Asus AX86U Pro AX and AC on 5ghz band working with Mediatek chipsets but not Intel

[hellohi3654]

Hi I have this really weird problem where Mediatek wifi card such as RZ 616 and RZ 608 connect to the 5Ghz band on my AX86U Pro just fine and RZ616 is able to connect using the 160mhz channel width but all Intel chipsets I have tried ax200, ax201 and ax210 all don't want to use ac or ax on the 5ghz band.

I have tried completely reinstalling drivers for the ax210 with no luck. I am running Asuswrt Merlin and would rather not have to switch back to stock firmware as I need it to unlock transmit power (I bought the router from Amazon Germany and I live in Australia so I am only bringing transmit power up to Australia's regulations.)

I have tried switching to wpa2/wpa3 personal and changed restricted management frames to capable as that is really the only setting that is different from 2.4ghz.

Here is what windows wifi info thingo shows for 5ghz and 2.4ghz:

SSID: Home_5G
Protocol: Wi-Fi 4 (802.11n)
Security type: WPA3-Personal
Manufacturer: Intel Corporation
Description: Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6E AX210 160MHz
Driver version: 23.60.1.2
Network band: 5 GHz
Network channel: 149
Link speed (Receive/Transmit): 300/300 (Mbps)

SSID: Home
Protocol: Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax)
Security type: WPA3-Personal
Manufacturer: Intel Corporation
Description: Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6E AX210 160MHz
Driver version: 23.60.1.2
Network band: 2.4 GHz
Network channel: 1
Link speed (Receive/Transmit): 574/574 (Mbps)

Funny thing is that 2.4ghz is actually faster than 5ghz with this bug.

Also here is my Asuswrt Merlin settings for 5ghz:

and 2.4ghz:

Also included a txt file with a SSU dump of networking info from my laptop with the AX210 installed connected to Home_5G network.

Have no idea why it's not working, any help would be appreciated.

 

[bennor]

(I bought the router from Amazon Germany and I live in Australia so I am only bringing transmit power up to Australia's regulations.)

Wonder if that may be a factor. Using a different market's router. If the WiFi government controlled spectrum is different between Germany and Australia, it might potentially (or not) present issues. Is the Intel WiFi adapter (or computer it's in) from the AU market or some other country/market?

As a datapoint. No 5Ghz WiFi issues with a United States market RT-AX86U Pro with 3004.388.8_2 and a Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6E AX211 160MHz adapter in a Win 11 laptop. Intel see's and connects to the 5Ghz DFS/160GHz without issue. Link speed is 2402/2402 (Mbps). Asus suggests, for certain other router models, to update the Intel WiFi driver if having issues.
[Wireless Router] Troubleshooting - Intel Wireless Adapter Issues with Old Driver Versions When Connecting to an ASUS Router

If you haven't done so already, try changing the 5Ghz channel and or disabling DFS/160GHz and see if that makes any difference. Also test with WPA2 rather than WPA3. For my use case I have Channel bandwidth set to 20/40/80/160 MHz and for Authentication Method using WPA-Personal. YMMV and all that.

 

[hellohi3654]

Wonder if that may be a factor. Using a different market's router. If the WiFi government controlled spectrum is different between Germany and Australia, it might potentially (or not) present issues. Is the Intel WiFi adapter (or computer it's in) from the AU market or some other country/market?

As a datapoint. No 5Ghz WiFi issues with a United States market RT-AX86U Pro with 3004.388.8_2 and a Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6E AX211 160MHz adapter in a Win 11 laptop. Intel see's and connects to the 5Ghz DFS/160GHz without issue. Link speed is 2402/2402 (Mbps). Asus suggests, for certain other router models, to update the Intel WiFi driver if having issues.
[Wireless Router] Troubleshooting - Intel Wireless Adapter Issues with Old Driver Versions When Connecting to an ASUS Router

If you haven't done so already, try changing the 5Ghz channel and or disabling DFS/160GHz and see if that makes any difference. Also test with WPA2 rather than WPA3. For my use case I have Channel bandwidth set to 20/40/80/160 MHz and for Authentication Method using WPA-Personal. YMMV and all that.

