5g DFS channels in US r7000 r7000p ex7000 and in general. All firmware release notes lacking data.

[roger_h]

R7000 R7000P EX7000 all firmware realease notes. 

I have R7000 R7000P and Ex7000's used as AP - Extender pairs. All at various firmware levels. One of the EX7000's  is at V1.0.1.94_1.0.172 and I have been trying all the possible combinations and looking at all available documentation and very many web sites. Netgear recommends the pairing of R7000 or R7000P with EX7000. The R7000 and R7000P allow only channels in 5g as follows: 36 40 44 48  149 153 157 161.

  The EX7000 when in FASTLANE and the client side of extender is set to 5G offers the following channels:  36 40 44 48  149 153 157 161   and DFS  channels 52 56 60 64 100 104 108 112. and I have used at a few and am running now on 104. 

Most routers seem to be set to 80 wide that gives a total of 4 5G channels to use without  others already using them.

The R7000 and R7000p I have are not at the latest levels firmware wide, I have had to roll back to usable levels with some updates. I do not want to waste my time with going to the current release at this time unless NETGEAR is actually supporting the DFS channels available on the EX7000 with both the R7000 and R7000P. Please explain at what firmware levels support the same channels as the EX7000. If not working at the latest firmware level when will it be fixed. I paid to get a working 5G solution in a paired setup.

   I am very dissapointed with the poor documentation and support for these products.

I really would like to have more than 4 usable 5G channels on these products.

   Please clear this up for me and others that asked about the 5G DFS channels in the US.

An example that is not a satisfactory answer on this forum: R7000 DFS support, why Europe only? - NETGEAR Communities  that says there already  so many DFS channels available in US that none will be supported?  That is false

   Thanks to anyone who can clearly answer :

        1.0 What firmware levels support the same channels as EX7000.(R7000 R7000P)

         2.0 If not is there a date when this will be fixed?

Thank you 

      Roger

[roger_h · Accepted solution]

I might as well close this out. After numerous searches and reading about this and the response in general from all software and firmware providers, seen in searches and personal experience: My conclusion is that the "as is" "as available" clause to protect the providers is being abused  to excuse sloppy programming and sloppy testing and non existant support.

I believe this allows hiring the cheapest programmers and testers and support staff! There is no incentive to actually test changes since no responsibility is required. LET THE BUYER BEWARE. SPEND UPFRONT TIME TO TEST AND EVALUATE ANYTHING YOU BUY. THEN TAKE BACK AS SOON AS YOU FIND IT IS CRAP. DO NOT TRUST ANYONE!   

The EX7000 pair I am using are not perfect, but are acceptable for the near future as a replacement for the R7000p/EX7000. My only complaint is that the power level setting does not seem to make a difference. Although at 25% 5g dropped out. So I abandoned further testing. Enough is enough. I can get obsessed with trying. As some say "its does no good to kick a dead horse".

[roger_h]

Since  there has been no response I decided to try updating to 1.3.2.134 from 1.3.0.20.

I am now running on that firmware level now. 

Setting 5g channels does not offer any DFS channels.  

As per the following I should have DFS channels. Or does that require another Firmware release?

Which NETGEAR devices support Dynamic Frequency Selection? | Answer | NETGEAR Support

does include the R7000P as DFS approved in the US.

The following is a list of NETGEAR devices that support Dynamic Frequency Selection:

The following tables show which NETGEAR devices support Dynamic Frequency Selection by region (U.S, EU):

Federal Communications Commission (U.S)

Product	Model Name
A6100V1	A6100 WiFi USB Adapter 802.11ac Dual Band
EX6200V1	WiFi Range Extender
A6210V1	WiFi USB Adapter
EX7000V1	AC1900 WiFi Range Extender
EX3700V1	AC750 WiFi Range Extender
WAC740V1	ProSAFE® Dual Band Wireless AC Access Point
EX6120V1	AC1200 WiFi Range Extender
WAC720V1	ProSAFE® Dual Band Wireless Access Point
WAC730V1	ProSAFE® Dual Band Wireless Access Point
EX7300V1	Nighthawk X4 AC2200 WiFi Range Extender
R7800V1	Nighthawk X4S AC2600 Smart WiFi Router
EX6400V1	AC1900 WiFi Range Extender
EX3800V1	AC750 WiFi Range Extender
EX6200V2	AC1200 WiFi Range Extender
EX6150V2	AC1200 WiFi Range Extender
EX6100V2	WiFi Range Extender
R9000V1	AD7200 Smart WiFi Router
R6400/R6700V2/V3	AC1750 Smart WiFi Router
R6700/6800/6900V2	AC1900 Smart WiFi Router
R7000P/R6900P/RS400V1	AC2300 Smart WiFi Router

