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@francoism90
Last active December 6, 2024 08:16
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Change country to unlock channels, increase TX-power. (Use at your own risk)

Disclaimer

Following instructions are provided without any warranty, and may even get you in trouble legally. The instructions are provided for testing, learning, preventing e-waste, and should be use with care. We (including contributers + commentators) are not responsible for any damage to your device(s) or any legal issues.

Getting Started

Instructions have been moved to https://github.com/francoism90/asus-router. :)

@pasko-zh
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pasko-zh commented Mar 4, 2024

@Reeplosin : You can run it manually or install it in a startup script. But you might call your script services-start instead of init-start, because you can use wl tool commands only after all services are up, see https://github.com/RMerl/asuswrt-merlin.ng/wiki/User-scripts.

Since I did a lot of tests, I just put everything in a bash script and execute it manually. (I don't reboot my routers for months).

So, here is one example of mine for one of my AX58U:

#!/bin/sh

# This does not work, if 2G is up
# wl country ALL

# Settings for 2G
wl -i eth5 down
wl -i eth5 country ALL
wl -i eth5 country_abbrev_override OFF
wl -i eth5 regulatory 1
wl -i eth5 chanspec -c 3 -b 2 -w 40 -s 1
wl -i eth5 up
wl -i eth5 2g_rate auto
wl -i eth5 txpwr1 -o -m 1496

# settings for 5G
wl -i eth6 down
wl -i eth6 country ALL
wl -i eth6 country_abbrev_override OFF

# set 802.11d only and disable 802.11h
wl -i eth6 regulatory 1
wl -i eth6 spect 0

wl -i eth6 chanspec 36/160
wl -i eth6 up
wl -i eth6 5g_rate auto
wl -i eth6 txpwr1 -o -m 1496

@Reeplosin
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Reeplosin commented Mar 6, 2024 via email

@Reeplosin
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anyway Just for information; i was checking some old tweaks for the AC68u transmission power and i came across a command that i didn't see used here "nvram set pa0maxpwr=708" it's strange because many nvram commands tried by users here come from that list of tweak commands that worked for the old 68u, this is one of them but i don't see it used, maybe for current devices it's not needed anymore i don't know

@pasko-zh
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pasko-zh commented Mar 8, 2024

@Reeplosin
Well, it all depends on your router model and OS, driver (and also wl) version. On my AXE11000 and AX58U pa0maxpwr doesn't exist in NVRAM.

Since we don't have an official documentation by broadcom, it's a bit shooting in the dark... or to put it differently try & error :-/

If you find comands working for you -- please share :)

@Reeplosin
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Reeplosin commented Mar 9, 2024 via email

@francoism90
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Author

@pasko-zh What's funny, is that I do have China as an option:

# wl -i eth6 country list
Supported countries: country code and long name
#a	
AU	AUSTRALIA
CA	CANADA
CN	CHINA
DE	GERMANY
E0	
FR	FRANCE
GB	UNITED KINGDOM
JP	JAPAN
KR	KOREA, REPUBLIC OF
Q1	Q1
SG	SINGAPORE
TW	TAIWAN, REPUBLIC OF CHINA
US	UNITED STATES

Was this from your AX-58U?

I think the nvram controls the hardware limits/bars, and with iw you actually boost them (or force some overriding).

I'll try to test later this weekend, and adjust the README.md.

Thanks again!

@pasko-zh
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pasko-zh commented Mar 9, 2024

@francoism90
Now it is getting political 🤣 I live in Switzerland, so I have :

ASUSWRT-Merlin GT-AXE11000 3004.388.6_0_rog Sat Jan 20 18:44:34 UTC 2024
pesce@GT-AXE11000-9520:/tmp/home/root# wl country list
Supported countries: country code and long name
#a
CA      CANADA
E0
KR      KOREA, REPUBLIC OF
US      UNITED STATES

pesce@GT-AXE11000-9520:/tmp/home/root# wl ver
Broadcom BCA: 17.10 RC157.2809
wl0: Dec 12 2023 09:43:28 version 17.10.157.2809 (r801046) FWID 01-0

pesce@GT-AXE11000-9520:/tmp/home/root# wl clmver
API: 25.0
Data: 10.10.78
Compiler: 1.68.6
ClmImport: 1.68.6
Customization: v2 221028
Creation: 2023-07-24 10:10:20

