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Status:
New Idea
Please provide more 5GHZ wifi channel options - restricting to channels 36-48 is too limiting
I live in London in the UK and nearly every house nearby has wifi and growth of 5GHZ routers is growing rapidly - the WiFI explorer application on my Mac is picking up at least 13 wifi signals on channels 36-48 and around half of those have a signal strength of over 50% in my house. But there are hardly any routers using the 52-64 channels. Now I understand Orbi uses some of the 5GHZ channels for the backhaul, but surley there is enough space above channel 48 to support the backhaul and allow a 5GHZ wifi signal for devices so you can get a more reliable and stable connection on 5GHZ - which is the whole point of having a fast 'mesh' router as all my main devices support 5GHZ and I have a 200Mpbs broadband connection. But the interference in the 5GHZ channels means my devices often default back to 2.4GHZ channels which kills the speed I can get down to around 50-70Mpbs vs the full 200Mpbs possible on the 5GHZ channel.
I used to have a Apple Airport Extreme and to be honest it could deliver a better 5GHZ signal throughout my whole house because it could use channels above 48 - and that was having the Airport on the ground floor and I live in a three-story house made of brick walls and the signal would reach the loft just fine!
Please Orbi team try and fix this as it is a major design flaw for most people in busy urban areas with lots of routers in the 5GHZ band - I don't really mind if it's a manual option or the Orbi is more intelligent and can automatically shuffle around use of the 5GHZ channels for the back-haul and wifi, but restricting use of wifi to just 4 channels makes the system no better than an Airport Extreme that is over 5 years old for my use case - hardly cutting edge performance as Negear claim and it is definately not living up to the marketing strap line of "Better Wifi. Everywhere"!
41 Comments
One further comment - then I'll shut up. I don't read through these comments and see people asking for Netgear to do something illegal or ill-informed.
Well... one guy seems to be asking for them to do that by opening up channels 50 - 70. :-) But I don't think the other commentors here are asking for that.
I read this idea/ask to be more of a feature request to add DFS technology to free up the upper channels that Netgear has reserved for the 5GHz backhaul. Or at least find a way to free up the upper, unrestricted channnels for us to use. Again, there are many products out there that allow users to select the upper 5GHz channels. There are also products that enable DFS technology that allow users to select a DFS "channel" option. Netgear has this technology in some of their less expensive Nighthawk routers, so it is dissapointing to see they did not include it in their more expensive mesh systems.
It seems to me that if you are going to reserve the entire upper range for the 5GHz backhaul, you could find some way to give customers a DFS option for their own fronthaul use. Or how about using DFS Sensing technology to put the backhaul in DFS/TPC range? Of course, that may insert some instability in the backhaul link.
At the very least, how about letting us choose how to use the upper channels when we have a wired backhaul to the main router? I assume the 5GHz channels are still being used as some sort of wifi "backup" for the backhaul even when we have a wired backhaul in place? It would be nice to let us choose whether or not we use that 5GHz range as a backhaul "backup" or as regular wifi network.
Thanks!
I have the same issue, all 4 channels that are available show poor performance due to the fact that my neighbors are riunning on the same channels. I live in a townhouse coimmunity which puts very close. The channels above 48 show to be excellent choices and I know would improve my wifi preformance. I spent $1000 on a new router to get the best performace I could and i'm being cut back to limitations on the cahannels available. Please fix this. I have 1GB service coming in, at the router hardwired I'm getting approx 935Mbps , on wifi I'm averaging 500Mbps within a 30ft range.
SimonGT007 wrote:
But there are hardly any routers using the 52-64 channels.
Possibly for a good reason.
Best 5Ghz Channel For Your Router - Find The Wifi Channel
A quick guide to 5GHz in the UK - Part 2
The range of 5 GHz is less than for 2.4 GHz, reducing the risk of interference with neighbours.
tomsdiner39
I have 1GB service coming in, at the router hardwired I'm getting approx 935Mbps , on wifi I'm averaging 500Mbps within a 30ft range.This has little, if anything, to do with the source of your wifi. Most wifi clients cannot get 500 Mbps. No widely used wifi clients get anywhere near 935Mbps, thanks to the laws of physics. Sadly, even Einstein couldn't change those.