 Above is copied from Which NETGEAR devices support Dynamic Frequency Selection? | Answer | NETGEAR Support  : yet I can not select any DFS channels. 

So now my question is is a factory reset going to fix this?  Or a new Firmware release?

Or is there something else that will enable the DFS channels?

The neighborhood is full of 2g channels that have a mix  of  unfriendly channel use. 

like: 1,2,4,6,8,11,11-4 so it would be nice to use 5g. The 5g channels are not all used yet so a firmware release in the near future would be fine! Does anyone have the DFS channels working on the R7000p in the US? If so how? Is there a setting somewhere I haven't found???

Thanks Roger

:

[roger_h]

No answers. So despite knowing update to latest level may cause some grief, I updated to 1.3.2.134 hoping to get DFS channels. 

NOPE STILL ONLY 36 40 44 48, 149 153 157 161.

My question is  since the R7000P is DFS approved in the US.

WHY ARE THERE NO DFS CHANNELS available t this the latest level?

When will DFSt be available on the R7000P ?

Please Does anyone know the answer?  The  EX7000 does have DFS !

Thanks for any information.  (Any information for R7000 would also be appreciated.

[roger_h]

Now I found this saying Netgear knows the solution.

Solved: Re: Netgear's 'wireless bridge' DFS CHANNEL blunde... - NETGEAR Communities

When is Netgear going to fix this for R7000P and other routers?

This means that it does work if installing as router bu not if installed as AP.

Does Netgear have any release date to fix this blunder?

Again any news will be appriciated.(Please tell me I didn't waste the money and time on a product that is worthless!)   I am willing to try new firmware and use the flaky update process 

to obtain the DFS channels I paid to have in the product. Even though I seem to get a different  result every time I do a reset! 

I already have a modem router and really only want the  AP function.

Thanks for any information.

Roger

[roger_h]

Attempted to setup as a router and turn off DHCP. Always ended up with The IP address conflicts with the WAN IP subnet. Please enter a different IP address message. On a few attemps it would actually apply the settings , but result in no access to the router, The modem router still shows two addresses or the R7000P but they are nor accessable.

        To me the important fact is that t no time in the setup did the router show DFS channels.

Netgear does not seem to want to make it clear what channels are in the firmware. This implies the router is capable of DFS as all Netgear documents state, but the firmware does not support DFS. I think but cannot prove that "router mode with DHCP off is treated the same as" the "extender mode".   In any case it definetly appears that DFS is not in the firmware for this router. 

     Does anyone out there have the DFS channels working on this as either a router or as an extender?"   Would NETGEAR actually comment on this. I am definetly feeling ripped off?

Having seen that there appears to be no DFS support in the firmware, I wish I had not trusted NETGEAR. I had no problems with previous routers including NETGEAR.

I will now go back to setting up as an AP untill it allows me to access it to change settings.

Please respond if you have any solid infirmation about why DFS is not supported in the firmware.

Roger

[roger_h]

Still NETGEAR silence is deafining. So I decided to test the EX7000 as an AP What a up experience compared to R7000P. Took to barn and configured it from extender to AP. No reset required! Worked as expected! Checked out DFS channels and selected 104 with no problem. Went to house and 2g and 5g quality at same exact spot in house were the same as the R7000P as extender!  Went back to barn and changed the EX7000 back to extender. No reset required! Went back to house EX7000 working as expected. If only the R7000P was properly programmed! So I decided to wait and see if NETGEAR actually does anything about DFS for the R7000P. Then when EX7000 price goes down I'll replace the junk R7000P if NETGEAR leaves it in a worthless condition.  The EX7000 programmer is doing his job?  I hope the R7000P guy wakes up!  Or at least states why DFS in not working and why the user interface is so bad. Having looked at warrenty etc and noticed the statements that "firmware is as is" and "as available" I have lost faith that the R7000P will be fixed. Bu I am hoping that he gets a fire lighted under him and fixes it. 

