Can Asus XT9 5Ghz-2 Use Lower Channels (36-64)?

[collector930]

Hi,

Is there any way to make Asus XT9 5Ghz-2 use lower WiFi channels (36-64)?

I have an ethernet backhaul so I wanted to used the 4x4 5Ghz band for fronthaul instead of backhaul. Also, I've found that the 5Ghz-2 band gets about 20% to 40% more speed than the 5Ghz-1 at > 15 feet, for both AX and AC clients.

However, I found that even if I turn off the 5Ghz-1 band radio, the lower channels are still not selectable for 5Ghz-2. I want to do this in order to use the lower 160Mhz channel (36-64), because I have some devices that can use 160Mhz. The upper 160Mhz channel (100-128) is not really usable in my region due to frequent radar events in channels 116-132. For example when the XT9 starts up, it often selects channel 100 (within DFS and Weather Radar Channel), but within 30 minutes will switch to channel 155, and the wireless log will say something about interference near channels 116-132.

Or maybe just get a GT-6 or ET12 mesh (more $$ and don't really like the looks).

Thanks in advance.

 

[tgl]

If it's not selectable in the GUI, then indeed it's probably not possible. I've never owned an XT9, but when I had XT8s their 5GHz-1 radios could only use the lower channels and their 5GHz-2 radios could only use the upper ones. So it seems like a pretty common cost-cutting tactic for ASUS. If memory serves, back when I had Netgear Orbis they had similar restrictions.

I think you're wasting your time worrying about the 4x4 aspect of it for fronthaul use. Do you have any 4x4 clients? (I thought not.) In an ideal world a 4x4 AP could talk to two 2x2 clients concurrently on the same channel, but in reality there aren't many clients that support that either. So the only real-world use for 4x4 radios is wireless backhaul to a similarly-equipped base unit.

EDIT: well, actually, the real-world use for 4x4 radios is to let the wifi manufacturers pad their spec-sheet numbers.

 

[collector930]

If it's not selectable in the GUI, then indeed it's probably not possible. I've never owned an XT9, but when I had XT8s their 5GHz-1 radios could only use the lower channels and their 5GHz-2 radios could only use the upper ones. So it seems like a pretty common cost-cutting tactic for ASUS. If memory serves, back when I had Netgear Orbis they had similar restrictions.

I think you're wasting your time worrying about the 4x4 aspect of it for fronthaul use. Do you have any 4x4 clients? (I thought not.) In an ideal world a 4x4 AP could talk to two 2x2 clients concurrently on the same channel, but in reality there aren't many clients that support that either. So the only real-world use for 4x4 radios is wireless backhaul to a similarly-equipped base unit.

EDIT: well, actually, the real-world use for 4x4 radios is to let the wifi manufacturers pad their spec-sheet numbers.

Thanks for the reply.

You are right that I don't have a 4x4 client, though I do have a 3x3 client, my 2015 Macbook Pro. The rest are all 2x2 clients.

Still, what I found interesting is all of my 2x2 clients get much higher speeds when connected to the 4x4 5Ghz-2 band than the 2x2 5Ghz-1 band (I connect to 5Ghz-1 band first, and then disconnect and connect to the 5Ghz-2 band). The farther away the higher the difference, up to 40% higher. Similarly, my 2x2 clients like iPads (Wifi 5), iPhones (Wifi 6) and Asus notebooks (Wifi 5) had higher speeds with a 4x4 router, when I compared an Asus RT-AX5400 router (4x4 5Ghz band) vs a TP-Link AXE75 (2x2 5Ghz) and even a TP-Link BE11000 (2x2 5Ghz), even though the TP-Links use newer Broadcom and Qualcomm chipsets. My guess is that the extra antennas in the 4x4 allow lower noise level during RX, and better beamforming during TX.

 

[Tech9]

You can’t switch 5GHz-2 radio to lower channels. Use it on Ch.155 non-DFS or use 5GHz-1 radio. Otherwise you have to replace your equipment.

 

[tgl]

You are right that I don't have a 4x4 client, though I do have a 3x3 client, my 2015 Macbook Pro. The rest are all 2x2 clients.

Ha! I should have thought of that, because I too still have one of those 3x3 MBPs. Still, those were AC-generation, so their max nominal PHY rate is 1300Mbps, barely better than the 1200 you get from a 2x2 AX-generation client.

Still, what I found interesting is all of my 2x2 clients get much higher speeds when connected to the 4x4 5Ghz-2 band than the 2x2 5Ghz-1 band (I connect to 5Ghz-1 band first, and then disconnect and connect to the 5Ghz-2 band).

Now that you mention it, I have heard claims that 4x4 APs can do some second-order things to improve throughput, though it's quite unclear to me exactly what.

 

[Tech9]

iPads and iPhones had higher speed… well, okay. This translates to zero user experience improvement. If the speedtest is so important - replace the equipment.