and

ASUSWRT-Merlin RT-AX58U 3004.388.6_2 Tue Feb 27 02:43:33 UTC 2024
pesce@RT-AX58U-D440:/tmp/home/root# wl country
#a (#a/0) <unknown>
pesce@RT-AX58U-D440:/tmp/home/root# wl country list
Supported countries: country code and long name
#a
AU      AUSTRALIA
CA      CANADA
CN      CHINA
DE      GERMANY
E0
FR      FRANCE
GB      UNITED KINGDOM
JP      JAPAN
KR      KOREA, REPUBLIC OF
Q1      Q1
SG      SINGAPORE
TW      TAIWAN, REPUBLIC OF CHINA
US      UNITED STATES

pesce@RT-AX58U-D440:/tmp/home/root# wl ver
Broadcom BCA: 17.10 RC157.2809
wl0: Dec 15 2023 10:37:38 version 17.10.157.2809 (r801046) 8e0370b

pesce@RT-AX58U-D440:/tmp/home/root# wl clmver
API: 25.0
Data: 10.10.652
Compiler: 1.59.9
ClmImport: 1.63.5
Creation: 2021-10-29 10:21:23

Well, on my linux machines I use iw a lot. But here on asus merlin, I was only trying it a bit, and most things were not working

@francoism90 Let me know if shall test anything. Happy to support.

@Linden1
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Linden1 commented Mar 9, 2024

ASUSWRT-Merlin RT-AX88U 3004.388.6_2 Tue Feb 27 02:49:55 UTC 2024

I'd list mine in response but seriously(!) the list is 268 lines.

Still can't get channels above 165, no matter which country I try.

@Reeplosin
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ASUSWRT-Merlin RT-AX88U 3004.388.6_2 Tue Feb 27 02:49:55 UTC 2024

I'd list mine in response but seriously(!) the list is 268 lines.

Still can't get channels above 165, no matter which country I try.

To get the channels I think you have to change the chainspec

the command on my ac86u is "nvram set wl1_chanspec=161/80" on your device it will have to be something like "165/160" or something like that you will have to try

@pasko-zh
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pasko-zh commented Mar 9, 2024

@Linden1
You can do it via NVRAM or via wl

You may need to select a different interface number, e.g., eth6 or so... On my AXE11000 I configured it like this:

# settings for 5G
wl -i eth7 down
wl -i eth7 country ALL
wl -i eth7 country_abbrev_override OFF
wl -i eth7 regulatory 1
wl -i eth7 spect 0
wl -i eth7 chanspec 165/160
wl -i eth7 up
wl -i eth7 5g_rate auto
wl -i eth7 txpwr1 -o -m 1496

Then

wl -i eth7 status
SSID:  I HIDE MINE HERE...
Mode: Managed   RSSI: 0 dBm     SNR: 0 dB       noise: -87 dBm  Channel: 165/160
BSSID: C8:7F:54:94:95:24        Capability: ESS RRM
Supported Rates: [ 6(b) 9 12 18 24(b) 36 48 54 ]
HE Capable:
        ....

NOTE! You also need a client supporting those channels. With Intel's adapter with theri stupid LAR, I had no chance!! I replaced my Intel AX-210 with Mediatek MT7922. It works under Win10 and Ubuntu:

Capture

@Linden1
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Linden1 commented Mar 9, 2024

@pasko-zh
I've already adapted the original (NVRAM) script to my router. It works because I now have channels 149-165 and am running channel 149/80. It just won't go any further - tried US, CN, ALL, #a.

@pasko-zh
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pasko-zh commented Mar 9, 2024

@Linden1
Strange...

  1. what do you get if you do wl -i eth6 channels ?
    (you should get 36 40 44 48 52 56 60 64 100 104 108 112 116 120 124 128 132 136 140 144 149 153 157 161 165 169 173 177)

  2. Do you get an error message when you try to wl -i eth6 chanspec 165/160 ?
    (Interface needs to be down)

  3. What do you get if you set the channel like in 2. and then do wl -i eth6 status?

@Linden1
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Linden1 commented Mar 9, 2024

Using eth7 specific to my router

  1. 36 40 44 48 52 56 60 64 100 104 108 112 116 120 124 128 132 136 140 144 149 153 157 161 165

