring to v1 routers to v2? The last Homekit update everything was fine except network would slow down at times. I would then disable/enable HomeKit security and it would be fine for a while. With the newest one no issues at all been running for 2 weeks or so.
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On the Linksys support site, fully repeatable with wired backhaul. Then newer models are the AX4200 and MX5300 nodes in a hybrid config. I have a AX4200 as the parent now with three WHW03v1 as the children.
.16 was reported as having the same issue - despite having 'auto updates' set to off, I have .16 delivered to my AC2200 v1 child nodes (Grr) but no immediate failover so I will wait and see.