AX-11000 160mhz on 5ghz2

[yellowdog22]

Hi all,

I've had my router for a few years now but I realised there was an issue with 160mhz on 5ghz-2.
So looking in the forums, I can't see a solution to getting 160mhz working on 5ghz-2. To be honest, most changes on 5ghz-2 don't work. When I click Apply it says Apply Settings, but they don't take.
I did a hard reset, made no difference.
I see one solution is to set the region settings on the professional tab to the US but I don't see that option.
I'm on the latest firmware 3.0.0.4.388_22525-gd35b8fe.

I was thinking to switch to Merlin, would that resolve the issue?

One thing that's stopping me is that I use VPN Fusion so I can set a firestick to use NordVPN to connect to the UK.

Is anyone managed to get 160 to work? Does anyone know if I switch to Merlin can I route the firestick through the VPN?

Thanks!

 

[drinkingbird]

160 overlaps with DFS so if there is radar in your area it will drop to 80. Especially if you have 160 on 5ghz-1 you probably just don't have enough spectrum to use it.

 

[ronan_zj]

yea, most of time DFS would be dropped if you are living in a city

 

[L&LD]

Depends on the city.

 

[tgl]

Depends on the city.

What it depends on is how close you are to an airport radar or weather radar station. Those are the services that take precedence on the DFS channels.

 

[Tech9]

I can't see a solution to getting 160mhz working on 5ghz-2.

What country do you live in?

I was thinking to switch to Merlin, would that resolve the issue?

No.

 

[drinkingbird]

What it depends on is how close you are to an airport radar or weather radar station. Those are the services that take precedence on the DFS channels.

Generally speaking, just avoid DFS. There are weather radar and airport/military radar all over, even in rural areas, and the second your router detects it, it will drop down and potentially even drop your wireless for a while as it scans. 160 mhz just isn't reasonable really, even 80+80 is just begging for interference. 80mhz AX should be plenty of bandwidth (close to 1Gbps actual throughput) for 99.9% of people.

 

[Tech9]

Many people forget 160MHz wide channel has shorter range. The 3dBm radio sensitivity difference compared to 80MHz wide channel may be critical for further located devices - they may become actually slower or unable to connect.

 

[tgl]

Generally speaking, just avoid DFS. There are weather radar and airport/military radar all over, even in rural areas, and the second your router detects it, it will drop down and potentially even drop your wireless for a while as it scans. 160 mhz just isn't reasonable really, even 80+80 is just begging for interference. 80mhz AX should be plenty of bandwidth (close to 1Gbps actual throughput) for 99.9% of people.

Yeah, that. What's more, for most people the only reason to want high wireless bandwidth is to make use of a high-bandwidth internet connection, but you can't get 1Gbps-or-better internet connections unless you live in a large metropolitan area ... which will have an airport and therefore a radar problem. The whole thing verges on a scam by wireless hardware makers: they are pushing performance figures that are not achievable in any remotely realistic scenario.

WiFi 6E and 7 standards should provide some relief from this catch-22 because they use new non-DFS spectrum space, but with WiFi 6 it's just a pipe dream.

 

[drinkingbird]

Many people forget 160MHz wide channel has shorter range. The 3dBm radio sensitivity difference compared to 80MHz wide channel may be critical for further located devices - they may become actually slower or unable to connect.

Thus slowing your other wireless devices too.....

Not sure why anyone needs 160. If you're pulling that much bandwidth, hardwire whatever it is. I've yet to find 80mhz AC 2x2 to be an issue and that's only about 500-600 mbit throughput.

 

[Tech9]

You can't show a good speedtest on a phone.

 

[drinkingbird]

You can't show a good speedtest on a phone.

Half of the "troubleshooting" in these forums seems to be chasing speedtests. ISPs and hardware vendors are happily cashing in on that trend.

 

[drinkingbird]

they are pushing performance figures that are not achievable in any remotely realistic

That's been since the beginning of wifi. I could understand if you lose 10 to 20% to overhead but best case scenario you can achieve 60% of the link speed, usually more like 50.

Plus they combine the 2.4 and 5ghz speeds "AC1900 router" when in reality it is two separate bands added together to get that number.

My favorite is the AC1200 routers that mostly all have 100M ports on them.

 

[Tech9]

I just want to see 750Mbps 802.11n on 2.4GHz. My AX86U specs say it can do it.

 

[kimot]

When I click Apply it says Apply Settings, but they don't take.

I’m having the same issue as well. I cant apply or save any changes done in 5ghz-2.

No isse with other bands.

 

[tgl]

My favorite is the AC1200 routers that mostly all have 100M ports on them.

Right ... and we're having a new iteration of that issue today with routers that claim multiple-gigabit total throughput but come with, at best, 2.5G WAN ports. I think serious entrants in the WiFi 7 space had better have 10G ports.

 

[yellowdog22]

Hi,
As people have asked, here are a few details...
I'm in Italy, Genova to be precise, and I have an airport that's about 15mins from me.
I'm on a 5ghz fibre line, yes 5! Italian Telecom is selling 10 ghz as well. But as we all know, what's the point of 5 or 10 if you have an ONT with a gigabit cable going to the router?! Well, that's true for a lot of ISPs here, but some, like mine are different. My router has the fibre cable going directly into the router and then has 1x2.5 and 2x gigabit WAN ports. But that's another story.
I'm in bridge mode from that modem to the AX-11000, and like @kimot mentioned, I can't change anything on the second 5ghz. Any changes you make are ignored. What I've tried doing is a hard reset then setup up the 2,4 and 5 separately. I can change the 2.4 to my liking. But whatever I try on the 5ghz-2 it won't register.
I made a little loom video for you guys to see.

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[L&LD]

5ghz? You mean 5Gbps, correct?

 

[yellowdog22]

sure 5gbps

 

[drabisan]

What if you choose 160MHz only? And choose a channel, like 116.

Also, ssh to the router and execute

nvram show | grep wl1_bw

Maybe it doesn't like browser (cache?)