Some of my devices couldn't connect to the 5GHz WiFi on X5000R

Installing and Using OpenWrt Network and Wireless Configuration
1

My device is TOTOLINK X5000R, and my wireless config:

config wifi-device 'radio1'
	option hwmode '11a'
	option htmode 'VHT80'
	option channel '36'
	option type 'mac80211'
	option path '1e140000.pcie/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.0/0000:02:00.0+1'

config wifi-iface 'wifi_5g'
	option device 'radio1'
	option network 'wifi'
	option mode 'ap'
	option ssid 'wifi'
	option encryption 'sae-mixed'
	option key 'wifi'
	option ieee80211w '1'

My two clients are unable to connect to this WiFi:

  1. a very old iMac (2011). The SSID won't even show up on its list.
  2. Chromecast with Google TV. The SSID shows up in its list, but it connects for a long time before failing with message saying can not find the SSID. Sniffing on the interface shows no packets, meaning it probably fails at the connecting phrase?

My laptop and phone that only support up to 802.11ac can connect to the WiFi without issues.

I wonder if it's some compatibility issue? How do I fix that?

Another tangential question: according to the doc, this device should support 802.11ax, I wonder if specifying hwmode '11a' is enough to enable it?

2

hgl,

1 - The old iMac is IEEE 802.11a/b/g compatible, won't see 5G wifi. You should setup 2,4G wifi for the imac to see the SSID, also with WPA2 (iMac probably won't work with WPA3).
2 - Is your Chromecast WPA3 ready? (sae-mixed)

Try setup with WPA2 only? WPA3 is not that common (yet).

More info: https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/network/wifi/basic

DG.

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3

You're absolutely correct, after changing encryption to psk2+ccmp, Chromecast with Google TV can now connect to the WiFi, thanks a lot.

But I thought sae-mixed was the WPA2 compatible mode that also supports WPA3?

4

There are lots of (proprietary) devices (even ones that do support WPA3-only mode) in the wild which get confused by wpa2/wpa3 mixed mode and refuse to work that way.

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