So I will continue to hope that the R7000P is fixed in the near future. I do not want to go to my backup plan and get another EX7000!

If I had known how good the EX7000 is I would never have bought the R7000P, I would have bought two Ex7000's and have a good setup in minutes.

Roger

[roger_h]

Decided to get a refurbished EX7000 to see if  DFS works in both extender and access point modes. IT DOES!   I hooked the new EX7000 to my lan on the house EX7000 extender.   I had read that an access point should be able to connect that way. It worked and accesses internet but caused problems with accessing devices on the lan. Gave that up and thought it could just be moved to barn. In the barn and connected to the router. Lost access to other devices on the lan. And ip address for the new EX7000 dissapeared. So I am guessing that it was a bad idea to setup on the extender. Reset everything +new  extender and set up the new extender as an access point.  Updated to latest firmware to obtain DFS channels. When setting up channel 104  I didn't set the passphrase  and tried again and got an error saying radar detected. Couldn't set different DFS channel after that. Later I switched to lower DFS channels and no radar error. Then back to 104 with no radar error. Having errors in 5g channels may have flakey results.   So all thats left is to try all DFS channels before I am happy! Thus I have now determined that the EX7000's gives DFS access that the R7000P - EX7000 does not, I will wait untill the non DFS channels in my area get saturated. 

    When that occurs and if the R7000P still has no DFS at that time I may try  DD-WRT on the R7000P for my son's house. If his R7000 still has no DFS. Or use the R7000 for a decoration.

So for now I'll wait a little longer to see if anyone has more infromation?   I 've been retired since  92, so I have a little patience to try these things out!  But the R7000P status and the "as available" firmware updates (if ever) is very irritating. In honesty I have seen confusion  in all the brands that caused me to spend 49.00 for a refurbished EX7000 that had a good chance to satisfy me.

LIVE and LEARN!!!!!   Buyer be very bewary?

 I now know DFS for EXT working in both AP and the EXT, the  EX7000's are a winner. 

Roger

[roger_h]

Two  pictures of channel information. The country list from the EX7000 and the channell selection available in the wifi settings. The available channels in the EX7000 selection are a subset of those allowed in th US. But since the R7000P does not allow any it is an improvement that will be ok untill everyone in the neighborhood is using 5g. Hopefully Netgear will update all capable routers to allow use of DFS channels.

I have not seen any indication of radar detected again, so the message when first setting up is likely another coding problem to be ignored. 

[roger_h]

Tried the following:

Completely avoiding the Smart Wizard | Answer | NETGEAR Support

Worked as it should have, like the old way to setup. Routerlogin.net is so buggy and crappy.

After setting up the only glitch was I had to reset modem,and routers, APs to get login to my router due to 192.168.1.1  conflict. 

I always prefered to setup my network devices at my couch.

The wifi speed seems to be equal on the R7000P/Ex7000 vs EX7000/EX7000.  So now I am happy with my one way conversation, and resigned to being in the  dark about DFS channels, So hopefully NETGEAR will eventually get their act together about DFS!

Roger

[roger_h · Accepted solution]

I might as well close this out. After numerous searches and reading about this and the response in general from all software and firmware providers, seen in searches and personal experience: My conclusion is that the "as is" "as available" clause to protect the providers is being abused  to excuse sloppy programming and sloppy testing and non existant support.

I believe this allows hiring the cheapest programmers and testers and support staff! There is no incentive to actually test changes since no responsibility is required. LET THE BUYER BEWARE. SPEND UPFRONT TIME TO TEST AND EVALUATE ANYTHING YOU BUY. THEN TAKE BACK AS SOON AS YOU FIND IT IS CRAP. DO NOT TRUST ANYONE!   

The EX7000 pair I am using are not perfect, but are acceptable for the near future as a replacement for the R7000p/EX7000. My only complaint is that the power level setting does not seem to make a difference. Although at 25% 5g dropped out. So I abandoned further testing. Enough is enough. I can get obsessed with trying. As some say "its does no good to kick a dead horse".