Realtek Lan 7.063.1003.2012-w7.rar
Partenia Urtiaga
We found another older driver for realtek and I guess this driver produced for Asus laptops. Driver version is 2023.72.1215.2017. We are using this driver for two days. It seems working better but we are not sure that we will face another problem or not.
And we found another solution to change realtek wifi adaptor with Intel (which is using in Lenovo E490) then E480 is working with Meraki without problem. But it is expensive and time losing opration to change 220 laptop's wifi adaptor.
Last week Lenovo released new driver update for E480 and E580. We are starting to test this driver for several laptops. I will write my comments after our test. If you have same problem you can also try this update. Cisco also recommend us to try this version answering our ticket about this problem.
As the NICs are WiFi5 standard you can disable the WiFi6 features on the APs from the dashboard, that is pretty much the only thing you can do from the Meraki side for this issue. It is a simple change so might be worth it even if it is done temporarily while making other changes to the devices.
While we were doing test with Cisco Meraki engineers they offer us to disable wifi 6 and they created another SSID just for test and we did same test that you offered. First it seems it is working normally. But several hours later user informed that she has still same problem.
Thank You JimmyM. We have also addressed this problem changing E490 chip (Intel) with E480 chip (realtek) After this changing we haven't faced any problem neither E490 nor E480. It is very interesting. Because realtek worked better with E490.
We finished driver changing for realtek with older version which is 2023.72.1215.2017. Our E480's have been working with this driver for one week. It seems that this version works better than latest driver in Lenovo support page during Zoom meetings.
As I said before we found another solution about this problem. We used older driver for realtek and I guess this driver produced for Asus laptops in 2018 . Driver version is 2023.72.1215.2017. We are using this driver for two weeks. It seems that the problem has been solved with this driver. And we made some changes on windows registry to stop automatic update for this driver.
On the other side we upgraded the MR 46 AP's with firmware 28.5. We are even testing this firmware with official current Lenovo driver for realtek version 2024.0.8.122. Meraki 28.5 firmware seems better. But it is early to say it is solved completely.
Today We faced new problem with the Realtek driver 2023.72.1215.2017. Wi-fi adaptor suddenly stops the searching SSID and Laptops cannot see any SSID anywhere. we are disabling and enabling the network adaptor with admin account. I am pushing Meraki side to define this problem. Because it seems that it will not solve like this kind of temporary solution. If any of you knows facing problem with Lenovo Realtek wi-fi adaptor and MR46 then please write your problem here. I am communication with Meraki Helpdesk with the problem.
Its not just lenovo, its all 8822BE/CE drivers. We use HP and are experiencing the same with Meraki APs (not just MR46, multiple models). Driver rollback worked (2024.0.10.129 ver. on the 8822CE), but as you said we also are experiencing the WLAN autoconfig service crashing using the driver you mentioned. I'm going to try 2024.0.8.101 next to see if its old enough to eliminate the meraki bug, but new enough that it isn't crashing the WLAN autoconfig.
Reading this thread, I wish Realtek had solved this issue. I'm running a bunch of HP 250 G4's with the Realtek RTL8821CE cards and f/w load 2024.0.10.217. Connection drops after a few minutes. Tried regressing to earlier versions of their f/w but no go. My AP's are on MR 28.5. There is no single obvious cause. Windows diagnostics will blame everything it can, like can't find gateway, or there is a problem with the card (but does not always specify what the problem is). We a school and BYOD. The kids that have HP's are also dealing with this. Is this a protocol issue or something else. Getting desperate for a viable (not costly) fix.
I will have a look at that. I also have an open ticket that is exploring other options. A reboot of AP's in affected areas also relieves the issue. Not sure how long this action will hold. There is also some discussion about 802.11k. We shall see.
We are in the same exact boat. So far we have isolated the issue to the following Realtek WLAN Cards so far: RTL8822CE and RTL8822BE. Current workaround is to install the following older drivers and this works fine for connectivity but not sure if it has other side affects. If we install the latest driver from HP, Windows Update the problem comes back.
So far we have tested the following AX disabled, 12mbps bit rate set, radio power adjustments, channel adjustments etc, max performance settings for the WLAN adapter. We have not tried disabling 802.11k yet, but does not look like that works from other users feedback but we will try it anyway. We have an active support ticket with Meraki.
if we don't use the drivers noted above, what we notice in the Meraki logs in the request "client has left ap" messages every few seconds and also, not sure if this is related is that even though we are not using 802.1x, we are seeing 802.1x authentication related events on the WiFi 6 access points. When we have the problem the packet loss is about 8% to 12%. Intermittently as well the client would chose to connect to distant access points.
Does anybody have the luxury to test this if the same Realtek cards have the same issue on other (non-Meraki) enterprise level wireless networks or another wireless mesh type network - or is this problem specific to Realtek and a Meraki environment?
I know on our testing if we pin a SSID to an access point (where the Realtek clients cannot roam) we don't experience any of this problems. Also if we use the same Realtek cards on our home wifi networks we don't seem to have this issue.
It seems this continues to be a problem. I have no opportunity to test this on another Enterprise level network. Works at home just fine. Works on my Ubiquiti WiFi6 network no problem. Is it just Meraki? No idea. I have offered to allow some testing on my network, but have not heard back. The last snippet of information was something to do with radio management and roaming from one AP to another.
It is disabled. Has it cured the issue? Not entirely. I've seen a drop in support requests, tho. It might be a partial fix but I would like Meraki to analyze this issue more and I'm willing to be a Guinea pig -- to a point.
Before I forget (again), there is one more thing I've tried. On the afflicted PC and in range of an AP that won't allow connection (secured, no internet), go into the wifi settings and "forget" the wifi network SSID that's misbehaving. Manually reassign it and you will connect no problem. It really smells of some form of corruption associated with the Realtek radio. IMHO, YMMV, Best of luck.
Thanks - we have tried that as well and it seems to temporarily resolve the issue, the issue does come back eventually. Rebooting the client also sometimes make it behave better but often than not the problem does resurface.
Just curious - are you having the same problems on non WiFi 6 Meraki access points and the Realteks? In our environment it seems the problems are tied to WiFi 6 capable access points (MR45 and MR44) - with AX enabled or AX disabled.
A brand new network, AX disabled. We are a BYOD school and we have students with some really "vintage" computers running about the place. All sorts of connection issues with AX turned on. (Unfortunately.) Haven't tried turning it back on lately. Too many other irons in the fire.
Disabling 802.11k on our testing seems to have made a difference. The Realtek adapters with any version of driver installed is now behaving better - consistently connecting to the closest AP, no packet loss, "client left ap" on the event logs are gone as well.
"Yes, I have an update. I took this issue all the way up the engineering chain at HP and after extensive wlan adapter logging, Realtek has created a new driver to address this issue. I have it in production in my environment and it is working great. They are currently working on a build to be released to the public. I don't have a timeline but help is on the way. They haven't provided me with clear explanations on the root cause other than what Meraki told me, which is that it was related to the Realtek wlan's incompatibility with 802.11k. We brought in identical devices with Qualcomm and Mediatek wlan cards and had no issues whatsoever with our Meraki APs."
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