E4200 5ghz channels [ Edited ]

[Kevin-T]

Hi all,

My E4200 only has channels 36, 40, 44 and 48 available to use out of the much larger number of channels available for 802.11a 5GHz?

Is this right or am I missing come channels for some reason.

Thanks

Kevin

[gv]

Due to legal restrictions you are only allowed to use certain channels with DFS, i.e. with the auto setting. That's why you can't set the router fixed on that channel.

[Kevin-T]

Hi,

I'm not using DFS - I'm trying to select the channel I want to use. In the pull down I have DFS, 36, 40, 44 or 48.

In NZ, like the rest of the world, we're allowed to use many more channels (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_WLAN_channels).

I have the full 13 available in 2.4GHz

Thanks

Kevin

[dantrent]

My first E4200 only had the 4 channels (plus auto).  When it died I returned it to BB and the new one had 8 channels (plus auto).  Perhaps you have an "older" version.  Just something to ponder......

[gv]

Read the wikipedia article carefully, in particular the footnote 7 for Australia which I think also applies to New Zealand: Radiocommunications (Low Interference Potential Devices) Class Licence 2000

You are allowed to use channels 36-48 without DFS.

You are allowed to use other channels but only with DFS. For instance item 46 the list linked from the wikipedia article which mentions "Must use Dynamic Frequency Selection (DFS) and Transmit Power Control (TPC). If TPC is not implemented, then the maximum EIRP is limited to 500 mW." for frequencies 5470–5600 and 5650–5725, i.e. channels 100-140, or item 44a for frequencies 5250–5350, i.e. channels 52-64.

You can use 802.11b/g channels 1-13 and 802.11a channels 36-48 unrestricted and all other channel only under the restriction of running DFS. You are required by law to run DFS for all higher channels thus you can only select Auto if you want to use those channels and the router may pick one of those channels.

If you don't use DFS you are not allowed to use any of those higher channels. That's the regulation for Australia and similar for many other countries in the world and I guess it is similar for New Zealand.

[Kevin-T]

Thanks gv for that. I'm not sure that this law is applicable to NZ but so many manufacturers treat Australia dn NZ as the same it wouldn't surprise me.

Looks like the is the first product I've found that either treats NZ the same as Oz or has actually implimented this law correctly - everything else has allowed free access to all the 802.11a channels.

I did try setting the timezone to US over the weekend and I still had the 4 channels available so I suspect that the hardware is Oz/NZ specific.

Kevin

[gv]

It's usually firmware specific (or at least that's the way it was). If you flash U.S. firmware you may see something slightly different. At least the demo ui suggests so: http://ui.linksys.com/files/E4200/1.0.00/Wireless_Basic1.html

But you'll also see only channels 1-11 on 2.4 GHz in the U.S. firmware...

[hoorna]

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@gv wrote:
It's usually firmware specific (or at least that's the way it was). If you flash U.S. firmware you may see something slightly different. At least the demo ui suggests so: http://ui.linksys.com/files/E4200/1.0.00/Wireless_Basic1.html

But you'll also see only channels 1-11 on 2.4 GHz in the U.S. firmware...

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This is not c omplete true. I use the latest US firmware (1.0.01) on an E4200 which I bought in The Netherlands. A have channels 1-13 on 2.4 GHz.

[gv]

Interesting. Then they must do it differently from how they did it before. Too bad. Now you can't buy a router in one country and operate it properly in another...

[Kevin-T]

The 1.0.01 build 10 firmware I have came from the US site - there's not different firmware for different regions that I can see.

It doesn't matter what timezone I set the router to I always get 36, 40, 44, 48 for 5GHz and 1-13 for 2.4.

Hmm, unless it sets the available channels only after initial config??

The model on the box is E4200-AU but that's not reflected in the GUI or on the unit that I can see. I suspect the packaging model number is mainly used for the PSU selection.