Yeah might have to set some other nvram thingo for it to think it's in Australia

I have tested with WPA2 but I will try setting to 20/40/80/160 instead of just 160mhz

According to wikipedia Europe which preassumably includes Germany does support the 149 160mhz channel so should still work

Still strange that mediatek wifi cards work fine but Intel just doesn't

 

[hellohi3654]

Here's my desktop with the RZ 616 wifi card

SSID: Home_5G
Protocol: Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax)
Security type: WPA3-Personal
Manufacturer: MediaTek, Inc.
Description: RZ616 Wi-Fi 6E 160MHz
Driver version: 3.3.0.908
Network band: 5 GHz
Network channel: 149
Link speed (Receive/Transmit): 2402/2402 (Mbps)

 

[ColinTaylor]

According to wikipedia Europe which preassumably includes Germany does support the 149 160mhz channel so should still work

Europe doesn't support channel 149 for Radio LAN (aka Wi-Fi) so try using a "safe" channel like 36. (SRD is for devices like car door openers)

 

[hellohi3654]

Europe doesn't support channel 149 for Radio LAN (aka Wi-Fi) so try using a "safe" channel like 36. (SRD is for devices like car door openers)

Oh ok thanks

 

[TheLostSwede]

Europe doesn't support channel 149 for Radio LAN (aka Wi-Fi) so try using a "safe" channel like 36. (SRD is for devices like car door openers)

What? Yes, the range will be poop at 25 mW, but channel 149-173 are supported.

List of WLAN channels - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I would agree that most routers don't support that range, but that's a different matter.

 

[TheLostSwede]

@hellohi3654 I have had the same router and didn't have any issues connecting with the Intel AX210 in my desktop, nor the Intel AX1675i in my laptop, using 160 MHz channel width.

 

[ColinTaylor]

What? Yes, the range will be poop at 25 mW, but channel 149-173 are supported.

List of WLAN channels - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I would agree that most routers don't support that range, but that's a different matter.

As I said (and as noted in the Wiki) channels 149 to 173 are allowed for Short Range Devices only, this is not the same as wireless routers and PC clients (aka Radio LAN). It's a completely different licensing category.

 

[sfx2000]

What? Yes, the range will be poop at 25 mW, but channel 149-173 are supported.

One thing to also note is that 160MHz channels cuts the Tx power by 3dB (half), and reduces the Rx sensitivity by the same amount...

Depending on how things are arranged, 80MHz channel usage might be a better choice...

 

[sfx2000]

As I said (and as noted in the Wiki) channels 149 to 173 are allowed for Short Range Devices only, this is not the same as wireless routers and PC clients (aka Radio LAN). It's a completely different licensing category.

WLAN falls under the purview of the SRD guidance by ETSI...

Short Range Devices

ETSI Short Range Devices technology page

www.etsi.org

Just saying...

 

[ColinTaylor]

WLAN falls under the purview of the SRD guidance by ETSI...

Short Range Devices

ETSI Short Range Devices technology page

www.etsi.org

Just saying...

Yes I'm well aware of that.

 

[octopus]

One thing to also note is that 160MHz channels cuts the Tx power by 3dB (half), and reduces the Rx sensitivity by the same amount...

Depending on how things are arranged, 80MHz channel usage might be a better choice...

Well, not actually, it looks like the overall effect is the same. Most correct is to switch off the modulation and measure the effect

 

[hellohi3654]

I think I figured out the issue
Probably Intel's LAR (location aware regulator) blocking use of 160mhz channel as 149-173 are only permitted in Australia and the 160mhz channel crosses over into 177 which isn't permitted

List of WLAN channels - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[hellohi3654]

One thing to also note is that 160MHz channels cuts the Tx power by 3dB (half), and reduces the Rx sensitivity by the same amount...

Depending on how things are arranged, 80MHz channel usage might be a better choice...

Australia's power limits for 149 and up is 4 watts so that's not an issue in my case. I have moved on from Asus now due to this issue with Intel and I now have a TP link AP with OPNsense router. 80mhz is definitely the better option over 160mhz with the AP as it's set to EU regulations even though I'm in Australia. TP link don't have Australian firmware to use our limits which is stupid as it let's me use channel 120 - 128 which aren't actually permitted in Australia. Apparently a Australian firmware is in the works.

 

[sfx2000]

Australia's power limits for 149 and up is 4 watts so that's not an issue in my case

Yeah, but the clients typically transmit around -14 to -18 dBm, so the 4 watt AP doesn't matter at all...

 

[hellohi3654]

Yeah, but the clients typically transmit around -14 to -18 dBm, so the 4 watt AP doesn't matter at all...

Oh well whatever the transmit power was with 160mhz enabled it was more than enough to get around my house