PCE-AC66 wifi card not picking up 5ghz 149-161 channels

[psychopomp1]

Hi
Recently purchased the PCE-AC66 wifi PCI card to use with my Netgear R6300 router in UK. The combo works fine, however i'm not able to get a connection on any 5ghz channel between 149-161. Obviously i know that Europe is limited to channels 36-48, however on my Netgear router, if i change region to North America then i get additional channels 149-161. Selecting any channel between 149-161on the router allows me to connect my laptop (with Intel N6300 wifi card) but not my desktop which has the PCE-AC66 installed...i can only access it on channels 44 or 48...even channel 36 doesn't work. But channels 44 & 48 are already congested and forget 2.4 ghz. Under the card's network adaptor properties, i've gone to the "WZC IBSS Channel number" and tried to match the channel number with the routers channel but it doesn't make any difference. Perhaps the card is locked to Europe channels only? In that case why doesn't channel 36 work?>Thanks

 

[MSaran]

PCE-AC68 wifi card not picking any channel above 48

I have a PCE-AC68 and it is not showing any signal above the channel 48.
I've tried from 36 to 165, including 64, 100, 120, 136, 149, 165, but only the channels from 36 to 48 display any signal.
I'm using Windows 8.1 x64 and the lastest available driver (6.30.223.201).
Do you find a way to put yours PCE-AC66 to work?
Anyone knows what can I do to make it work above channel 48?
Thanks

 

[RMerlin]

I have a PCE-AC68 and it is not showing any signal above the channel 48.
I've tried from 36 to 165, including 64, 100, 120, 136, 149, 165, but only the channels from 36 to 48 display any signal.
I'm using Windows 8.1 x64 and the lastest available driver (6.30.223.201).
Do you find a way to put yours PCE-AC66 to work?
Anyone knows what can I do to make it work above channel 48?
Thanks

Sounds like a regional limitation. Not all regions allow channels above these.

 

[_robodoc_]

Check this (5 GHz section):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_WLAN_channels

Sadly enough DFS/TPC is not implemented yet.

 

[MSaran]

Ok, I know there are regional limitations, besides the DFS/TPC.
Nevertheless, with my Trendnet TEW-684UB adapter and Netgear WNDR4500 router I can get signals from 36 to 136, being channel 100 to 116 perfect for my home. However, I do not know why I cannot get any signal from 149 to 165 with it.
On the other hand, using the Asus PCE-AC68 card I can only see channels 36 to 48, nothing more.
I do not know if it is some hardware or software limitation.
Maybe if it is Windows or driver misconfiguration I could do something.
Anyone?

 

[_robodoc_]

According to the recent issue of the german computer magazine c´t (they tested a PCE AC66) this limitation is due to the driver. ASUS is said to promise a driver update in spring 2014. Seems you can do nothing.

 

[maylyn]

I have a PCE-AC68 and it is not showing any signal above the channel 48.
I've tried from 36 to 165, including 64, 100, 120, 136, 149, 165, but only the channels from 36 to 48 display any signal.
I'm using Windows 8.1 x64 and the lastest available driver (6.30.223.201).
Do you find a way to put yours PCE-AC66 to work?
Anyone knows what can I do to make it work above channel 48?
Thanks

ASUS PCE-AC68 and ASUS USB-A56 do work with my ASUS RT-AC68U @ 5GHz > 48. Like RMerlin has mentioned it's a region thingy.

See attached

3.0.0.4.374_454 Firmware - 5GHz (Channel 149) ~ Link Speed - 867Mbps using ASUS USB-AC56



3.0.0.4.374_501 Firmware - 5GHz (Channel 153) ~ Link Speed - 1300Mbps using ASUS PCE-AC68

 

[L&LD]

maylyn,

Pretty impressive speeds with the RT-AC68U you're getting.

Is there anything available (or that you're using!) that surpasses this?

You mentioned on another forum (that I can't find now) about the AC Wave 2 Asus routers coming to us in 2014 - do we have 'any' details about performance/features or estimated availability?

Anything? (Remember; it is just before Christmas. ).



Thanks for your contributions - always enjoy reading your posts.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to one and all.

