Inel AX201 unable to connect to hibryd/mixed mode SSID

[JPavonM]

Hi community,

We are upgrading from WPA2 to WPA3 in the company but, during some months, we will be using Transition mode.

I have configured the SSID in WPA3-Transition mode, with Transition disabled, plus CCMP128, with FT Enabled and supported AKMs 802.1X, 802.1X-SHA256 and 802.1X-FT, making it this way in Mixed mode, so supporting both FT and non-FT capable devices.

The problem I have found is that laptops with Intel AX201 cannot join, but the ones with AX200 or AX210/211 can. As far as I disable FT the AX201 ones connect.

FT is supposed to be supported by AX201 but for some reason it is not working.

Drivers are now up to date from Intel site, but I also tested with drivers from Lenovo support portal before, none of them worked.

This setup has been tested in both Cisco and Mist APs.

[Mike_Intel]

Hello JPavonM,

Thank you for posting in Intel community Forum.

For me to better understand and diagnose the issue further, let me ask you to provide detailed responses to the following questions. This information will help me isolate the problem and determine the most appropriate course of action moving forward.

1. What are the brand and model of the system using AX201?
2. How many units are affected?
3. Just to clarify, AX201 systems can connect to WPA2?
4. For me to review the hardware and the installed drivers. please help generate the SSU logs of your system. Kindly refer to the link below on how to generate the logs:

How to get the Intel® System Support Utility Logs on Windows*

If you have questions, please let us know. Thank you.

Best regards,

Michael L.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[JPavonM]

The "problem" with vendors is that they do not update drivers for adapters once they end of support the laptop models. This is happening to Lenovo all the time, and now the latest driver that they provide for the Intel wNIC shipped in the laptop model with issues is 22.180.29.2, whenever Intel keeps releasing new drivers.

We have tested with Lenovo drivers first and they didn't connect

Then installed Intel drivers from Intel support (latest 23.150) and now the connection works without any problem.

The Lenovo laptops were from model ThinkPad T14s Gen 1, but there are many others with the same adapter failing to connect.

So problem solved with Intel drivers, as always, and not with vendor drivers.

Attaching ISSU from Lenovo driver and Intel driver epocs on a private message.

[Mike_Intel]

Hello JPavonM,

Thank you for the update.

Based on your reply, let me clarify. Issue is fixed when using the latest Intel generic drivers?

If you have issues with Lenovo and the way they provided drivers, have you tried raising this to them?

If you have questions, please let us know. Thank you.

Best regards,

Michael L.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[JPavonM]

Yes using Intel generioc driver did the trick.

No I have not raised the issue to Lenovo becuase they always say the laptop model is outdated, and their update tool for Windows check the model, and drivers for that model, and they are not updating them anymore, so that is a dead end.

That use to happen.

the other way is to look for Intel drivers approved from Lenovo into Microsoft Update Catalog, but that needs from a script to do the search and install them.

[Mike_Intel]

Hello JPavonM,

Thank you for the update.

I am glad that the issue is now fixed using the latest Intel generic driver.

Please tell me if it is okay now to close this inquiry or do you still have some clarifications?

If you have questions, please let us know. Thank you.

Best regards,

Michael L.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Mike_Intel]

Hello JPavonM,

I hope you are having a good day.

I am sending a follow up to check if you still have clarifications. 

Since we have not heard back from you and you already said that the issue is fixed using generic driver, I need to close this inquiry. 

If you need further assistance, please post a new question as this thread will no longer be monitored. 

Thank you and have a great day. 

Best regards,

Michael L.

Intel Customer Support Technician