5GHz wifi band next to pointless??

[Mike Scott]

Given the congestion on 2.4GHz, I thought I'd give the 5GHz band a
whirl. Currently only our next door neighbour is visible on it, so it
should be easy to find a free chunk of spectrum... or so I thought.

But it turns out that out of the available bands 36-140, anything at all
above 48 gets radar (or whatever) flagged on it, usually within a a few
hours, so the access point shifts channels down to 36-48 -- right on top
of the neighbour -- and stays there.

I'm not sure why so much spectrum is taken up by whatever is being
flagged as radar; we're about 9 miles from Stansted airport, surely it
can't be that. I can think of nothing else though.

It's annoying, with all that "promised free space" being effectively
useless.

Thoughts?

--
Mike Scott
Harlow, England

[Marco Moock]

Am Donnerstag, 17. März 2022, um 08:49:31 Uhr schrieb Mike Scott:

> But it turns out that out of the available bands 36-140, anything at
> all above 48 gets radar (or whatever) flagged on it, usually within a
> a few hours, so the access point shifts channels down to 36-48 --
> right on top of the neighbour -- and stays there.

Is the radar signal still there?
Maybe it is an AP problem, so the AP doesn't check if the radar is
still there after some hours.

[Mike Scott]

Thanks for the reply.

I've been doing some background reading since posting. It seems the
expected behaviour of an AP isn't defined after moving frequency - they
get the choice of waiting then possibly moving back if the band's clear,
or simply staying put. Either way can be problematic. This particular
one stays put on the low channel.

It does seem that whatever higher channel I pick, it eventually gets
bumped by radar detection, so I assume that everything above 48 is so
occupied for significant periods

I did see an ofcom document suggesting that bands just below 6GHz had
been deregulated in the UK; but I don't think my AP stretches that high
(it's a fritzbox). Would have been useful.