 

[sijuthomas98]

I'm using channel 161, on Pce-ac66 with Ac68u link is between 866 to 1.3gbps, mostly 1gbps.

 

[_robodoc_]

Very interesting to note. The driver must check the region. But how to make the driver believe staying in another region ?

Merry Christmas to all.

 

[RMerlin]

Very interesting to note. The driver must check the region. But how to make the driver believe staying in another region ?

Merry Christmas to all.

Have you checked the advanced settings on the network adapter in Device Manager? There's a lot of configurable options there usually, there might be one related to the region or the use of DFS.

 

[_robodoc_]

Yes, I did. No success.

 

[psychopomp1]

well i've just replaced my Asus PCE-AC66 with PCE-AC68 which i bought from Amazon USA (they ship to UK) and guess what...i am now getting channels 157, 161 etc on 5ghz. So looks like Asus impose regional limitations on the wifi cards.

 

[drolevar]

I hope someone will come up with an idea how to change the region on the card. I don't believe it's not possible.

 

[_robodoc_]

The findings of psychopomp1 are bad news for the european users.

Since in europe the 5 GHz channels beyond 48 are only allowed with DFS/TPC, Asus locked (maybe by means of firmware ?) the upper channels on the Wifi cards instead of implementing DFS/TPC.

A statement of an Asus official concerning the future of these cards would be nice.

 

[jspuds]

Do they region lock the routers as well as on my AC66U the only control channels I have on 5Ghz is 36-48?

 

[RMerlin]

Do they region lock the routers as well as on my AC66U the only control channels I have on 5Ghz is 36-48?

Yes. All networking devices should be locked to the region where they were purchased. This is a legal requirement.

 

[panni]

Is there a way to change the PCE-AC68U driver/firmware-side?

 

[damdamdeshauts]

CHange PCE-AC68 Driver region

Hi,

I've found a way to change windows driver region by modifying PCE-AC68 windows driver's INF.

When you have installed the utility+driver package, you can find the driver's INF in C:\Program Files (x86)\ASUS\PCE-AC68 WLAN Card Utilities\Driver\PCE-AC68\Win81\bcmwl64.inf (or other win variants in parent dirs).

Here is the modified lines on the INF to make the card working with channels >= 149 :

- Line 3784, section [a.channels.reg], under the comment "Additional channels supported only on SPROM map version 2" : uncomment the next five lines to enable channels 149 to 165.

- Line 3356, section [common.reg] : uncomment each lines containing Ndi\params\Country (lines 3356 to 3598)

To continue, you must uninstall (with removing) the driver with the windows device manager and deactivate windows driver integrity check with an admin console:
bcdedit -set loadoptions DISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS
bcdedit -set TESTSIGNING ON

After rebooting, go to the device manager and install the modified INF on the newly discovered uknown network adapter.

After installtion, got to the PCE-AC68 adapter's properties in the device manager, in the advance section you can choose the country (for channel 149, i've chosen %UnitedState%).

If everything is set correctly, you can now connect on channels >= 149

 

[oneandonly]

I've found a way to change windows driver region by modifying PCE-AC68 windows driver's INF.....

You are a legend. Signed up just to say thanks! Very good coincidence that you posted that only a few hours ago.

Updated my RT-AC68U router this morning to the latest firmware (3.0.0.4.376_1663) because of a security update. After that my desktop (With a PCE-AC68 card) wouldn't connect, or even pick up the 5 GHz signal. My laptop (with Intel AC chip) was fine however.

After a short while discovered that despite choosing channel 36 in the router GUI, it's using channel 116! Well done ASUS, breaking functionality.

Was already aware that different regions have always limited different channels (Though neither the ASUS router or the Intel AC chip appear to adhere to that!), so knew there was likely a limit on the PCE-AC68.

After following your instructions, and choosing UnitedStates in the properties, my PCE-AC68 card can now connect to higher channels, and I'm working again. Couldn't connect to anything above 48 before (even before the router 'update').

Thanks again!


Note, certainly not an issue with the instructions at all, but I was being a bit cocky at first and had trouble. You really do need to restart Windows, not just scan for hardware changes to pick up the card again, which I was doing at first, or it still seems to use the previous .inf file, which it much keep in memory or something.