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Region (Regulatory Domain) Came Wrong... How to escalate case?
Hi there,
I purchased this top-tier router from Amazon US, came set as Canada and, for regulations, routers in North American have that field disabled.
I've been on the "Pro Support" line for 2 months, sent random beta firmware, upgrade, downgrade, without even understanding the limitation or how to fix. Supposedly, engineering got involved, but it seems like I'm chatting to an AI. What an awful experience end-to-end with Netgear; Jesus.
I've seen in older routers enabling telnet and burnsku was a solution, but this doesn't allow enabling telnet; not the GitHub tools to NetgearTelnetEnable seem to support the payload for this.
Anyway, is there any way to get a higher-thinker support to take a look at this? Somebody who actually could understand what I'm talking about? Sorry about being pissed, but the experience have been awful.
By the way, every response I see here from "Community Experts" and such is WAY above the level of "Pro Support"... you guys should be hired by Netgear; you actually understand what networking is about!
Thanks.
BTW / TL;DR; I'm not physically in the US, won't be for a while, so I can't replace the router. It came from Amazon US set as Canada. I know Canada doesn't seem to have 160 MHz for some 5 GHz frequencies (US does), so I'm interested in setting it in its proper region; as it should have arrived.
Hi Timmy256,
First you have to set the 5GHz WiFi on the RS700 as I described, so the RS700 could operate in the 160MHz mode.
Regarding if a client could connect to the RS700 in 5GHz band 160MHz-mode, there are multiple factors:
1. the client needs to be able to operate in 5GHz band 160MHz-mode as I mentioned.
2. run the test at a short range between the client and the RS700.
3. Smart Connect should direct the client to the 5GHz in this case, so enabling Smart Connect should be OK.
4. Some clients might insist connecting to the 2.4GHz, but this should be rare for clients which support 160MHz mode.
So I suggest you run the test with the Smart Connect enabled if you would like to have the same SSID for all the bands. If that doesn't work and you cannot tell if the client is connected to the 5GHz, then use different SSID for different band to run the test. Thanks.
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Timmy256 wrote:
I purchased this top-tier router from Amazon US, came set as Canada and, for regulations, routers in North American have that field disabled.
Do you have a problem you want fixed? Or is this just a legal thing?
I've seen in older routers enabling telnet and burnsku was a solution, but this doesn't allow enabling telnet; not the GitHub tools to NetgearTelnetEnable seem to support the payload for this.That option died some time ago. It worked with older routers, but Netgear has closed off many of those "security" holes.
Just another user with time on their hands.
Thanks michael.
It’s both, really. I want to be compliant and also have the 160 MHz available (yeah, I know everything talks against it, but still).
Do you know of any way to escalate this? The support channel comes back with high-school level replies of “hey, try factoring resetting the router?” “oh, can you try a different browser?”. They have no idea what’s going on, it’s so frustrating. And they expect you to pay for this “Pro” support tier… damn, last thing I purchase from this brand; what a mistake I’ve made
I'm afraid that you cannot have the US region if you use the router outside the US.
For our routers sold in US and Canada, everytime when the router is powered up, it detects the region where it's located (I cannot share more detaisl on this). If the detection finds the router is not located in US, the router applies the Canada region. There are no workarounds since that could be against local regulations.
If the router is phsycially located in US but it still applies Canada region, then it should be an issue.
Thank you so much for replying guys! It’s great talking to someone who understands the topic at hand, after literally engaging with the “Pro Support” for two months and they having no idea what I was talking about.
I’m trying to add as much information as I can:
- The router is not in the US right now and it’s defaulting in Canada, so it’s detecting the region wrong. I also inspected (HTML) the region field and my region isn’t listed there, so perhaps you don’t have it configured in the router, that is why you are defaulting to Canada? In any case, a closer one would be US, as it’s basically inherited from those allowed frequencies
- I was made to sign an NDA with support and they sent me Beta firmware from engineering that would supposedly allow me to change the region… still did nothing, as you can imagine. Also, they made me flash to the original release firmware, as there it would be possible to change the region. Every time I mentioned that this Regulatory Domain is probably locked for a reason, but it’s like talking to a brick wall. I’m not even sure it’s an AI replying the cases. They even said that they checked on the engineers routers and they confirmed the region field was editable with the beta firmware… was it all a lie? Why would they say that? I can provide you with the case number if you want to read through my frustration in that very long conversation. Those people are not capacitated to support issues beyond “hey, I went to routerlogin.net I don’t know my password”. They have zero idea on any technical matter; what a disconnect. You guys showed, in a single message, that you know a lot about this and what is actually going on vs. two months with “Pro” Support… yikes
- Another quirk I noticed; probably a bug too. Let’s start fresh (factory reset router), so nothing carries over. I go to check the region in the Wireless settings, it shows “Canada”. If I hit “Apply” on that Wireless page (without touching anything else; only pressing the button), after the WiFi comes back, region says “United States”! This is repeatable and happens every time! But I can’t make that setting stick, so after a power reset, it comes back as Canada. I’ve tried flashing a firmware when it said “United States”; all kind of things to try to make it stick, but it would always return to Canada
So, as it stands now, according to what you mentioned, you default to Canada if the router is not detected being in the US, but that puts us in violation of other countries regulations. Have you considered the possibility that the user might travel along with the router? Or purchased in the US and moved somewhere else? Setting the region as “Canada” in those scenarios is still wrong.
If I provided you identity proof, government documents, pictures, NDA, whatever you need that I’m in a different country, would there be a way to unlock this and enable me to allow me to set the region properly?
Thanks again for your messages; I really appreciate taking to some REAL human beings!
Hi again BH_C, coming back with some questions that I’ve seen you comment on this thread: RS300 Region Incorrect
- You mentioned to that user that the reason the region is setting as Canada for them is because of a Netgear shipping mistake, and that he should replace the unit. But in this thread, you just mentioned that the region gets resolved dynamically depending on location detected by the router. Which one of the two affirmations is correct?
- You also mentioned there that the difference between Canada and US is that US has a slightly higher TX power. Looking through the Linux Kernel regulatory domains, I see both Canada and US having the same TX power on the frequencies; only major difference being that Canada doesn’t allow 160 MHz for some 5 GHz bands. Could you confirm this? Is my (wrong) Canada region RS700, as of now, allowing usage of 160 MHz on 5 GHz or not? That is my main concern of why I’m going through all this; trying to make sure that I’m in the proper region and with 160 MHz enabled for 5 GHz.
Thanks again.