Check this excellent source for a crash course on real world wifi rather than wishful thinking:
Understand Wi-Fi 4/5/6 (802.11 n/ac/ad/ax)
duckware knows their stuff.
I have the SRR60 ans 4 satellites, what a waste of time.. Channels 36,40,44 and 44(P) are pulling down transfer rates to a pathetic value. I spend thousands of dollars for this buisness system. I have complained to customer service not just once, but all my cases are eventually dismissed by netgear. My advice, check how DFS is being handled and make sure you can select upper channels before you buy any mesh system. And most of all, stay away from any netgear product. They promise alot but fail to deliver, fail to disclose important details and limitatiins.
SHAME ON YOU NETGEAR, YOU ARE ROBBING PEOPLE BLIND WITHOUT REGRET, STEALING WITHOUT HESITAION. YOUR BUSINESS IS BASED ON LIES!
Agree, FIX THIS!
Please provide more 5GHZ wifi channel options. My neighbors all have overlapping 5GHz networks. The whole poitn of soeming 900+ Dollars on 3 Netgear Orbi mesh network was to not have neighbors slowing down my channels. Restricting to channels 36-48 is too limiting. it is really when you think of spending over 900 dollars you really need more technical options. Back in 1983 there were a few IBM XT and AT that hit the market and memory optiosn grew and grew from 1 MEg to 10 Meg and so on. WIth so many mesh network features, it really holds you back to have the same few 5GHz channels as everyone else. You are killing perfomrance with a reallyh simple thing, Channel Interference. Your Orbi App for monile phones whos clearly all teh neighbors stepping on the few channels i cna select from. Pelase provide more channels so your product is not so shackled with lmiting overlapping networks. Provide more network options for 5GHz so that your networks are faster, please. Pelase make a firmware update that allows more 5GHZ network so that your networks are faster please. Greatly appreciated.
Minor addition note. The Bay Area California where teh Internet was rather born (I supported technology back in 1983 when IBM AT and XT first came out, prior to Ethernet (ThinNet with a coaxial cable and resister at the end) plus Novell networks (Microaoft was Windows for Workgroup 3.10 and 3.11 Windows for Workgroups). OF course that was shortly after they invented fire and the wheel. NOw in the Bay Area I worked for Standfor University for over a decade, where Cisco was born in Polya Hall. Teh first internet LMHost file was manually updated by a admin in Stanford Linear Accelerator across the campus, where he updated manually the text file for new domains globally twice a day.
In Silicon Valley, Sonic provides 1 Gigabit speeds. Using your Orbi device I just tested my house getting 942 Mbps routinely at night due to fiber of Internet Service Provider called Sonic and that is getting more an more common. Of course actively during the day my 5GHz drops as neighbors stream and video on teh same channels I use for tech support of 13 states remote office support, and my 5GHz channels are limiting, however that they can at 1215am just after midnight get those high speeds simply neighbors are asleep.
I strongly suspect, since your application and many third party speed tests confirm rates of 942+ Mbps around midnight that teh technology of the ORbi 5GHZ is willing and technically can do, but during the day competition over a few 5GHz channels kills performance, that "very simply" selecting a network teh neighbors are not using would allow that fast potential I see at night. Your Orbi tool infact proves and confirms the speeds.
Given your tool as proof, and given that 942Gbps is consistent when niebors sleep on fiber networks common in teh bay area (NETGEAR is in Bay Area and has heard of Sonic ISP fiber offering), please make available more channels to select from for 5GHz networks so I can during the day support my end users with a channel my neighbors don't use, and confirmed using your ORbi network tools. Woudl be optimal, would be easy to open more channels, and easy to select them using your tool to confirm what networks the neighbors are using. Thank you for your consideration, your product would be noticeably "FASTER" by simply allowing more channels. Thank you!
yes please, at least allow to change to 52, 56 or 60 !
Expanding WiFi channel options beyond the restricted 36-48 range offers enhanced flexibility and reduced interference. Incorporating additional 5GHz channels, such as 52-64 or 100-144, can optimize network performance, especially in crowded areas. This adjustment promotes better connectivity and accommodates the growing demand for seamless, high-speed internet access. Just as in Men's dress shirts, where a variety of options caters to individual styles, a broader WiFi channel range ensures a tailored approach to meeting diverse connectivity needs.
