Is WPS really disabled?

[Deleted member 22229]

Now days it's all planned obsolesence. No money to be made if nothing changed.

 

[iFrogMac]

Now days it's all planned obsolesence. No money to be made if nothing changed.

that's the thing, when the rubber meets the road, WiFi really hasn't changed all that much. For example in my case, I only have one device that's WiFi 6. capable that doesn't also have an Ethernet option. So in a sense right now, it really doesn't really matter which router I choose to use as they'd all be about the same with the majority of my current devices. Two things really stand out to me about a WiFi 6 router over older models:
1. the number of clients they support
2. The little extra speed devices "CAN" use, if they are designed to take advantage of it. From my own experience beyond those two things a wifi 6 router is no better than a WiFi 5 one.

 

[Deleted member 22229]

Valid points. WiFi6 capable routers tend to have better processors and memory that alone can make things better. Plus there always tweaking stuff to speed it up and make it better. I have to say though my old AC3100 still works good to this day and gives me full speed. Client devices also play a key role in performance.

 

[L&LD]

WPS is 'required' if you want to be able to associate a new AiMesh node wirelessly. Afterward, I always turn it off.

 

[bbunge]

One funny story about WPS. I used to manage the network in a not-for-profit office. I used an AC68U which served well for several years. I used Merlin firmware on the router, had OpenVPN set so I could manage the network from home and had WPS turned off. One day I got a call from the office that the WIFI did not work. I figured that something had happened to the cable modem or router but the secretary said her computer worked (it was Ethernet connected). I remoted in and discovered the WIFI had been turned off. Bottom line was when WPS is disabled the WPS button turns the WIFI off and on. A bright volunteer wanted to connect his laptop and pressed the WPS button. Presto...no WIFI.

 

[bbunge]

WPS is 'required' if you want to be able to associate a new AiMesh node wirelessly. Afterward, I always turn it off.

Ah, newer firmware turns WPS on for the AiMesh discover process. Goes off afterward.

 

[L&LD]

I haven't seen WPS work like that when adding an AiMesh node (yet).

 

[Yota]

I'm surprised Asus kept it in stock, but to be fair, most routers still ship with it in stock firmware.

Wi-Fi Alliance's Wi-Fi certification needs to support WPS. Most of the popular Asus routers are Wi-Fi certified.

One funny story about WPS. I used to manage the network in a not-for-profit office. I used an AC68U which served well for several years. I used Merlin firmware on the router, had OpenVPN set so I could manage the network from home and had WPS turned off. One day I got a call from the office that the WIFI did not work. I figured that something had happened to the cable modem or router but the secretary said her computer worked (it was Ethernet connected). I remoted in and discovered the WIFI had been turned off. Bottom line was when WPS is disabled the WPS button turns the WIFI off and on. A bright volunteer wanted to connect his laptop and pressed the WPS button. Presto...no WIFI.

I think the current firmware doesn't have this problem, the WPS button will lose functionality after disabling WPS, but the WiFi button is so close it's hard to avoid curious fingers touching it.

 

[Robinbb]

Thanks for the discussion folks.
With an AX86U (router) and AS86S (wired node), I find that switching 2.4WPS On, enables 2.4 at the router and node + 5 at the router.
Turning off WPS, leaves on 2.4 at the node. That leaves me baffled nut I guess that I just have to live with it.

BUT, for the life of me, I cannot get my system to run just on 5GHz......turning off 2.4 at the router, only the router is impacted - the node 2.4 remains on.

Is this just another vagary that I have to live with? I am running 388.22525

 

[LimJK]

I just looked up the Acrylic WiFi analyzer and it's windows only. I could run it in a VM, but that won't help because the VM doesn't have direct access to the Mac's Wireless card, so VMs are always treated as Ethernet.

Hi,
I use WiFi Explorer App on my MacBookPro 14" running macOS Monterey 12.6.3

 

[tgl]

I use WiFi Explorer App on my MacBookPro 14" running macOS Monterey 12.6.3

Haven't tried that, but I use Netspot Pro and also WiFi Scanner, both available in the macOS app store.