New iPad Pro Includes Special Mode to Turn Off Wi-Fi 6E

[btrach144]

Weird article! My 2022 iPad Pro should arrive shortly... and I have a WiFi 6E access point on a 2.5G ethernet connection with 10G internet. I'm excited to give it a go...

Can you please let me know how it goes?

I just got my new iPad (6th gen) and I can’t get it to see my 6Ghz band from my AXE16000.

I’ve tried turning my 6Ghz band on and off. Resetting iPad network settings, rebooting my router. Updated iPad to 16.1 as well.

This iPad is my first 6E device so not sure if my router is being weird or if this is the iPad being weird.

Edit: it’s my wifi router. Dusted off my year old AXE11000 and the iPad can see its 6GHz band.

The AXE16000 still has immature firmware (even the latest firmware) so I’m going to try a firmware wipe and try a fresh setup.

 

[metalsiren]

The issue is that this rarely happens. Virtually all routers I test will put clients on 2.4Ghz because it has the best RSSI. Almost always, having selected 5GHz would have yielded 4-5x speed gains.

Eeros and Google Nests are special mentions. EEros pros go for $300+ and make clients roam on 2.4Ghz for max speeds of 100mbps when 5GHz which completely negates the premium you pay for them for the higher speeds.

just to be clear, the client decides what radio band to choose not the router. Some wireless client take more than RSSI into account when making the choice. I am pretty sure Apple clients choose the highest RSSI but have to double check

 

[belvdr]

just to be clear, the client decides what radio band to choose not the router. Some wireless client take more than RSSI into account when making the choice. I am pretty sure Apple clients choose the highest RSSI but have to double check

You say you're a wifi engineer but your avatar is a Decepticon. Hmmm..

 

[metalsiren]

Can you please let me know how it goes?

I just got my new iPad (6th gen) and I can’t get it to see my 6Ghz band from my AXE16000.

I’ve tried turning my 6Ghz band on and off. Resetting iPad network settings, rebooting my router. Updated iPad to 16.1 as well.

This iPad is my first 6E device so not sure if my router is being weird or if this is the iPad being weird.

you have to make sure that for 6Ghz the router is selecting a PSC channel , https://www.accessagility.com/blog/what-are-preferred-scanning-channels-psc-in-6-ghz-wifi

if the base channel for example is 1 and not 5, and its 6E only, the client will never see it since it doesnt scan for it

 

[belvdr]

Can you please let me know how it goes?

I just got my new iPad (6th gen) and I can’t get it to see my 6Ghz band from my AXE16000.

I’ve tried turning my 6Ghz band on and off. Resetting iPad network settings, rebooting my router. Updated iPad to 16.1 as well.

This iPad is my first 6E device so not sure if my router is being weird or if this is the iPad being weird.

How close are you? I don't have experience with 6E but guessing you'll want to be within eyesight of the WAP.

 

[metalsiren]

You say you're a wifi engineer but your avatar is a Decepticon. Hmmm..

I am just Evil

 

[dguisinger]

Wait, it actually has 6GHz? The way I read their spec page was it had 2.4GHz and 5GHz but not 6GHz, even though it was 6e...

 

[falkon-engine]

You are getting downvoted but with all routers I've tried this setup is trash when it comes to select the right band. Claims of 'band steering' or 'smart connect' will almost always make your device sit on the slower band (2.4Ghz) with no recourse. I know it's the client who decides where to hang out.

I get it's the default for most people so there are no problems, but you usually get 4x-5x speed ups by going to 5Ghz with way less interference. It's not even close.

I'm not worried about the downvotes. I've been managing home WiFi networks since 2006... and have seen it all, I've used routers from various brands, used custom firmware like Tomato, DD-WRT, ASUS-WRT et al. Having separate SSIDs for the various frequencies works best for my use case. Stable connections, no roaming issues, fastest connection available.

 

[Devnul0]

Is that just a HomeKit thing? I don't have anything of the sort to compare it to.

I think it's that generally these home "internet of things" devices only support 2.4GHz, and then the technique HomeKit uses to add devices goes absolutely wonky if the phone is on a 5GHz network. As far as I can tell (from observation), when such a home device is reset, it acts as a wifi base with an SSID something like <vendor>_<MAC address>. That's paired up up with the QR code scanned with the device packaging and they connect and the phone presumably gives the device the credentials for the "real" wifi. Then everyone disconnects and tries to connect to the "real" wifi and the phone waits there for the device to show up. When my 2.4 and 5 networks had the same SSID, these devices would never show up. You'd think that they'd just connect to the 2.4, it's the only frequency they know, but it didn't work. I've no VLAN'ing between the 2.4 and 5, either. If I did, then separate SSID's would have had the same problem, but with separate SSID's and the steps I mentioned when pairing a new device, it works perfectly.

 

[kognos]

Why does apple recommend using the same SSID for the different frequencies? I’ve found that it is best to have separate SSIDs for each band…

The device should find the band with the best signal and use that. This is true for newer client devices, less true for legacy devices. I used to have legacy printers which never played well in those scenarios but nowadays it is really given that clients connect to "AccessPoint1" have a variable signal and always choose the best signal to continue the transmissions on, just like they do for LTE or other variable-signal networks.

Apple is doing nothing more here than just recommending what is otherwise common practice in the industry. Thankfully.

