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I've just purchased a Netgear R8000 router. First thing I did is to upgrade its firmware to the latest version.

I have turned on the two 5 GHz networks and enabled the SmartConnect functionality. I haven't changed the default channels for these, only for the 2.4 GHz network.

I've connected to the 5 GHz network an iPhone 6 and a Macbook Pro from Mid 2010. Last night they both suddenly lost the connection and couldn't see the network. They did see and were able to connect to the 2.4 GHz one.

I tried changing the channels but below error popped up:

"This DFS channel is not allowed to use because the Radar was detected before. You can change another channel or wait".

After a while both devices were able to log back into the 5 GHz network.

Does anyone know any reason as to why this happened?

BTW I get above mentioned error if I just go to the Wireless network settings and click "Apply".

P.S - I have downloaded Netgear's Android Wifi Analytics tool and according to it my selected 5GHz channels are available.

Chenmunka
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Alberto
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1 Answers1

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You could try changing to different 5GHz channels that won't get interference from government radar. Check this out (even though it's different hardware than yours), specifically the question below:

Why does the WNDR4300 only support 4 channels in 5GHz if the wireless region is Europe, only 8 channels if wireless region is United States at "Up to 450Mbps"? Other 5GHz channels are DFS channels. There are government radars working in those channels. Without passing DFS certification test, we are not allowed to open those DFS channels. We are doing DFS certification and we can open those channels by releasing new firmware after we get DFS certification in the near future. You DO NOT need to change hardware, but just upgrade the WNDR4300 firmware to the new one which supports DFS channels. However, you still need to make sure your 5GHz wireless adapter can support DFS channels. Otherwise, you still can't use those channels.

So it seems the upgraded firmware opened up those channels, but with the restriction that if radar was detected on those DFS channels, it would temporarily block them or change the channel.

A list of DFS-enabled channels is in this document from Cisco. Maybe you can try a channel that's not on this list and see if it works better.

Dynamic Frequency Selection Channels When a DFS–enabled radio is operating on one of the following channels, the wireless device uses DFS to monitor the operating frequency and switch to another frequency or reduce power as necessary: • 52 (5260 MHz) • 56 (5280 MHz) • 60 (5300 MHz) • 64 (5320 MHz) • 100 (5500 MHz) • 104 (5520 MHz) • 108 (5540 MHz) • 112 (5560 MHz) • 116 (5580 MHz) • 120 (5600 MHz) • 124 (5620 MHz) • 128 (5640 MHz) • 132 (5660 MHz) • 136 (5680 MHz) • 140 (5700 MHz)

trpt4him
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