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Net56's avatar
Net56
Aspirant
Oct 05, 2020
Solved

Hard-set Orbi Channel Width

Hey everyone, I want to manually restrict Orbi's 2.4 and 5 GHz broadcasts to 20 MHz wide for selected center channels.   I am aware of the default "Enable 20/40 MHz co-existance" option for the 2.4...
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Troubleshooting
  • Mstrbig's avatar
    Mstrbig
    Oct 05, 2020

    The answer is no. However, depending on what PC, Laptop, etc you have, you can force what frequency you want to connect at. My Dell laptop allows me to force connect either 20Mhz or 40Mhz on 2.4Ghz and 80Mhz only on 5Ghz.

CrimpOn's avatar
CrimpOn
Guru - Experienced User
Oct 05, 2020
Net56 wrote:

Also, it appears others are saying Orbi, by default, tries to automatically select up to 80 MHz channel width on the 5 GHz front and back haul bands (5.2 and 5.8 GHz, respectfully), depending on what it senses during its scans. Supposedly this is to allow maximum throughput to end-users.

I read one comment that when the user selects "36" from the 5G channel selection, that means (literally) 36 and nothing else.  When they select a higher frequency, that means everything from 36 up to here.  So, selecting 48 would be the only way to get a full 80mb channel.

 

There may be a method using telnet to specify the 5G backhaul frequency in the same way.

 

A little puzzled that frequencies in the "unlicensed" consumer band would interfere with a WISP backbone, which one would think would be in licensed frequencies and use very narrow band antennas.  Supposing that you restrict one Orbi to a 20mb 5G channel, what about the hundreds of other residential WiFi systems in the path?

  • Net56's avatar
    Net56
    Aspirant
    Oct 06, 2020

    "I read one comment that when the user selects "36" from the 5G channel selection, that means (literally) 36 and nothing else.  When they select a higher frequency, that means everything from 36 up to here.  So, selecting 48 would be the only way to get a full 80mb channel."

     

    Thanks for your input! Can you share where you found the comment that you were referencing? I'd be interested to look into this further.

     

    • CrimpOn's avatar
      CrimpOn
      Guru - Experienced User
      Oct 06, 2020
      Net56 wrote:

      "I read one comment that when the user selects "36" from the 5G channel selection, that means (literally) 36 and nothing else.  When they select a higher frequency, that means everything from 36 up to here.  So, selecting 48 would be the only way to get a full 80mb channel."

       

      Thanks for your input! Can you share where you found the comment that you were referencing? I'd be interested to look into this further.

       

      See message #9 in this post: https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/Can-I-set-5GHz-channels-to-40Mhz/m-p/1818758 

       

      This was the discussion that caught my eye:

      http://www.revolutionwifi.net/revolutionwifi/2013/03/80211ac-channel-planning.html 

       

      Alas, I fear my conclusion was invalid.  I just now experimented with my Orbi.

      Set 5G channel to 36 and WiFi Analyzer reports "Channel 36, 5180. 5250-5170 = 80MH

      Set 5G channel to 48 and WiFi Analyzer reports "Channel 48, 5240. 5250-5170 = 80MH

       

      So I am damn confused.  It appears (to me) that setting the 5G channel results in the same 80MH channel width no matter what channel it is set to.