ASUS XT8 Backhaul Channel vs. Guitar Wireless System

[5150]

Hi everyone, long time reader, first time poster here and hoping I might get some help or insight.

I have a 3 piece XT8 with 2 nodes with the wifi channels hard coded. For years now I've had the 2nd 5ghz channel set to 165 and never had a single issue. Recently changed my guitar wireless system to a 5ghz system due to the interference I grew tired of with the 2.4ghz system. I found I really could no longer use the higher channels for backhaul as they overlapped with the 6 available channels of the guitar wireless system. To solve the problem, I changed my backhaul channel to channel 120 and now almost everything works perfectly fine. I'm also using channel 40 for my main 5ghz channel and have used this channel for a few years without issue.

However, since this change, my backhaul will oddly drop to using 2.4ghz, but for only around 30 minutes at a time then return to using 5ghz. This is happening once or twice a day, and to the best of my knowledge never happened when I was using channel 165 for my backhaul.

This is a section of my log file that I 'think' shows the backhaul changing to 2.4, then back to 5ghz around 30 minutes later. (I've removed a few lines that show MACs). It's probably also worth noting I have my channel width set to auto for all 3 of my bands.

Mar 6 17:15:34 cfg_server: cm_updateChanspec call wl_chanspec_changed_action
Mar 6 17:15:34 cfg_server: event: wl_chanspec_changed_action_a101 of eid(7) of cfgs(2011)
Mar 6 17:15:34 cfg_server: ! handling event in 5g static chan case: (5g_1)wl1_chanspec:40/80 / (5g_2)wl2_chanspec:120/160
Mar 6 17:15:34 cfg_server: current chansp(unit0) is 100b, shall_be_excluded:0, avbl:1.
Mar 6 17:15:34 cfg_server: current chansp(unit1) is e12a, shall_be_excluded:0, avbl:1.
Mar 6 17:15:34 cfg_server: current chansp(unit2) is ed72, shall_be_excluded:1, avbl:0. Check your settings due conficts w/ excluded chan.
Mar 6 17:16:17 kernel: ^[[0;33;41m[ERROR archer] archer_mcast_activate,577: ADD_PORT: WLAN SSID has already been added: egress_port 6, current 0x0001, new 0x0001^[[0m
Mar 6 17:18:06 kernel: ^[[0;33;41m[ERROR archer] archer_mcast_activate,577: ADD_PORT: WLAN SSID has already been added: egress_port 6, current 0x0001, new 0x0001^[[0m
Mar 6 17:24:16 kernel: ^[[0;33;41m[ERROR archer] archer_mcast_activate,577: ADD_PORT: WLAN SSID has already been added: egress_port 6, current 0x0001, new 0x0001^[[0m
Mar 6 17:39:15 kernel: ^[[0;33;41m[ERROR archer] archer_mcast_activate,577: ADD_PORT: WLAN SSID has already been added: egress_port 6, current 0x0001, new 0x0001^[[0m
Mar 6 17:46:28 cfg_server: cm_updateChanspec call wl_chanspec_changed_action
Mar 6 17:46:28 cfg_server: event: wl_chanspec_changed_action_a101 of eid(8) of cfgs(2011)
Mar 6 17:46:28 cfg_server: ! handling event in 5g static chan case: (5g_1)wl1_chanspec:40/80 / (5g_2)wl2_chanspec:120/160
Mar 6 17:46:28 cfg_server: current chansp(unit0) is 100b, shall_be_excluded:0, avbl:1.
Mar 6 17:46:28 cfg_server: current chansp(unit1) is e12a, shall_be_excluded:0, avbl:1.
Mar 6 17:46:29 cfg_server: current chansp(unit2) is ed72, shall_be_excluded:1, avbl:0. Check your settings due conficts w/ excluded chan.

This is a snippet from the manual of the guitar wireless showing the channel frequencies that I'm trying to avoid, hence dropping from ch165 to 120:

I''m on firmware 3.0.0.4.388_24688 and wired backhaul is unfortunately not an option for me. I'm hoping someone can advise some settings change I can make that might fix the issue.

Thanks for taking the time to read this!

 

[bbunge]

Channel 120 is a DFS channel and you are likely getting hit by RADAR. Switch to channel 149, 153, 157, 161 or 165.
Better yet, set all your WIFI bands to Auto channel and let the router and nodes figure out what is best.

 

[5150]

Channel 120 is a DFS channel and you are likely getting hit by RADAR. Switch to channel 149, 153, 157, 161 or 165.
Better yet, set all your WIFI bands to Auto channel and let the router and nodes figure out what is best.

Thanks, but those are the 5ghz channels I was trying to avoid so my guitar wireless worked. However, at least that might explain the temporary 2.4 drop I'm seeing.

I have neighbors on channels 1 and 6 (and a few other 2.4 channels) so I keep it set to 11 with no issues. I have no good reason to keep my main 5ghz channel at 40, though.

Honestly never quite understood what DFS channels are so I guess it's time for me to read up and learn if I'm now using one.

Thank you for the reply!

 

[ColinTaylor]

Channels from 120 to 128 are shared with weather radar systems. Change your channel to 100 with a bandwidth of 80MHz.

 

[5150]

Channels from 120 to 128 are shared with weather radar systems. Change your channel to 100 with a bandwidth of 80MHz.

Thanks so much! I just got done re-trying all the higher channels with no luck. Every time I tried to use the guitar wireless it cut out very badly and in many cases cut off the connection to the remote access points.

I've changed it to channel 100 now setting the bandwidth to 80Mhz leaving the 'enable 160Mhz' box checked. May I ask why you advised setting the bandwidth to 80 rather than auto? I'm genuinely asking just because I'm curious.

Thank you again.

 

[Tech9]

May I ask why you advised setting the bandwidth to 80 rather than auto?

Because of this:

Disable 160MHz and set Ch.100 at 80MHz bandwidth as advised above.

 

[ColinTaylor]

I've changed it to channel 100 now setting the bandwidth to 80Mhz leaving the 'enable 160Mhz' box checked.

The only thing the 160MHz checkbox does is enable 160 as an option in the dropdown lists.

May I ask why you advised setting the bandwidth to 80 rather than auto? I'm genuinely asking just because I'm curious.

The reason was to stop the router choosing 160MHz which would use channels 100 to 128, resulting in the same issue you had before.