  2. wl: Bad Channel

  3. SSID: "REDACTED"
    Mode: Managed RSSI: 0 dBm SNR: 0 dB noise: -88 dBm Channel: 149/80
    BSSID: 11:22:33:44:55 Capability: ESS RRM
    Supported Rates: [ 6(b) 9 12 18 24(b) 36 48 54 ]
    HE Capable:
    Chanspec: 5GHz channel 155 80MHz (0xe09b)
    Primary channel: 149
    HT Capabilities: 40MHz SGI20 SGI40
    Supported HT MCS : 0-31
    Supported VHT MCS:
    NSS1 Tx: 0-11 Rx: 0-11
    NSS2 Tx: 0-11 Rx: 0-11
    NSS3 Tx: 0-11 Rx: 0-11
    NSS4 Tx: 0-11 Rx: 0-11
    Supported HE MCS:
    20/40/80 MHz:
    NSS1 Tx: 0-11 Rx: 0-11
    NSS2 Tx: 0-11 Rx: 0-11
    NSS3 Tx: 0-11 Rx: 0-11
    NSS4 Tx: 0-11 Rx: 0-11
    160 MHz:
    NSS1 Tx: 0-11 Rx: 0-11
    NSS2 Tx: 0-11 Rx: 0-11
    NSS3 Tx: 0-11 Rx: 0-11
    NSS4 Tx: 0-11 Rx: 0-11

EDIT It just seems my router is not UNII-4 capable. Maybe it's time to accept that.

@pasko-zh
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@Linden1
Are you sure your router model supports U-NII-4 band, channel 169-177?

What do you get if you do wl -i eth7 country?

Did you set in NVRAM init script
nvram set wl1_chlist="36 40 44 48 52 56 60 64 100 104 108 112 116 120 124 128 132 136 140 149 153 157 161 165 169 173 177"

@Linden1
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Linden1 commented Mar 10, 2024

What do you get if you do wl -i eth7 country?

Default would be DE , but with the script #a (#a/0) - which should give me all channels.

Yes, channel list exactly as you have it. I know the script itself is working as I now have channels 149-165, giving me 149/80, nothing higher.

wl -i eth7 channels returns:
36 40 44 48 52 56 60 64 100 104 108 112 116 120 124 128 132 136 140 144 149 153 157 161 165

@pasko-zh
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hmmm :-/ weird... I had once an issue, that U-NII-4 channels were not selectable ("were not there") because I did not set them in NVRAM via init-script.
What kind of router model do you have AX88U or new one AX88U PRO?

@Linden1
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Linden1 commented Mar 10, 2024

The good old RT-AX88U (not Pro).

I have the original "nvram set acs_unii4=1" in the script, but that makes no difference, even if I set it to 0(zero) or comment it out.

@pasko-zh
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pasko-zh commented Mar 10, 2024

Well, then I don't know what else could help....

(but at least you can use all other 5G channels without DFS and full power 😁. Sure, U-NII-4 would give you another 160 MHz channel...)

@Warborn123
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Hi, I just got my hands on the new BE98 (non-Pro, UK version), and it seems like nvram set 1:ccode=ALL, nvram set 2:ccode=ALL, nvram set 3:ccode=ALL do not work on this router after setting the country code to AU (nvram set location_code=AU). This is quite frustrating because Australia does not permit channels 116-128, so my 5G-2 can only be set to 80MHz. I also tried setting the country code to the US, but for some strange reason, only my Samsung S24 Ultra can find the 6GHz channel. My Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6E AX210 and iPhone 15 Pro Max cannot find the 6GHz channel at all...

@pasko-zh
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pasko-zh commented Mar 21, 2024

@Warborn123
Try to work with the wl command. See my comments above how to use it to set country, disable DSF, set tx power, etc., see here or this one.

To help others having the same router model as you, please post the output of the corresponding wl commands here. For instance, wl country list or wl -i eth8 channels (on my GT-AXE11000 eth8 corresponds to the 6G).

When you set a country or channel, then always check with the wl command, if the settings are OK: wl -i eth8 status . Do not check it on your wifi clients!

Your wifi clients, e.g., mobile phone, laptop, have also regulatory settings which affect connectivity, for instance no 6G wifi. Your apple phone will most likeley set its regulatory wifi country to what it reads from telco network. On a rooted android device, you can override this via sudo iw reg set COUNTRY. But since apple is super closed source... nothing to do here...

