In reply to a post by caffn8me:

FWIW it's the same on a Draytek 2860n+ I have on one site.
I havent seen what effect changing to another EU country has as I'm running beta firmware and don't want to stray too far from what is essential.

You will get more channels and more power output. The four channels that you have are the lowest common denominator across Europe along with the lower power output.

well I ran the commands before from the first post, and that has no reboot, the router reports with wl_country it is set to GB.

But if you say a reboot is needed to actually apply to wifi, I accept it, I was just trying to confirm thanks

and yes I wont be moving to 376.44, I even want to avoid all the 376.xx builds altogether, I am still on 374.40.

376.44 also has removed all the ipv6 patches as well, its a nasty version I think, I suggested to merlin to stick to an older asus code base (since asus are going in a bad direction now) and that will also lower his workload, but he is worried about supporting newer asus routers (which requires new codebase) and complying with the FCC.

Edited by Chrysalis (Sat 09-Aug-14 18:49:54)

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

well I ran the commands before from the first post, and that has no reboot, the router reports with wl_country it is set to GB.

But if you say a reboot is needed to actually apply to wifi, I accept it, I was just trying to confirm thanks

and yes I wont be moving to 376.44, I even want to avoid all the 376.xx builds altogether, I am still on 374.40.

376.44 also has removed all the ipv6 patches as well, its a nasty version I think, I suggested to merlin to stick to an older asus code base (since asus are going in a bad direction now) and that will also lower his workload, but he is worried about supporting newer asus routers (which requires new codebase) and complying with the FCC.

A reboot may not be necessary in all seriousness, but I have noticed strange goings on after I have made changes to various settings. Some are applied with a reboot and some without. I just reboot as a routine TBH. I remember that post, but under a different handle IIRC .

I rebooted now anyway, and this also fixed a weird ipv6 issue that was occurring as well. Although I am still on the GB setting, later maybe tomorrow will try iceland and then the removal to see if I notice any difference.

Basically at the moment (at least before reboot, not tested after) If I have 5ghz set to 20/40/80 width the phone only connects at 20 width 72mbps, if I force to 40 it connects at 150 but throughput is the same as 72. In addition 5ghz throughput has stalls and is slower than 2.4.

In reply to a post by DrTeeth:

You will get more channels and more power output. The four channels that you have are the lowest common denominator across Europe along with the lower power output.

In this particular case it's not worth it. The 5GHz is only used for when I am on site doing system administration if I don't run an ethernet cable.

The 2.4GHz wireless is what is in constant use by handheld Verifone credit card terminals which don't support 5GHz anyway.

In reply to a post by caffn8me:

]In this particular case it's not worth it. The 5GHz is only used for when I am on site doing system administration if I don't run an ethernet cable.

The 2.4GHz wireless is what is in constant use by handheld Verifone credit card terminals which don't support 5GHz anyway.

If you change 2.4 GHz to GB or similar, you won't get more channels, but you will/should get double the power output.

In this situation, more power brings no advantages, only disadvantages. More power is not always better.

Best security practice is to use the lowest power that provides the coverage needed. Too high a power will make the signal visible further away outside the premises and will make it more likely that third parties will attempt to compromise it. My job is to minimize that risk.

I would far rather nobody in nearby buildings, particularly residential, knew the network was there.

The handheld terminals work as they should even at the limits of the site so there's no need to look at upgrading the power.

Even if I wanted to change it, the country code cannot be changed within the standard Draytek firmwre.

You are assuming that whatever country code the router has, it has crippled the maximum power output. This may not be the case. The restriction on 5GHz channels may be just that; a restriction on possible channels, rather than power output.

In reply to a post by caffn8me:

My job is to minimize that risk.

Better arrest anybody iffy looking with a mutli-elelent yagi or a parabolic dish under their mac then . Better still, fit a Faraday cage?

Seriously, doubling the power would not make that much difference in your scenario, it is 1/2 an S point after all.

Edited by DrTeeth (Sun 10-Aug-14 21:36:46)

ok drteeth thanks.

After some testing here is what was happening.

On default EU this happened.

when set to 20/40/80 mode phones all only connected at 20mhz, 72mbps. throughput also was less reliable than 2.4ghz with random stalls.
when set to 40mhz fixed width phones connected at 150mbps but throughput was no faster than 20mhz.
when set to fixed 80mhz phones only connected at 20mhz, so I concluded issue is with 80mhz mode.
In addition channel was forced to channel 36 with no extension channel, it ignored the channel I chose in the GUI when using either 80mhz or 20/40/80mhz modes.

On GB, same as above but with less stalls so more consistent throughput.
On IS same as above but got bit higher speeds and noticebly higher signal strength. (full bars)

Unregulated, the 20/40/80 and 80 is fixed, they work properly my channel setting works and I get the extension channel as well. Speeds are actually significantly higher than 20mhz mode as well. Although still not quite as fast as the hh5 achieved.

It does seem asus routers are in a mess, is very volatile wifi and ipv6 code at the moment, and they are trying to lock down these routers which seems to have broken things quite badly.

I didnt need to reboot.

Edited by Chrysalis (Fri 15-Aug-14 06:26:09)

seems merlin has ignored what you reported about the merlin driver been broken, sadly he seems over concerned only about american users.