NetGear WAX202 5Ghz Wifi Issues

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

To be clear, my WAX202 was bought as a return from Amazon for $30 and immediately reflashed with OpenWrt, so maybe this is a hardware issue...

I've noticed weird hiccups with my wifi and occasional disconnects. Hunting down the issue I changed the SSID from my 5ghz to be different from my 2.4 and intentionally connected a device to it that's always close to the antenna.

Besides occasional disconnects that ends up having me unintentionally switched to the 2.4Ghz, at the moment I see the 5ghz isn't even running.

Is there a known 5ghz issue either with OpenWrt, the WAX202 or the WAX202 running OpenWrt?

I'm not looking forward to the task of reconfiguring my network, flashing the OEM firmware and testing if it's a hardware bug.

Wireless:

config wifi-device 'radio0'
        option type 'mac80211'
        option path '1e140000.pcie/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.0/0000:02:00.0'
        option band '2g'
        option country 'US'
        option cell_density '0'
        option channel '2'
        option htmode 'HE20'

config wifi-iface 'default_radio0'
        option device 'radio0'
        option mode 'ap'
        option ssid ''
        option encryption 'psk2'
        option key ''
        option network 'lan'

config wifi-device 'radio1'
        option type 'mac80211'
        option path '1e140000.pcie/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.0/0000:02:00.0+1'
        option band '5g'
        option country 'US'
        option cell_density '0'
        option channel '128'
        option htmode 'HE80'

config wifi-iface 'default_radio1'
        option device 'radio1'
        option mode 'ap'
        option encryption 'psk2'
        option key ''
        option ssid ''
        option network 'lan'
2
  • There's no "band steering" on OpenWrt by default, setting the same SSID on 2 bands could have different behavior with different clients
  • Try setting a non-DFS channel
1 Like
3

Had to google that. I live in a place with people stacked around me with wifi. I had noticed a large gap in wifi channels that were being used and assumed it was simply something wifi 6 supported that older wifi didn't.

I have tried switching to 'auto' and it's been back ever since, outside that empty frequency range.

I'll give this a try. I wonder if OpenWrt has incorrect information for U.S. DFS channels.

4
  • :warning: If auto results in a DFS channel being chosen, the WiFi may be down while the scan takes place
8

I checked wikipedia and noticed that 118-128 are frequently DFS/TPC or not to be used for 5Ghz. It doesn't explain why that range is completely empty where I live.
Considering there are more than 25 wifi devices in range, and none are in 118-128, I think it might be better to stay out of there.

Thanks. I'll see how it goes.

13

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