I have made an observation and was wondering if someone could shed some light on it.
While I was attempting to choose the best channel for my 5Ghz side of the router I noticed something strange. I live in a non-congested area with very few visible 5Ghz networks. I could see a few that were on channels 149, 153, etc but nothing on the channel 36 range. So I set my channel to 36. A while later, I noticed that all the other networks had moved to the channel I was on. So I moved to the 149, 153 range which was now vacant. A while later, they were back on my channels and nothing was on the other 36 channel. At first I thought someone was following me, so I set mine to a DFS channel (100). They didn't follow me, but they still followed each other. They are not repeaters either because I can see where a few of them are FIOS routers and a few are Spectrum (cable). They all seem to gravitate to each other. Its strange because I can see 5 or 6 completely different networks with varying signal strengths on the same channels while other channels are vacant.
I thought the whole idea of setting your channel to 'auto' was so it picks less congested channels, but the ones that I can see, seem to hang together. Not always, but much of the time. I would keep mine set to a DFS channel but there must be radar or something in the area because after a few hours, mine switches back to lower channels. I'm not concerned that I have a security problem, but I just don't understand why my router and theirs seem to gravitate towards each other.
Not all ISP devices are programmed properly as well as most ISP's rarely update firmware on their devices. So it very well could be shoddy coding. Its usually why one of the first things recommended to people with poor wifi is to get rid of their isp supplied router.
Nice thing (and bad thing) is that 5ghz doesn't transmit as far or through as much materials. Even if you can see the signals, doesn't always mean its causing as much issues as the 2.4ghz bands used to. As well as when they do broadcast, their higher throughput means they transmit for a much shorter period.
No, its not causing an issue. I was just curious. I agree that it probably won't interfere on 5ghz like 2.4ghz would. Thats why I have the 2.4ghz side toned down to 25% transmit power for the few 2.4 devices I have remaining.
I think I know why it might be happening. There is an airport within 8 miles of me so I think DFS channels are limited. The networks I'm seeing are 80Mhz wide. So that only leaves 2 non-DFS channel ranges (36-48 and 149-161) if I'm thinking this correctly. So that could explain why they all seem to gravitate to those 2 areas. As a test, I dropped my width to 40Mhz and set my router to a DFS channel. I did this a couple of hours ago and so far It hasn't changed channels. I'm sitting on a channel all by myself. We'll see how long it lasts. So far, I'm liking this router.
