Changing country code on router

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lesgall

1 post

Wannabe Geek

#252859 14-Jul-2019 13:35

I have recently moved house and am now on Spark fibre using a supplied Huawei HG659b router. I am using iMac as main computer

On checking wireless diagnostics it appears that my router has incorrect country code (it displays DE).

I do have relatively poor signal strength for wifi and wonder how to change the country code on this router.

My Google searches have not been terribly successful.

I am not sure how much of a problem the country code issue is but would welcome any thoughts/avice

Thanks

zyo

513 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2276322 14-Jul-2019 14:05

Changing country codes usually locks/unlocks a couple of bands that you shouldn't really be using anyways so I doublt it is going to magically improve your wifi performance.

It's not like Germans prefer an inferior wifi.

I would just go and buy a dedicated wireless access point.

RunningMan

8960 posts

Uber Geek

#2276345 14-Jul-2019 15:01

zyo:[snip]I doublt it is going to magically improve your wifi performance.

It can make a huge difference on a Mac (which the OP is using). Some versions of OS X listen to what locales are being broadcast by APs when they wake from sleep, and set their WiFi channels accordingly. The idea is the computer will then be complying with the local regs. Problem is it backfires, and ends up locking out channels that are OK to use in NZ (like 12, 13) - say there's a bunch of routers advertiing USA nearby, the Mac won't connect to anything on channel 13, even if it can see it.

richms

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#2276350 14-Jul-2019 15:35

zyo:

Changing country codes usually locks/unlocks a couple of bands that you shouldn't really be using anyways so I doublt it is going to magically improve your wifi performance.

It's not like Germans prefer an inferior wifi.

I would just go and buy a dedicated wireless access point.

They do prefer inferior wifi, they have much lower power limits there.

From memory macs used to have a problem where they would pick up the country code from any broadcast, not just the network you were connecting to, and then complain in its diagnostics thing about it. I do remember when I last had to use a mac it had some diagnostics list where it would show the networks it could see and what country code they were broadcasting.

Richard rich.ms

zyo

513 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2276351 14-Jul-2019 15:39

RunningMan:

zyo:[snip]I doublt it is going to magically improve your wifi performance.

It can make a huge difference on a Mac (which the OP is using). Some versions of OS X listen to what locales are being broadcast by APs when they wake from sleep, and set their WiFi channels accordingly. The idea is the computer will then be complying with the local regs. Problem is it backfires, and ends up locking out channels that are OK to use in NZ (like 12, 13) - say there's a bunch of routers advertiing USA nearby, the Mac won't connect to anything on channel 13, even if it can see it.

Hmm ok I dont use Macs but that does sound like a design flaw. So if your neighbour set the country code (incorrectly) to US and you set yours to NZ with channel 12 then your Mac might refuse to connect to your Wifi because it's an "illegal" channel according to FCC standard?

RunningMan

8960 posts

Uber Geek

#2276353 14-Jul-2019 15:49

zyo: So if your neighbour set the country code (incorrectly) to US and you set yours to NZ with channel 12 then your Mac might refuse to connect to your Wifi because it's an "illegal" channel according to FCC standard?

Exactly! I'm not sure if current versions of Mac OS are still doing this, but it was a massive headache when an AP not under your control could prevent you even connecting to your own network.

I think OS X would start it's channel scan at channel 1, and if there was (say) an AP saying US on channel 1, by the time it got to your channel at 12, it had already decided 12 was illegal, and you couldn't use it. I think they must have moved to using location services instead, as it doesn't seem to be a common problem for the last year or so.

richms

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#2276367 14-Jul-2019 16:06

Its almost like the broadcast of fake APs with fake location frames could be a form of denial of service attack.... (insert thinking emoji)

Richard rich.ms

Behodar

10508 posts

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#2276425 14-Jul-2019 17:10

Google Maps appeared to do something similar (years ago; no idea whether it still does). I was driving through Auckland CBD once, with Maps open, when the street names suddenly all switched over to Japanese katakana. A block or so later, it was back to Roman characters again. I could only conclude that it "saw" an AP with the locale set to Japan.

Sharesies

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Gurezaemon

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#2276441 14-Jul-2019 17:58

Behodar:
Google Maps appeared to do something similar (years ago; no idea whether it still does). I was driving through Auckland CBD once, with Maps open, when the street names suddenly all switched over to Japanese katakana. A block or so later, it was back to Roman characters again. I could only conclude that it "saw" an AP with the locale set to Japan.

Sounds like some incomplete wormhole situations going on.

dfnt

1512 posts

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Lifetime subscriber

#2276447 14-Jul-2019 18:15

fwiw the ubiquiti AP's don't broadcast country codes (802.11d), and my Mac thinks the country code is DE

you might find the 659b doesn't broadcast the country code either, I'd just ignore it as it doesn't affect performance

nitro

658 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2277678 16-Jul-2019 11:10

Behodar:

Google Maps appeared to do something similar (years ago; no idea whether it still does). I was driving through Auckland CBD once, with Maps open, when the street names suddenly all switched over to Japanese katakana. A block or so later, it was back to Roman characters again. I could only conclude that it "saw" an AP with the locale set to Japan.

funny, if it were that. i mean, GPS is saying you're in Auckland CBD yet it would choose to believe that it's in Japan on account of an AP that it isn't even connected to.

nitro

658 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2277697 16-Jul-2019 12:10

OP,

if your router is on country code DE, and it's using a channel from 52 - 64 it would be hampered by the maximum Tx power restriction for Germany.

https://w.wol.ph/2015/08/28/maximum-wifi-transmission-power-country/

The 'MAC problem' is different from this one, though. Some info as to why is available here: https://www.howtogeek.com/211993/how-to-fix-conflicting-country-codes-and-improve-your-macs-wi-fi/