This article explains the current state of AltaPass within the WiFi 7 specification. This information is accurate at the time of this article's published timestamp. Alta Labs will update this article when there is more information to be shared. At the time of this article's publish date, the only Alta Labs device this applies to is the AP7-Pro.

The Short Version

6 GHz operation requires modern Wi-Fi security. WPA2 and WPA/WPA2 transition modes are not supported on 6 GHz; use WPA3-Personal, WPA3-Enterprise, or Wi-Fi Enhanced Open.

What does this mean for me?

For 2.4GHz and 5GHz, nothing really changes. However, 6GHz is a WiFi 6E and WiFi 7 specific technology, and as such, it's subject to the standards.

Since multiple passwords are not supported within the WPA3-Personal standard (yet), Alta Labs APs will automatically disable 6 GHz on any Password-based SSID that has more than one password, in order to avoid "incorrect password" errors on the 6 GHz network.

However, 6 GHz can be forced on, if desired. If forced on, 6GHz will only work for the first AltaPass in the list for a given SSID. If you look at the Advanced Settings for an SSID, you'll see the following:

1. Band selection now shows 6GHz as an option and all 3 bands are enabled by default. This has no impact for non AP7-Pro APs, they'll only transmit 2.4GHz and 5GHz, of course.
2. PMF - Protected Management Frames
3. WPA3
4. Force 6GHz On

If you have multiple AltaPasses set up, the only thing you need to do to use 6GHz is toggle on "Force 6GHz On". This will enable 6GHz only for the first AltaPass in the list. Subsequent AltaPasses will only be able to use 2.4GHz and 5GHz.

Since PMF and WPA3 are required on the 6 GHz band, the firmware will automatically enable those settings on any 6 GHz SSIDs, even if they are disabled by configuration in the management platform. 

In order to enable WPA3 on the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands (which is not recommended, but is possible for enhanced security), set the PMF and WPA3 dropdowns to On. This is a "maximum compatibility mode; devices that support WPA3 and understand Protected Management Frames will use WPA3, devices that don't support WPA3 and understand Protected Management Frames will use WPA2. However, keep in mind that by doing this, the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands will also be limited to the same restriction where clients that are using WPA3-Personal for authentication will be unable to use any other password than the first one. 

What is Alta Labs doing to make this more streamlined?

Alta Labs is heavily lobbying for the standards bodies to establish rules for the proper, full use of multi-password SSIDs. Unfortunately, anything we do before those rules are published would be considered "non-standard".

However, once the rules are established and published, we will be the first to restore full, true multi-password support for our WiFi 7 capable APs.

Recommendations:

These are in order of likelihood of applicability for your network

1. By far, the most common approach is the one above as most customers are using some form of password based encryption like WPA2-PSK.
2. Using WPA Enterprise is a viable workaround if possible
3. Disable 6GHz
4. Use separate, 6 GHz-specific SSIDs, for higher performance
5. Keep in mind that these restrictions do not apply to Enterprise or Open WiFi networks, just Password-based ones.