Nighthawk MR80 5Ghz Channels

Does anything show up if you disable smart connect or set the MR for separate SSID names for each radio? 

Not sure if Higher channels is possible since higher channels maybe used for the wireless back haul. 

So channesl 36, 40, and 48 are all busy? 

Vlad777777 wrote:

the recommended high channels are not available on MR80

This is correct.  The default setting on the MR80 is channel 44 for 5GHz user service and the backhaul connection between router and satellites depends on the Region setting.

(see page 146 of the user manual: https://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/GDC/MK83/MK83_UM_EN.pdf)  Thus the practice of using higher channels that is often recommended is not available because the higher channels are already being used for the backhaul link.

The best choice for you is to pick the channel that has the fewest competing systems (36, 40, 44, 48).  Please be aware that the channel number is used for WiFi control messages, but when the router attempts to communicate to user devices at higher speed, it will combine as many channels as possible (which varies from one instant to another).

Even if that range of channels "looks" busy, 5ghz tends not to be. The benefit to 5ghz is that its much faster and doesn't broadcast as far. So even if they look congested, the data they send isn't active (broadcast) as long as 2.4ghz so they function much better in congested environments. I can see probably 20 5ghz networks where I live and it doesn't impact my 5ghz performance.