I understand from WiFi problems with FP3 - #17 by stephan.brunner that the problem connecting to Adaptive FT SSID is known, and had hoped that the wifi driver had been updated. My workplace has recently enabled Adaptive FT, so my Fairphone 3 no longer connects to wifi. Is the wifi driver component likely to be updated, and if so when?
I know (more or less) what Fast Transition is: 802.11r, though I don’t know what the “Adaptive” bit signifies.
My reading of @stephan.brunner 's post is that FT is in fact operable with his FP on his Cisco router as long as the additional security parameter is included (PSK being a means to prepare the device with the new key before switching actually takes place).
Otherwise, for more detailed info I advise you to contact Support.
Thanks for engaging! My understanding of @stephan.brunner’s post is the setting where he had control of the router. My setting is different, because router policies are decided by others, and those policies are checked against typical hardware/software combinations. If I’m wrong, and the adjustments can be made in software on my phone, please advise where and how if known, or confirm that Support can help. My concern is that I’ve missed a driver update.
Hi Roger,
I couldn’t say whether Support will be able to be of immediate help or not, but if there’s a bug then they need to be advised of it, otherwise it won’t get fixed.
So probably best to drop them a line. You’ll need to provide all pertinent info about the network you’re trying to use.
I take it you mentioned your problem to your IT admins. It seems to me that if you’re doing BYOD then the least they can do is provide support if possible!
Lastly, are you sure that your problem is to do with FT implementation? If they’ve replaced the APs it might be something entirely different. Did they put out any documentation for users like you? For example they may have decided to no longer support 2.4 GHz in favour of 5, which is better equipped to provide uncluttered channel usage and higher throughput. Try setting your phone to 5GHz only.
Thanks again. The network is a country-wide academic network changing policy, so most staff and all students are BYOD, no trouble with my laptop). I work closely with the IT network specialist, so I’m confident that he checked the cause carefully (he was surprised himself, and contacted Cisco directly for details). I’ll provide that documentation to Support later this week; I’d like to check out your 5G only hypothesis first.
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The November 5 system update arrived today, so I’ll try that first when in range without restricting to 5G, and if problems reamain, try 5G. If we’re lucky, today’s system update might be what was missing.
No immediate automatic wifi connection with the latest software update for my FP3 on campus, but I didn’t have time to examine carefully, will try again later, including 5G only.
Regrettably, after trying automatic and 5G only wifi connection, I have to report failure to connect with my FP3 with the latest software update. I’ll contact support directly.
Just to be sure, with 5G you mean 5GHz WiFi? As 5G normally means fifth generation broadband cellular network, which is not supported by the FP3.
Exactly. The suggestion in the thread was that using 5GHz rather than automatic might work; it doesn’t. So the problem of not connecting correctly was not resolved by the most recent system update last week. 5G in the 3G/4G/5G meaning is orthogonal to wifi connection, I think.
Reading around it seems that problems with Cisco access points are frequently reported when implementing “Adaptive”, including with Android 10 devices with Qualcomm chipsets. May have to wait for A11 for a fix.
For the record: it would appear that “Adaptive” is a Cisco trick which allows iOS devices to benefit from FT, while hiding FT capability from other devices, so as to avoid confusing some non-11r-capable devices and having to provide IT support for them. So “Adaptive” does FT and it doesn’t, at the same time. It would seem this is confusing some devices that aren’t made by Apple.
From what I can gather, this is a Cisco / Apple “huddle” that is catching out some devices that simply apply the straight standards … I may not have understood correctly.
There is a standards-compliant configuration of the router which provides FT for devices that are compatible (Apple or not), and WPA2 for the others. The drawback is that this reputedly causes problems with devices that can handle WPA2 but have code that gets confused by the 11r FT announcement. I would not expect the FP3 to have problems with this configuration. I think this is the configuration referred to by stephan.brunner.
If we all stuck to the standards we wouldn’t have (so many of) these problems …
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