Raspberry PI 3 : Wifi, but limited ?

This is really the first draft of this article since I am working on it now.

A few days ago, I have received a Raspberry Pi version 3. This V3 contains many enhancements, including now a Wifi Chipset embeded (you don’t need a dongle anymore).

After a few hours of work I am just stuck : my RB3 can’t see any wifi.

* DSL box is invible,

* I have a netgear repeater, same.

* … and also several equipments such as TV.

And the RB device is really up to date.

A clue came when I turned on Wifi sharing on my Nokia 930. My RB3 can see it !

So back to old days, where OSI model was my “bible”, I started to investigate a bit.

Running a Wifi Scanner, I can see that RB3 can only see 802.11 “N”, and my devices are running on “G”.

 

What is very confusing is this :

* In RB3 device, the drivers says that it is “N” (not specifying only, just N)

* This web site mention “N” too :

https://www.raspberrypi.org/magpi/raspberry-pi-3-specs-benchmarks/ introducing chipset BCM43438

* Chipset manufacturer says BGN :

 

https://www.cypress.com/file/298076/download

Is it a chipset problem (N only) or a driver problem (N today, but can support B/G/N) ? … but for sure this is blocking several scenarios.

What would be the plan B ? Buy another “N” only dongle, or upgrade your entire infrastructure with a very recent hardware.

.. investigating.