NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
Solved
XR500 only showing 20mhz channels
Hello, all.
I've done a bonkers amount of troubleshooting and I think I've finally narrowed down my problem. I've been having slow wifi speeds. I've used a wifi analyzer to take a look at all the channels. I noticed that the only channels I can select from the dropdown in the XR500 DumaOS menu are the 20mhz channels. The 40, 80, and 160mhz channels are not available to select whatsoever. Any idea how I can gain access to these channels?
steinamo wrote:
I noticed that the only channels I can select from the dropdown in the XR500 DumaOS menu are the 20mhz channels. The 40, 80, and 160mhz channels are not available to select whatsoever. Any idea how I can gain access to these channels?
You can't - because (except in the Wifi Channels Wikipedia, and with some legislation bodies documentation) there are no such channels! The the higher bandwidth is always achieved by using multiple 20 MHz channels, where one of the 20 MHz does act as the primary channel, and the others channels are added as slaves, dynamically in fact, depending on the client capabilities. And I'm not even convinced the 20 MHz channels must be in a direct sequence. Certainly in 160 MHz modes, the two blocks of four 20 MHz channels don't have to be in sequence at all. Don't remember on how the DumaOS UI does show it - the classic Netgear implementation does show a pull-down for the 5 GHz wireless mode, like "up to 800 Mbit/s", "up to 1733 Mbit/s" - this mode defines the max. bandwidth permitted.
What the Wifi Analyzer Apps are showing is mostly a model - and not reflecting any kind of spectrum analyzer capability. No
Last, the max performance you can archive depends widely on the wireless client capabilities, and not on the maximum marketing numbers. There are no 160 MHz capabale mobile devices (so no way to "detect" anyhting the like inn an App, the low cost wireless devices use 1x1 radios, the majority of notebooks and mobiles come with 2x2, few with 3x3 - and virtually none with 4x4.
6 Replies
I performed a factory reset and still cannot see anything but 20mhz channels. My wifi is maxing out at about 300 down 400 up. It is 1000 up/down when I plug directly into the router.
In our office we have an XR500 that's set to the North America region, and I looked to see what channels were available. Even with Smart Connect turned off, and the coexistence option disabled, the only channels available were 20MHz, so I can confirm what you're saying!
I believe this may be due to regional limitations. Several regions of the world have strict regulation about which frequencies can be used, and they're all different.
The "Settings" section of the XR500 interface is made by NETGEAR, and the other sections are made by Netduma, so this problem falls into the realm of NETGEAR problems rather than Netduma problems. Hopefully somebody from NETGEAR can shed some light on this.
steinamo wrote:
I noticed that the only channels I can select from the dropdown in the XR500 DumaOS menu are the 20mhz channels. The 40, 80, and 160mhz channels are not available to select whatsoever. Any idea how I can gain access to these channels?
You can't - because (except in the Wifi Channels Wikipedia, and with some legislation bodies documentation) there are no such channels! The the higher bandwidth is always achieved by using multiple 20 MHz channels, where one of the 20 MHz does act as the primary channel, and the others channels are added as slaves, dynamically in fact, depending on the client capabilities. And I'm not even convinced the 20 MHz channels must be in a direct sequence. Certainly in 160 MHz modes, the two blocks of four 20 MHz channels don't have to be in sequence at all. Don't remember on how the DumaOS UI does show it - the classic Netgear implementation does show a pull-down for the 5 GHz wireless mode, like "up to 800 Mbit/s", "up to 1733 Mbit/s" - this mode defines the max. bandwidth permitted.
What the Wifi Analyzer Apps are showing is mostly a model - and not reflecting any kind of spectrum analyzer capability. No
Last, the max performance you can archive depends widely on the wireless client capabilities, and not on the maximum marketing numbers. There are no 160 MHz capabale mobile devices (so no way to "detect" anyhting the like inn an App, the low cost wireless devices use 1x1 radios, the majority of notebooks and mobiles come with 2x2, few with 3x3 - and virtually none with 4x4.
Wow that's really interesting... The world of networking is truly a convoluted place.
The Netduma UI shows this the exact same way as the normal NETGEAR UI because the Settings section is provided by NETGEAR.
This is simultaneously interesting, confusing, and ultimately disappointing.
Interesting because, well, huh.
Confusing because the way that the setting is described, it is "80+80", so I figured at the very least you'd be able to select a channel above 20mhz. Even more confusing, this CNET article indicates that you should choose channel 50 or 114 after enabling the HT160 feature: https://www.cnet.com/reviews/netgear-xr500-nighthawk-pro-gaming-router-review/2/. I assume they recommended it because, ya know, they did it.
Ultimately, though, this is disappointing because this means my router is busted. I have done every troubleshooting step under the sun and my speeds have not improved in the slightest. I was hoping these forums would be able to point me in the right direction but I'm sitting here with 300 download speeds on wifi and now I have to wait for Netgear to answer my warranty claim on this $300 brick.
Thanks for the reply/solution!