Intel... well.... they use LAR algorithm to detect the country settings. This is a super shitty thing. Because LAR fails more often than succeeding. And if you are unlucky, it cannot determine a country based on beacon signals from neighbour's wifi and uses "world region", which has no 6G wifi channels.
Also note: Win10 and Intel cards = No 6 GHz wifi, you need win11.

Thus, replace your AX210 with Mediatek MT7922. (! only possible if your laptop does not have proprietary intel CNVio(2) interfaces!)
The MT7922 works perfect and stable with all my lenovo laptops, also under Ubuntu. No stupid LAR.
And as a bonus: You can even use 6GHz wifi with win10.

@Warborn123
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@Warborn123 Try to work with the wl command. See my comments above how to use it to set country, disable DSF, set tx power, etc., see here or this one.

To help others having the same router model as you, please post the output of the corresponding wl commands here. For instance, wl country list or wl -i eth8 channels (on my GT-AXE11000 eth8 corresponds to the 6G).

When you set a country or channel, then always check with the wl command, if the settings are OK: wl -i eth8 status . Do not check it on your wifi clients!

Your wifi clients, e.g., mobile phone, laptop, have also regulatory settings which affect connectivity, for instance no 6G wifi. Your apple phone will most likeley set its regulatory wifi country to what it reads from telco network. On a rooted android device, you can override this via sudo iw reg set COUNTRY. But since apple is super closed source... nothing to do here...

Intel... well.... they use LAR algorithm to detect the country settings. This is a super shitty thing. Because LAR fails more often than succeeding. And if you are unlucky, it cannot determine a country based on beacon signals from neighbour's wifi and uses "world region", which has no 6G wifi channels. Also note: Win10 and Intel cards = No 6 GHz wifi, you need win11.

Thus, replace your AX210 with Mediatek MT7922. (! only possible if your laptop does not have proprietary intel CNVio(2) interfaces!) The MT7922 works perfect and stable with all my lenovo laptops, also under Ubuntu. No stupid LAR. And as a bonus: You can even use 6GHz wifi with win10.

Thank you for your comments. I'm not sure if I did it right or not, but it seems like the router doesn't support sl commands?

jack@GT-BE98-4D80:/tmp/home/root# wl help
wl: Unsupported
jack@GT-BE98-4D80:/tmp/home/root# wl -i eth8 channels
wl: wl driver adapter not found

But the wl country list from your previous post works for some reason:

jack@GT-BE98-4D80:/tmp/home/root# wl country list
Supported countries: country code and long name
AU      AUSTRALIA
E0
JP      JAPAN
US      UNITED STATES

And surprisingly, when set to E0, AU or JP, both my iPhone and AX210 can find the 6GHz band, but they all have very weak 6GHz transmission power (-48dBm @ 2 meters), only the US location code will give a reasonable transmission power (-36dB, @ 2 meters), so I'm very sad there.

And yes, I would definitely want to change to a Mediatek wireless card, but unfortunately my AX210 chip is embedded in my computer's motherboard, so it's impossible to upgrade unless I buy one of those PCI-E Wi-Fi adapters.

I saw that you mentioned about AX2xx wireless card will likely not work because of the LAR, have you tried the AX4xx family, like AX411? or the BE200? Did Intel remove LAR on those wireless cards? Because I think chances are, the next ASUS motherboard I get will come with an Intel wireless card, unfortunately.

I like Win11, so I have no problem there :)

Lastly, do you know what difference does the country_rev do? My router support 3 country_rev code for the US, but I see no difference changing those numbers:

jack@GT-BE98-4D80:/tmp/home/root# wl country_rev US
count: 3
0 102 103

Thank you!

@pasko-zh
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"Thank you for your comments. I'm not sure if I did it right or not, but it seems like the router doesn't support sl commands?"
It is wl -h and for the interfaces: check which ones you have for instance with ifconig, with Asus usually the highest number is the 6 GHz Wifi, as I said, for my router it is eth8.

@pasko-zh
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😯😨😨

You do not have country ALL???!!!
Shit, did Asus really remove this???!

What happens, if you try for your interface, ethX, 5 or 6 GHz

wl -i ethX down
wl -i ethX country ALL
wl -i ethX up

@Warborn123
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😯😨😨

You do not have country ALL???!!! Shit, did Asus really remove this???!