 

[james2538]

Wait, it actually has 6GHz? The way I read their spec page was it had 2.4GHz and 5GHz but not 6GHz, even though it was 6e...

It still only says that on the tech specs:

• Wi‑Fi 6E (802.11ax) with 2x2 MIMO, simultaneous dual band (2.4GHz and 5GHz)

Wouldn't take anything from it though. Apple has gotten sloppy on their website with the recent releases. The Apple Watch Series 8 and SE said Bluetooth 5.0 for several weeks after release until it was corrected to Bluetooth 5.3

 

[thatsthequy]

Well that’ s going to cause some headaches!

WiFi 6E Requires WPA3 and can’t support mixed mode authentication across all bands for that SSID. So lots of legacy devices won’t like that…

You’d need an access point capable of multiple SSDs across all bands to properly segment it. That’s a shame.

Not quite. You can have one SSID that spans all three frequencies where 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz use WPA3 Transition Mode and 6Ghz uses WPA3 with PMF.

 

[thatsthequy]

I want more details on “overall experience with some activities over the network might not be as expected.” With separate bands. I’m so curious what they mean by that, and why it doesn’t apply to have separate 2.4ghz and 5ghz on routers that don’t support 6E

Apple has always recommended using dual-band SSIDs, this is just an amendment to no say they also recommend tri-band SSIDs.

 

[james2538]

Disclaimer before WIFI6Gate. Yep. Beta-hardware.

Apple back in the day kinda did use beta hardware. The MacBook Pros got 802.11n before the standard was finalized.

 

[appleguy123]

Highly doubtful. Why would a headset also require a new M2 iPad Pro to work? That'd make it super limited.

Wifi 6E is overkill for what most have in terms of home internet. Only those with fiber need such to maximize it.

There's not going to be a requirement for the VR to work, to also have a fiber connection.

Wifi 6E does more than have fast internet speeds. It’s essentially a wireless connection with close to Thunderbolt speeds. The original rumors from Kuo said the headset will feature wifi 6E pairing to a more powerful processor as well.

 

[thatsthequy]

just to be clear, the client decides what radio band to choose not the router. Some wireless client take more than RSSI into account when making the choice. I am pretty sure Apple clients choose the highest RSSI but have to double check

Apple devices prefer 6Ghz>5Ghz>2.4Ghz and prefer ax>ac>n

 

[Nugget]

I'm not worried about the downvotes. I've been managing home WiFi networks since 2006... and have seen it all, I've used routers from various brands, used custom firmware like Tomato, DD-WRT, ASUS-WRT et al. Having separate SSIDs for the various frequencies works best for my use case. Stable connections, no roaming issues, fastest connection available.

When’s the last time you tried, though? Your advice is definitely correct for 2006-era tech, and in my experience held true through at least 2016. But it’s 2022 now and (in my experience) client WiFi has gotten so much better at single-SSID networks and (in my experience) it works exactly like you’d hope for the vast majority of situations.

 

[jimbobb24]

Sounds like a problem apple could solve with a …new Airport Base Station with more modern options like controlling access, editing website access by time or day and so much more. Apple make my dreams come true.

 

[belvdr]

Sounds like a problem apple could solve with a …new Airport Base Station with more modern options like controlling access, editing website access by time or day and so much more. Apple make my dreams come true.

What's the problem Apple needs to solve?

 

[jimbobb24]

yeah so gross when you pull up your wifi networks and everyone in the neighborhood has a HOMENETWORK-2.4/HOMENETWORK-5 networks.

Especially because it has led to so much confusion with 5G wireless networks and 5Ghz wifi networks.

Proper naming convention is HOASucks 2-4 and HOASucks 5

 

[jimbobb24]

What's the problem Apple needs to solve?

The switching problem half the people are complaining about.

 

[TypeEE]

Weird article! My 2022 iPad Pro should arrive shortly... and I have a WiFi 6E access point on a 2.5G ethernet connection with 10G internet. I'm excited to give it a go...

You paid for 10G internet but is bottlenecked by a 2.5G home system? Why would you do that?

 

[belvdr]

The switching problem half the people are complaining about.

There's nothing to solve, as the variables are too large for one company to fix. It depends on your house, your devices, your WAP location, etc.

 

[belvdr]

You paid for 10G internet but is bottlenecked by a 2.5G home system? Why would you do that?

It's pretty common actually. Traffic aggregates at the circuit, thus if you have several heavy users each with a gigabit link (wired or not), then it makes sense to have a circuit that exceeds the bandwidth of each individual link.

It's why many virtual farms use 10GE+ when the clients are only at gig or less.

As for the person you replied to, I'm surmising they are doing this at a work location.

 

[AppleFan735]

Exactly, 2.4 Ghz always has the strongest RSSI so most devices choose to roam to the 2.4 Ghz band and stay there, but then you have to deal with interference from neighbors or low bandwidth (20 Mhz on 2.4 Ghz vs 80 MHz on 5 GHz or 160 MHz on 6 Ghz) and lower speeds.

I'm using an Asus Wi-Fi 6 router with combined SSID and I've never caught my iPhone, iPad or Mac being "stuck" on the 2.4 Ghz band. Not sure if it's the router or the client device that's the deciding factor but never had any issues with roaming.