[SOLVED] Android devices can only detect Channel 149 153 157 161 on 5GHz Band

[Kamil Mirza]

greetings

from past few months I have noticed a strange thing that
all my Android devices (phones, tablets and even Chromecasts) can ONLY detect and connect to Channel 149 153 157 161 165 on 5GHz band

Apple devices (iPhones and iPads) can see and connect to any 5GHz Channels (like 36 40 44 48) with no issue whatsoever

I have 1x ASUS RT-AC68U and 1x ASUS RT-N56UB1, facing this issue on both routers (individually)

tried resetting them to factory, wiping NVRAM and stuff (countless times), currently using merlin on RT-AC68U and padavan on RT-N56UB1

tried every WiFi Region with no success, tried changing Bandwidth to 20/40/80 MHz and separately (20, 40, 80), tried changing every setting in WiFi section

do you guys have experienced such problem? why is this happening?
you assistance will be greatly appreciated

few more details:
I have attached my WiFi settings
thought it maybe because of DFS Radar in vicinity but log shows no such activity
my laptop can detect lower Channels (36 40 44 48)
Android devices I am using WiFi Analyzer
both routers have different SSIDs
Android devices: Samsung S8 (Pie), OnePlus 3T (Pie), Huawei MediaPad T5 (Oreo), Lenovo Tab 2 (Nougat)
2 Chromecasts (2nd gen)

 

[Greg72]

Use 80mhz Channel Bandwidth and Channel 149 with Upper Secondary Channel.

 

[ColinTaylor]

There was a similar problem reported here. We never really got to the bottom of it other than it appeared to be a client-side issue.

I note that your region is set to US, but I'm guessing that is not really the case. Were your client devices sold for a different region?

EDIT: Although this is a very old post it appears to be saying that the WiFi channels that android mobile devices can "see" are determined by the region set from the SIM card. So the next question would be "What country are you in? Taiwan, Pakistan, Belize, etc?".

 

[Kamil Mirza]

Pakistan

if it is true then what about the tablets without SIM cards (never inserted in them)
plus the Chromecasts

 

[ColinTaylor]

if it is true then what about the tablets without SIM cards (never inserted in them)
plus the Chromecasts

I have no idea about the other devices. It just seems more than a coincidence that you are in a country that doesn't allow the use of channels 36 to 48 and that is what is happening. We all know that Google uses multiple techniques to track the location of any Android device so maybe they're not relying only on the SIM card.

 

[Kamil Mirza]

I note that your region is set to US, but I'm guessing that is not really the case. Were your client devices sold for a different region?

I have tried all Regions possible in the routers
Apple devices can detect all of them
I guess all these Android devices were sold outside Pakistan

 

[ColinTaylor]

I have tried all Regions possible in the routers
Apple devices can detect all of them
I guess all these Android devices were sold outside Pakistan

As the Android devices are only seeing the Pakistan allowed channels then logically they would have been sold inside Pakistan. But as per my previous post, I'm not sure that theory is valid. If it were true then it would mean that those devices wouldn't work properly if you took them to another country (vacation/business). At this time my favourite theory is still that the devices are geo-locating somehow.

 

[follower]

greetings

from past few months I have noticed a strange thing that
all my Android devices (phones, tablets and even Chromecasts) can ONLY detect and connect to Channel 149 153 157 161 165 on 5GHz band

Apple devices (iPhones and iPads) can see and connect to any 5GHz Channels (like 36 40 44 48) with no issue whatsoever

I have 1x ASUS RT-AC68U and 1x ASUS RT-N56UB1, facing this issue on both routers (individually)

tried resetting them to factory, wiping NVRAM and stuff (countless times), currently using merlin on RT-AC68U and padavan on RT-N56UB1

tried every WiFi Region with no success, tried changing Bandwidth to 20/40/80 MHz and separately (20, 40, 80), tried changing every setting in WiFi section

do you guys have experienced such problem? why is this happening?
you assistance will be greatly appreciated

few more details:
I have attached my WiFi settings
thought it maybe because of DFS Radar in vicinity but log shows no such activity
my laptop can detect lower Channels (36 40 44 48)
Android devices I am using WiFi Analyzer
both routers have different SSIDs
Android devices: Samsung S8 (Pie), OnePlus 3T (Pie), Huawei MediaPad T5 (Oreo), Lenovo Tab 2 (Nougat)
2 Chromecasts (2nd gen)
View attachment 19625 View attachment 19626

The answer is immigration.

 

[ColinTaylor]

@Kamil Mirza Maybe I've been over-thinking this.

For your Android devices that aren't connected to a mobile network you would have configured them with your country and timezone. Maybe it's simply using that. Try going into the settings and setting the country/timezone to something like London or New York and see if that makes a difference.

Mobile phones are different because they pick the local timezone from the mobile network.

 

[Val D.]

The answer is immigration.

Virtual immigration of devices only should be enough.
Those channels are not allowed in some countries for a reason.
What are the chances to get in trouble is the more interesting question.

 

[Kamil Mirza]

For your Android devices that aren't connected to a mobile network you would have configured them with your country and timezone. Maybe it's simply using that. Try going into the settings and setting the country/timezone to something like London or New York and see if that makes a difference.
Mobile phones are different because they pick the local timezone from the mobile network.

you were right!
found some reason behind this

I tried this on Samsung S8 and OnePlus 3T
turned on Airplane Mode and Rebooted the phone and guess what
the devices can detect EVERY 5GHz Channels (UNII-1, UNII-2, UNII-2 Extended and UNII-3)
investigated little further with logcat and found that
when Android device boots up, it can detect every 5GHz Channel
and when the SIM card is inserted/activated it gets WiFi Channel list from MCC (Mobile Country Code)

wpa_supplicant: wlan0: CTRL-EVENT-REGDOM-CHANGE init=USER type=COUNTRY alpha2=PK
WifiCountryCode: Succeeded to set country code to: PK
wificond: Regulatory domain changed to country: PK
wificond: 2.4Ghz frequencies: 2412 2417 2422 2427 2432 2437 2442 2447 2452 2457 2462 2467 2472
wificond: 5Ghz non-DFS frequencies: 5745 5765 5785 5805 5825

those non-DFS Channels are: 149 153 157 161 165
changing Time Zones also worked (only on Airplane Mode)

tried going the same on tablets (without SIM cards) but it didn't help
changing Time Zones didn't helped either
maybe after factory reset they might end up showing the desired Channels

so case is solved now I can live in peace why this was happening
thank a lot for your guidance

 

[ColinTaylor]

Thanks for the update @Kamil Mirza, that's great information that may help others.