WPA3-Personal Transition Mode Has Some Incompatibilities
When you are considering offering suggestions to family and friends on how to improve their wireless networks at home you might want to consider what old devices they use. Wi-Fi 7 requires WPA3 security on the 6 GHz band and not everything can support the new standard, but are instead stuck on WPA2. If WPA1 is only available on a device; that’s no longer a device, it’s garbage and should be treated as such ASAP.
WPA3 does offer a Personal Transition Mode which offers WPA2 and WPA3 authentication on the same network, however some older devices have a security feature which could lead you to having a bad time. These devices will refuse to connect to a network offering security options it doesn’t recognize, which is good for blocking compromised networks but not so great when connecting to a network offering a new official secure WPA3 connection.
If you know of some acquaintances who use old hardware, instead of suggesting a new WiFi 7 router perhaps instead suggest they don’t keep their router in a closet on the opposite side of the house from where they most frequently want to use those devices.
