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How do I Prevent the Wi-Fi radio of my G34 Integrated MODEM/Router from Changing channels on its own

  • 8 February 2024
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I live in a place with many WiFi access points around me.  In order to get good connectivity, I set my 5G radio control to manual and select a free channel.  It works well and i get good throughput.  The problem is that even though the control is set to manual mode, every morning when i start working, I find that the radio has switch itself back to one of the very busy channels and i have to login a switch back.  It seems that in “manual” mode, it lets you select a channel, but it still does an audit every day and overrides your selection.  Also, the view the WiFi’s view of channel use is different from my computers view.

I would like to be able to force the router onto a specific channel and lock it.

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Best answer by plemans 8 February 2024, 17:23

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plemans
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What channel are you selecting? I’m betting you’re selecting one of the DFS channels. Those channels have to switch if they detect something broadcasting on them. Thats how they operate. 

the other channels on 5ghz don’t. 

I wouldn’t worry about it to much with 5ghz because it doesn’t broadcast as far or through as much material. Plus becuse its so much faster, it isn’t active as long (when in active use). So even through you can see signals, it won’t have the same interference a 2.4ghz channel will. 

Current setup: Netgear CM3000-->Netgear RBE973S-->2.5gig tp-link switch, Xfinity 1.4gig/240mbps
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Thanks for your response.

I am manually setting the channel to channel 116.  I do need to worry about it, because the channel it keeps switching back to is very congested and my effective WiFi bandwidth decreases by an order of magnitude on the congested channel.  Is is a pain to keep switching it back every morning.  Is there any documentation on how the G34 radio software decides about channel switching in manual mode?  I have a feeling that there are less stray signals at night than the day.  Is there a specific log i can look for?

plemans
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It has nothing to do with the G34 and everything to do with DFS regulations. 

If there are any DFS channles in your area like weather, radar, etc, the router has to switch off them. Its part of the regulation. Its not router specific, its an industry issue/plan. there’s no way to force it to stay on the 116 channel if there is radar in you area or you can be subject to FCC/broadcast fines. 

If its happening everyday, you either have radar or weather in your area that is causing it to switch. 

I’d just switch it to the high or low band and leve it as is. 

 

Current setup: Netgear CM3000-->Netgear RBE973S-->2.5gig tp-link switch, Xfinity 1.4gig/240mbps
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Thanks for the response.  Is there any way to confirm that it is switching due to a radar station that only becomes active a night. Can i set the radio to auto-revert to the selected channel after a period of time?  Do you have additional information on my exposure to FCC fines when using this product (that sounds very worrisome to me)

plemans
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There isn’t anyway to tell. You could rig up your own scanner but its pointless as none of the consumer routers will let you lock a channel to a DFS channel. 

DFS is great in some areas but it sounds like not yours. Unfortunately. 

Like I said, you can leave it to the DFS channels and it’ll keep switching off them or you can leave it on one of the high/low 5ghz bands. Again, luckily, even in a congested environment, 5ghz has plenty of bandwidth. 

Current setup: Netgear CM3000-->Netgear RBE973S-->2.5gig tp-link switch, Xfinity 1.4gig/240mbps
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