What happens, if you try for your interface, ethX, 5 or 6 GHz

wl -i ethX down
wl -i ethX country ALL
wl -i ethX up

Yep, that's right. Now when I set ccode=ALL, it will either change back to the original country (JP) or change to the US (E0,US,AU). You can only change location_code, wl_country_code and wl4_country_code to ALL, but since the ccode is locked, it doesn't really has any effect on the transmission power or frequency band. Let me try the new commands now and see whether that will work🥲

@Warborn123
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😯😨😨

You do not have country ALL???!!! Shit, did Asus really remove this???!

What happens, if you try for your interface, ethX, 5 or 6 GHz

wl -i ethX down
wl -i ethX country ALL
wl -i ethX up

I just tried all three commands here, and it all gives the same error message wl: Unsupported🫠

@pasko-zh
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Hmmm :-/

Since you have country US as a built-in country, will then setting like wl -i ethXX country US work?

btw, on which merlin verison are you? (I did not see your router model listed on asus merlin wrt page)

@Warborn123
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Hmmm :-/

Since you have country US as a built-in country, will then setting like wl -i ethXX country US work?

btw, on which merlin verison are you? (I did not see your router model listed on asus merlin wrt page)

Thank you for your reply. Nope, the command still doesn't work, wl: wl driver adapter not found as usual. I'm with the stock firmware, I'm afraid they haven't released a merlin firmware for this router yet. I don't really see the point of using the merlin firmware though, I did manage to unlock the frequency and increase the TX power on stock firmware with my AXE11000 here.

@Reeplosin
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Reeplosin commented Mar 24, 2024 via email

@Warborn123
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nvram commands are more efficient than wl commands, all you need to do is an nvram commit and the settings survive even reboots. wl commands even with an init start script, once the router reboots you have to run the sh command from the command prompt yourself, as the settings will clear and the router will revert to normal settings. it is not really efficient to rely on wl commands as much as I am curious about the differences from nvram commands and the potential, in practice without a command that you can set after an intentional or accidental reboot it is better to rely on nvram set commands if the router supports it Il ven 22 mar 2024, 23:24 A2E76W3 @.> ha scritto:

@.
* commented on this gist. ------------------------------ Hmmm :-/ Since you have country US as a built-in country, will then setting like wl -i ethXX country US work? btw, on which merlin verison are you? (I did not see your router model listed on asus merlin wrt page) Thank you for your reply. Nope, the command still doesn't work, wl: wl driver adapter not found as usual. I'm with the stock firmware, I'm afraid they haven't released a merlin firmware for this router yet. I don't really see the point of using the merlin firmware though, I did manage to unlock the frequency and increase the TX power on stock firmware with my AXE11000 here https://gist.github.com/francoism90/3dede7973354d067c41bff5e54203fe9?permalink_comment_id=4812096#gistcomment-4812096 . — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://gist.github.com/francoism90/3dede7973354d067c41bff5e54203fe9#gistcomment-4998029 or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/BAVJMKFMFBR7S5BBNRI27Q3YZSVTNBFKMF2HI4TJMJ2XIZLTSKBKK5TBNR2WLJDUOJ2WLJDOMFWWLO3UNBZGKYLEL5YGC4TUNFRWS4DBNZ2F6YLDORUXM2LUPGBKK5TBNR2WLJDHNFZXJJDOMFWWLK3UNBZGKYLEL52HS4DFVRZXKYTKMVRXIX3UPFYGLK2HNFZXIQ3PNVWWK3TUUZ2G64DJMNZZDAVEOR4XAZNEM5UXG5FFOZQWY5LFVA4TENZQG44TIONHORZGSZ3HMVZKMY3SMVQXIZI . You are receiving this email because you commented on the thread. Triage notifications on the go with GitHub Mobile for iOS https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1477376905?ct=notification-email&mt=8&pt=524675 or Android https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.github.android&referrer=utm_campaign%3Dnotification-email%26utm_medium%3Demail%26utm_source%3Dgithub .

Hi, is there any way to force the nvram set 1:ccode=ALL and nvram set wl0_country_code=ALL command? These parameters revert to the original values after I commit the changes and restart the router now on the new model. Thanks.

@Reeplosin
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Reeplosin commented Mar 24, 2024 via email

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