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RS500 - Auto 5 ghz channel setting picks up DFS channel?
My neighborhood is pretty crowded with 5 Ghz channels. The auto 5 Ghz channel selection setting picks up channel 100 which is a DFS channel. This channel also has lower transmit power than the non DFS channels 36-48 and 149-161. The lower transmit power also significantly reduces the range on this router.
Is there a way to disable to the DFS channel selection in the auto channel selection setting in the 5 Ghz band? The firmware needs to be tuned to pick up only non DFS main channels since they always have the best transmit power and most compatibility.
15 Replies
Reason for picking a DFS channel is maybe your in range of a Airport and it's radar system. Usually if a router is in around 5 miles of a airport, the router may pick a DFS channel which maybe lower power due to not attempting cause any interferences with Airport and radar. Been like this for a while now. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_frequency_selection
The tuning maybe as designed as well for best operation for Auto mode. If your using Auto channels, then you have the ability to manually set different channels. Recommended are 1, 6 and 11 on 2.4Ghz and 40 thru 48 or 149-161 on 5Ghz.
You can submit a support ticket to NG to make them aware of your concerns.
Yes, but anytime a DFS channel might get kicked out due to interference if any radar is detected in the future. In my testing manual channel 44 or 153-161 gets the best signal strength and range. Even when using the auto DFS channel selection, the DFS channel transmit power is lower than say channel 44 or 161.
Another observation is when using channels 149-161 and the speed set to 5.8 Gbps, most older wifi 5/6 clients don't get their maximum speed in the 5 Ghz band. My intel AX203 card only gets 300 Mbps when the router channel is set to 161 and speed set to 5.8 Gbps. How can I pass this along to NG?
You can submit a support ticket to NG to make them aware of your concerns.
Most older clients don't support the UNII-4 band channels 167-171 which the RS500 supports.
The RS500 allows the user to manually select the WiFi channels. If "Auto" does not seem to work appropriately, perhaps manually selecting the channels is better choice?
p.s. Customers make suggestions to Netgear all the time. There is even a Community Forum devoted to this topic:
Submit Ideas for Home Products | NETGEAR Communities
There have been occasions when Netgear has acted on suggestions. (Alas, even hundreds of "likes" for some topics have not produced results.)
Yes, I can change the channels manually. But most people might leave it on auto and this could cause issues. Thanks for linking the ideas page.
My neighborhood is pretty crowded with 5 Ghz channels. The auto 5 Ghz channel selection setting picks up channel 100 which is a DFS channel.
FWIW, If there's enough congestion on the other channels, a DFS channel might be the best option.
Is this hypothetical, or was your RS500 actually choosing channel 100?
Thanks for linking the ideas page.
Might be worth proposing this as allowing users to specify a list of channels they want to avoid. That would be broader than DFS avoidance, and could have some value in preventing interference with other nearby wifi.
There was a recent post from someone needing to avoid channel 11 because that sometimes interfered with their auto's backup camera. Locking the router to channel 1 or 6 works, but I think it would be better to just tell the router not to use channel 11.
The RS500 is choosing channel 100 in my case, literally every time if I change to auto channel setting. Although the DFS channel spectrum is clear, it has lower signal strength and doesn't give higher speeds downstairs (I have the router in the first floor). The 2.4 Ghz is terribly congested to be effectively usable by non IOT devices, so I always prefer the auto channel selection in this band, though the selected channel interferes with many other neighbors.
I was suggesting to avoid the DFS channel selection in auto mode since these channels are limited in transmit power, which undermines the strength of a whole home router.
Users have the choice to set manual channels and are not under any requirement to use AUTO channel selection. Manual maybe needed and sometime IS preferred to use. I've been using manual channels 1 and 40 here based on my closest nieighbors and testing experiences for my main home netowrk. I do run a 2nd network and that is kept at far appart channesl 11 and 48. So even though DFS is support and used by the system, you don't have to use it. Why there are options users can select manually. Been like this for years. DFS has been around for years as well. Only Auto channel selection on 5ghz is fairly new to NG routers in past year or so for some NG router systems.
