Hello community,
I have been experimenting with the 160MHz wifi capabilities from the Linksys WRT3200ACM, but I am struggling to get it work.
What I have understood from researching the internet, that the 160MHz mode theoretically is downwards compatible, meaning devices which support only 80MHz would receive 2x80MHz to (theoretically) double the bandwidth - basically like bonding on ethernet interfaces. Is this correct, or did I misunderstand something?
My plan is to setup a wifi with this 160MHz mode, so devices will have more bandwidth available (especially for laptops, which are performing regular backups, this would be a huge performance boost).
As I said initially, I am somehow struggling to set it up; This means, whatever combination of channel and country code I've tried out, won't bring the wifi interface back up. Every time I can see, that the hostapd is erroring out:
Tue Feb 12 14:09:32 2019 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan0: interface state HT_SCAN->DFS
Tue Feb 12 14:09:32 2019 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan0: DFS-CAC-START freq=5260 chan=52 sec_chan=1, width=2, seg0=50, seg1=0, cac_time=60s
Tue Feb 12 14:09:32 2019 daemon.err hostapd: DFS start_dfs_cac() failed, -1
Tue Feb 12 14:09:32 2019 daemon.err hostapd: Interface initialization failed
Tue Feb 12 14:09:32 2019 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan0: interface state DFS->DISABLED
Tue Feb 12 14:09:32 2019 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan0: AP-DISABLED
Tue Feb 12 14:09:32 2019 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan0: interface state DISABLED->DISABLED
Tue Feb 12 14:09:32 2019 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan0: AP-DISABLED
Tue Feb 12 14:09:32 2019 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan0: CTRL-EVENT-TERMINATING
Tue Feb 12 14:09:32 2019 daemon.err hostapd: hostapd_free_hapd_data: Interface wlan0 wasn't started
Tue Feb 12 14:09:32 2019 daemon.notice hostapd: nl80211: deinit ifname=wlan0 disabled_11b_rates=0
Tue Feb 12 14:09:32 2019 daemon.notice hostapd: ELOOP: remaining socket: sock=22 eloop_data=0xb6f56260 user_data=0 handler=0x376a0
Tue Feb 12 14:12:09 2019 daemon.err hostapd: Configuration file: /var/run/hostapd-phy0.conf
Tue Feb 12 14:12:09 2019 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan0: interface state UNINITIALIZED->COUNTRY_UPDATE
Tue Feb 12 14:12:12 2019 daemon.notice hostapd: handle_probe_req: send failed
Tue Feb 12 14:12:13 2019 daemon.notice hostapd: handle_probe_req: send failed
Tue Feb 12 14:12:13 2019 daemon.notice hostapd: handle_probe_req: send failed
Soon I realized, that the channel 54 (which was used in this scenario) is reserved for DFS and shouldn't be used at all - at least as far as I understood.
Looking at wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_WLAN_channels), the 160MHz mode should be supported from channels starting from 36 up to 48, which are not in use of DFS, but are flagged as "Indoors" (I am from Germany, so I referred to the Europe column).
So I gave it a shot using channel 48 - unfortunately with the same outcome:
Tue Feb 12 14:12:14 2019 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan0: interface state COUNTRY_UPDATE->HT_SCAN
Tue Feb 12 14:12:14 2019 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan0: interface state HT_SCAN->DFS
Tue Feb 12 14:12:14 2019 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan0: DFS-CAC-START freq=5240 chan=48 sec_chan=-1, width=2, seg0=50, seg1=0, cac_time=60s
Tue Feb 12 14:12:14 2019 daemon.err hostapd: DFS start_dfs_cac() failed, -1
Tue Feb 12 14:12:14 2019 daemon.err hostapd: Interface initialization failed
Tue Feb 12 14:12:14 2019 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan0: interface state DFS->DISABLED
Tue Feb 12 14:12:14 2019 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan0: AP-DISABLED
Tue Feb 12 14:12:14 2019 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan0: interface state DISABLED->DISABLED
Tue Feb 12 14:12:14 2019 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan0: AP-DISABLED
Tue Feb 12 14:12:14 2019 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan0: CTRL-EVENT-TERMINATING
Tue Feb 12 14:12:14 2019 daemon.err hostapd: hostapd_free_hapd_data: Interface wlan0 wasn't started
Tue Feb 12 14:12:14 2019 daemon.notice hostapd: nl80211: deinit ifname=wlan0 disabled_11b_rates=0
Tue Feb 12 14:12:14 2019 daemon.notice hostapd: ELOOP: remaining socket: sock=22 eloop_data=0xb6e6f260 user_data=0 handler=0x376a0
Tue Feb 12 14:13:20 2019 daemon.err hostapd: Configuration file: /var/run/hostapd-phy0.conf
Tue Feb 12 14:13:20 2019 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan0: interface state UNINITIALIZED->COUNTRY_UPDATE
Tue Feb 12 14:13:23 2019 daemon.notice hostapd: handle_probe_req: send failed
Tue Feb 12 14:13:25 2019 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan0: interface state COUNTRY_UPDATE->HT_SCAN
Has somebody be able to setup a 160MHz wifi on the Linksys WRT3200ACM and could tell me how he/she brought it up and running?
Thank you very much!
Regards,
Steffen