ARP resolution failures AX211 (22.120.0.3), Windows 11 (21H2, 22000.795)

[lgcvsa]

(my previous post somehow inadvertently got marked as spam, possibly by a slip of my mouse hand, so I’m reposting it)

I have built a new PC using a Gigabyte Z690 UD AX motherboard with integrated Intel 6E AX211 160 Mhz wireless network adapter, and I have been experiencing frequent strange network failures. I am using driver version 22.120.0.3, which the Intel Driver & Support Assistant reports are being up-to-date.

What is happening is that the computer will seem to lose its connection to the Internet, but upon further investigation, I'm able to ping my router and sites on the Internet, but I have lost DNS resolution. I am running a private Pi-hole DNS server on a Raspberry Pi 3B+ under Raspberry Pi OS. 

When this happens, I can no longer ping the DNS server, and if I open a terminal and check the ARP cache on the Windows machine, there is no entry for the IP address of the DNS server., although the ARP table entries for my router and printer and other devices are still there.

Without the ARP resolution, of course, there's no way for my new PC to find the DNS server even by IP address. So that indicates to me that the ARP resolver on my new PC is failing in some odd fashion where it seems to only lose the ARP data for my DNS server, which really makes no sense, and I know it's not the Pi or my router, because all other machines on my network continue to operate normally.

Disconnecting and reconnecting the wireless connection does not fix the problem. Disabling and re-enabling the AX211 doesn't fix the problem. Rebooting the router doesn't fix the problem. Rebooting the DNS server doesn't fix the problem. Changing the drivers to the ones released by Intel directly or the ones from Gigabyte doesn't fix the problem. Restarting the PC does not fix the problem.

The only thing that fixes this problem is completely shutting down the Windows PC and powering it off, then powering it back on and allowing it to boot up. Then everything is working again, at least until the next time it decides to simply quit working. These failures are happening at least once a day.

As a workaround, I disabled the AX211 and installed an older Linksys WUSB6300 (v1) adapter I have, using the driver provided by Microsoft, and the system has been stable for several days.

Now, it did occur to me that there is one other aspect of my network that might be relevant. My WiFi router is a Motorola combination cable modem and router, a Motorola MG7540, which is an AC1600 router, while the AX211 is an AX adapter. The Linksys WUSB6300 is an AC1200 adapter.

I bought the AX version of the motherboard because the specifications said that the AX version supported AC, as well, but the AC version (which has the Intel Wi-Fi AC 9560 chipset) does not support AX, as well, and I wanted to be sure I was future-compatible.

Today, I removed the Linksys adapter from the PC, and re-enabled the AX211, but this time, I went into the driver settings, and changed the "802.11n/ac/ax Wireless Mode" to "3. 802.11ac". I am not sure if this will improve things, but I thought it was worth a try. Who knows how long it may last. I will post updates if it continues to fail, or after enough time has passed to convince me it's stable, if it doesn't fail.

[DeividA_Intel]

Hello lgcvsa,  

Thank you for posting on the Intel® communities. I am sorry to know that you are having issues with your   

In order to better assist you, please try the following:  

1. Have you encountered any issue with the DNS after changing "802.11n/ac/ax Wireless Mode" to "3. 802.11ac"?

2. Have you checked this issue with Gigabyte?

3. Have you noticed any errors at the device manager like error 10 or error 43?

4. Does this happen with both bands (2.4GHz and 5GHz)?

5. To confirm, have you tested your computer with a different router or network? There could be a compatibility issue only affecting your motherboard and router?

6. Just want to confirm, does the issue also appear with Intel driver version 22.150.0?

Regards,  

Deivid A.  

Intel Customer Support Technician  

[lgcvsa]

1. So far, everything has been stable since changing the setting to “ac”, although it has only been about 48 hours. It still troubles me that “ax” is supposed to be compatible with “ac”, and was working perfectly, aside from the periodic failures, if that does indeed turn out to be the workaround.

2. No, I have not attempted to contact Gigabyte.

3. There are some errors in the Windows event logs, I don’t remember which codes.

4. I have not certain if this happens with both bands, as my router and the adpater would presumably negotiate this automatically.

5. I have not tested with a different router or network, since I don’t have access to any other router or network that would support either ac or ax.

6. I was unaware that there was a newer driver version, as I am using the drivers automatically selected by the Intel assistant. If you could direct me to the newer driver, I would appreciate it.

[DeividA_Intel]

Hello lgcvsa, 

Thanks for the information. Before we continue I would like to let you know that this issue may be related, as you mentioned, to the Motorola router that supports and is compatible with the "AC" technology and the website does not mention if supports "AX" technology (https://www.motorola.com/us/mg7540/p).

If the clean installation of the Intel drivers does not work, I recommend you to check with the modem manufacturer (Motorola) or your internet service provider to confirm that the modem supports and is compatible with the "AX" technology.

Here are the drivers and the steps:

• Driver: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download/19351/windows-10-and-windows-11-wi-fi-drivers-for-intel-wireless-adapters.html
• Steps: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000022173.html

Regards,  

Deivid A.  

Intel Customer Support Technician  

[lgcvsa]

It is, of course, related to the Motorola router not supporting AX, but a major selling point of AX is that it is supposed to be backward compatible with AC and previous generations.

However, that being said, using the existing drivers, my system has been stable ever since I switched the driver setting to AC only, where prior to that, the connection has been experiencing failures of ARP resolution once per day or more.

So, for my purposes, the issue is sufficiently resolved, but I still think the driver development team should examine the code to see why failures might happen on an AC network with the default driver setting.

[DeividA_Intel · Accepted solution]

Hello lgcvsa, 

I understand the situation. I will proceed to close this thread since you will use your adapter under AC settings. Bear in mind that you can get in contact with Motorola or Gigabyte to get further instructions on this matter.

Regards,   

Deivid A.  

Intel Customer Support Technician