5 GHz DFS channels

I took delivery of a new AVM FRITZ!Box 7490 yesterday. I've been setting it up today but one thing I'm not sure about is the 5 GHz Wi-Fi channels. On my old 7390, I ran on channel 48 for years without issue (I had the only 5 GHz AP in the area) but since Virgin Media released the firmware update for Horizon boxes that enables dual band, I've two UPC APs hopping between 36 and 48. With the 7490, I now have 80 MHz 802.11ac so I need to use the DFS channels (52 upwards) to avoid them. As a side note, 2.4 GHz is completely congested, I'm currently seeing 22 APs on 2.4!

I know there's issues with using these channels, such as the 5 GHz radio intermittently dropping to do a radar scan. I live in Fairview so I don't know if I'm close enough to Dublin Airport to be affected.

Are there any such channels that I should avoid using? I'd rather not use the DFS channels at all but I'm left with no choice.

Hmm, may have just answered my own question! Looking at the router logs:

06.02.16 14:22:12 RADAR was detected on channel 128; channel switched automatically because of higher-privileged user.

ED E

I was under the impression DFS was more a thing in the states with the FCC but that appears to be wrong.

With 5Ghz penetration is a lot lower so if your receive levels from the VM boxes is low then I wouldnt mind a little overlap too much.

ED E

ED E wrote: »

I was under the impression DFS was more a thing in the states with the FCC but that appears to be wrong.

With 5Ghz penetration is a lot lower so if your receive levels from the VM boxes is low then I wouldnt mind a little overlap too much.

One of them is almost full strength because it's my neighbour downstairs. It's set to auto channel, so one day it could be on 36, the next on 44, it's hard to know for sure.

The other one comes and goes but is fairly weak. I also have a Wii U which uses a random 20 MHz channel between 36-48 for its game pad so that's something I may need to take into account, though in fairness I probably wouldn't be using the Wii U and Wi-Fi device at the same time.

gctest50

Karsini wrote: »

One of them is almost full strength because it's my neighbour downstairs. ...

till he gets a new 11ac router - 160mhz channels

mass_debater

Ask the neighbour will they let you set a static channel on theirs so it's not hopping about

mass_debater

mass_debater wrote: »

Ask the neighbour will they let you set a static channel on theirs so it's not hopping about

I'll ask and see. Would probably still require me to drop down to 40 MHz channels though, since the signal is still quite strong up here.

From a bit of googling, by the look of things, Met Éireann's weather radar in Dublin and Shannon use 5.60-5.65 GHz, so that rules out channels 120-128 in the 5 GHz band.

mass_debater

Karsini wrote: »

I'll ask and see. Would probably still require me to drop down to 40 MHz channels though, since the signal is still quite strong up here.

From a bit of googling, by the look of things, Met Éireann's weather radar in Dublin and Shannon use 5.60-5.65 GHz, so that rules out channels 120-128 in the 5 GHz band.

You got what you got, put them on 36, you then got the rest of the band to play with. You'll be fine when you have control not hopping about.