Dangerous to rise TX power?

[darkknight74]

I sit about 1,5 meters from the asus n66u router and I use 374.35_4-sdk5 merlin firmware.

Is it dangerous to rise the TX power on 2 ghz to maximum 100 mW and on the 5 ghz to maximum 200 mW?

I wonder both health for me and the health of the router!

 

[thiggins]

You're more likely to thermally stress the router than hurt yourself.

 

[darkknight74]

What settings do you have on tx power on both 2ghz and 5 ghz?

 

[ColinTaylor]

I wonder both health for me and the health of the router!

No risk to yourself (http://www.who.int/peh-emf/publications/facts/fs304/en/). As far as the router is concerned you can monitor the temperatures at http://192.168.1.1/Advanced_PerformanceTuning_Content.asp and see if increasing the output power causes any significant rise.

 

[L&LD]

I was running the RT-N66U with Tx power for both bands at 200mW. No issues for many months.

Temps were the same at idle, but throughput greatly enhanced at short to medium distances from the clients although I never checked temps during actual use. But I never checked them at the defaults either.

Throughput was and is the goal for allowing the full power possible, in my experience.

Safety to myself? Lol... I am sure I will be gone before radio waves have any significant effect from a consumer router.

 

[john9527]

Just to remind everyone...there is this little statement where you adjust the power.....

The maximum value is 200mW and the real transmission power will be dynamically adjusted to meet regional regulations

So, at the risk of getting everyone worked up, here is a script that will tell you what that regulatory max is.....whatever number you put in for the power, will be capped to this level. (For 376+ builds, this is the 100% value)

Note: This appears to only work on 'AC' routers....

#!/bin/sh

# Maxpwr
# Reads and displays regulatory max power available

calc ()
# Routine for fp math in scripts
{
    local in="$(echo "$@" | sed -e 's/\[/(/g' -e 's/\]/)/g')";
        awk 'BEGIN {print '"$in"'}' < /dev/null
        }

# Get the regulated max in dbm and convert to mW
dbm=$(wl txpwr_target_max | awk -F':' '{print $3}')
dbm0=$(echo $dbm | awk -F ' ' '{print $1}'); exp0=$(calc $dbm0/10); mw0=$(calc int[[10 ^ $exp0]+0.5]);
dbm1=$(echo $dbm | awk -F ' ' '{print $3}'); exp1=$(calc $dbm1/10); mw1=$(calc int[[10 ^ $exp1]+0.5]);

# Get country information
country=$(wl country)

# Print results
echo ""
echo "Regulatory Domain"
echo "  "$country
echo "Regulatory Max Power Levels"
printf "  Router max transmission power (2.4GHz):  "%3s"mW\n" $mw0
printf "  Router max transmission power (5GHz):    "%3s"mW\n" $mw1
echo ""
exit 0

 

[ColinTaylor]

Thanks John. Unfortunately txpwr_target_max is not supported on the N66U

 

[john9527]

Thanks John. Unfortunately txpwr_target_max is not supported on the N66U

Sorry about that....wonder if there is an equivalent for the N66U hiding somewhere?

 

[Chrysalis]

on ac66u

wl: Unsupported
awk: cmd. line:1: Unexpected end of string
awk: cmd. line:1: Unexpected token
awk: cmd. line:1: Unexpected end of string
awk: cmd. line:1: Unexpected token

Regulatory Domain
  #a (#a/0) <unknown>
Regulatory Max Power Levels
  Router max transmission power (2.4GHz):     mW
  Router max transmission power (5GHz):       mW

 

[ColinTaylor]

Sorry about that....wonder if there is an equivalent for the N66U hiding somewhere?

Not that I've found. There are a couple of likely sounding commands but they don't return sensible values.

 

[Flying Dutchman]

I sit about 1,5 meters from the asus n66u router and I use 374.35_4-sdk5 merlin firmware.

Is it dangerous to rise the TX power on 2 ghz to maximum 100 mW and on the 5 ghz to maximum 200 mW?

I wonder both health for me and the health of the router!

You can better mount better antennas. Only increasing the power at one location (only the router, not the laptop/smartphone/tablet) is not a good solution.

By mounting antennas with higher gain you will extend the distance.
But keep in mind that you pay off in less coverage above (and below) the router, so on 2nd and 3rd floors just above the antennas.

I use 3 x 12 dBi antennas: they look ugly but I now have good coverage in house and in my big garden.

 

[test011]

on ac66u

wl: Unsupported
awk: cmd. line:1: Unexpected end of string
awk: cmd. line:1: Unexpected token
awk: cmd. line:1: Unexpected end of string
awk: cmd. line:1: Unexpected token

Regulatory Domain
  #a (#a/0) <unknown>
Regulatory Max Power Levels
  Router max transmission power (2.4GHz):     mW
  Router max transmission power (5GHz):       mW

Same here. (RT-AC66U Merlin FW 374.43_2-01j9527)