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Unkemptclopopot's avatar
Unkemptclopopot
Follower
Feb 11, 2022

How to select wifi channel through Netgear Genie

So i have a A7000 Wifi Adapter and I am trying to chose between the channels available to me given through Netgear Genie. I am in a high wifi area and there are many signals out there. I am sharing my network with others I live with, along with being in close proximity with people who have their own networks.

I am given the Channels 1, 6 , 11 to choose between and I know most everyone else is using channel 11 so I want to choose channel 6. Some times, very infrequently I am choose "connect" on channel 6 and it changes and stays until I turn off or restart my computer.

Most of the time, a vast majority of the time, I choose "connect" on channel 6, it blinks as though its received the input and stays on channel 11. Some times it will instead show its connceting to channel 6, it'll show "connected to the router" and then say "connected to the internet" then stay on channel 6 for a few seconds before returning to channel 11.

From what I can tell channel 11 is the strongest signal most of the time and so its the top of my wifi list and it auto connects to this signal. The problem is that it is doing this with everyone on the network and I want to not be on the strongest signal bc its often slower due to the shared traffic.

I have tested this many times and the secondary "weaker" signals often have 5x the speed bc of less traffic.

Would love some help on this because being on one of these other channels makes a huge difference to my conncetion. There must be some way to turn off the auto connection to the strongest signal or for there to be a way to lock in my channel choice otherwise, why is there an option to select another channel if it wont conncet?

Thanks

1 Reply

  • michaelkenward's avatar
    michaelkenward
    Guru - Experienced User
    Feb 11, 2022
    Unkemptclopopot wrote:

    So i have a A7000 Wifi Adapter and I am trying to chose between the channels available to me given through Netgear Genie.

     

    Your wifi USB adapter cannot control the wifi channels that your (unnamed) router uses. You have to do that on the router. The adapter will then connect to the one you set.

     

    Set the channel on the router then set your SSID and password and connect to that.

     

    I am given the Channels 1, 6 , 11 to choose between and I know most everyone else is using channel 11 so I want to choose channel 6. Some times, very infrequently I am choose "connect" on channel 6 and it changes and stays until I turn off or restart my computer.

    If your USB adapter shows these, then it is showing channels from other routers. Go by the SSID, not the wifi channels.

     

    The A7000 supports 5 GHz. That is faster and has a shorter range, so it is less likely to interfere with neighbouring wifi sources.

     

    While many questions about routers are generic and could be answered anywhere, some things need specialist knowledge.

    You might get more help, and find earlier questions and answers specific to your device, in the appropriate section for your hardware. That's probably here:

    WiFi Adapters - NETGEAR Communities

    In the meantime you could visit the support pages:

    Support | NETGEAR

    Feed in your model number and check the documentation for your hardware. Look at the label on the device for the model number.

    You may have done this already. I can't tell from your message.

    I mention it because Netgear stopped supplying printed manuals and CD versions some years ago and people sometimes miss the downloads.