The connectivity issue with wireless networks, predominantly impacting public, education, and enterprise users, is associated with two OS fixes released on Patch December 19.
Microsoft has provided a workaround for Windows customers experiencing Wi-Fi troubles following a Windows 11 update that affected wireless connections on public, educational, and enterprise networks.
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The change comes in response to comments from Windows customers that they were having trouble connecting their machines to Wi-Fi networks following the release of Microsoft’s Patch Tuesday patches in December.
In a blog post, Microsoft blamed the connectivity issues on two OS updates from December’s Patch Tuesday, KB5032288 and KB5033375, and admitted their prominence in harming users of specific Wi-Fi networks over others.
According to the organization’s statement, individuals are at a higher risk of encountering this problem when trying to connect to an enterprise, education, or public Wi-Fi network using 802.1x authentication. The statement also notes that the issue is less likely to occur on home networks.
Indeed, the issues disproportionately impacted those connected to Wi-Fi on wireless networks with fast-transition or fast-roaming enabled, which are commonly used on university campuses to ensure smooth communication between various access points.
In fact, some universities, including as the University of British Columbia, notified their students and staff about the problem before Microsoft did, and even advocated removing the update as a temporary approach to restore service until a vendor-supported remedy was ready.
Addressing the issue.
Microsoft’s solution isn’t substantially different from what the university recommended and what many other users have already implemented. The corporation released a Known Issue Rollback (KIR), which causes the operating system to revert to an earlier version of the code that does not have the issue.
Microsoft introduced KIRs as a service to address non-security issues in March 2021. However, a KIE is just a temporary solution, and the business has stated that it intends to address the issue more thoroughly and will re-release a patch soon.
Microsoft also stated that it could take up to 24 hours for the resolution to automatically propagate to consumer and non-managed business devices; however, users can restart their devices to assist speed up the process.
The issue may be rectified for enterprise-managed devices by installing and configuring a particular Group Policy, which can be located in “Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Group Policy name listed below>,” according to the company.
Users express frustration.
Microsoft’s response was too slow for some customers, who swiftly resorted to internet message boards like Reddit to openly complain about having to address the problem themselves by rolling back the upgrade.
“To no one’s surprise, Microsoft broke things with their ‘update,'” one irate Reddit member wrote. “What better way to test than in the field?” Continue to lower the bar.”
People were also complaining about the update on Microsoft’s Community pages, with users stating that even newly acquired Windows computers had poor or nonexistent wireless connectivity.
User Sunny6887 reported, “I purchased my Lenovo Slim Pro 9i just over two weeks ago from Costco. Following the installation of the Windows 11 KB5033375 security patch yesterday, my Internet speed has significantly decreased, rendering it practically unusable. Additionally, Google Chrome began showing DNS and other issues.”
Long-suffering Windows users are correct, as this is not the first time that a Microsoft update aimed at repairing its software unexpectedly affected current services. The corporation has a long and illustrious history of having to retract an update or deliver fresh patches due to issues caused by its own patching system.
