Change country to unlock channels, increase TX-power. (Use at your own risk)

README.md

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. :)

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.

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

@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:

@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.

@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?

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.

@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"

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

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?

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.

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...)

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...

@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 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!

"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.

😯😨😨

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

😯😨😨

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🥲

😯😨😨

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🫠

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)

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.

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> .

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.

i didn't know that ccode had this problem too, anyway no, inside asus routers there must be some kind of component either inside the router or in the software, that forces the asus to change the country code and make it go back to how it was originally. nvram set country code doesn't survive any kind of attempt to make it permanent neither with the init start script nor using nvram commit, at every reboot it will always go back to the original one. i don't know what if there is really a way to make the change permanent, maybe using old firmware from old asus models like ac68u it is still possible to do it, but starting from relatively recent models like ac86u and similar such changes cannot be made permanent Il dom 24 mar 2024, 18:22 A2E76W3 ***@***.***> ha scritto:

…

***@***.**** commented on this gist. ------------------------------ 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. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <https://gist.github.com/francoism90/3dede7973354d067c41bff5e54203fe9#gistcomment-4999411> or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/BAVJMKDDJV5277VVC6FSWNDYZ4DWZBFKMF2HI4TJMJ2XIZLTSKBKK5TBNR2WLJDUOJ2WLJDOMFWWLO3UNBZGKYLEL5YGC4TUNFRWS4DBNZ2F6YLDORUXM2LUPGBKK5TBNR2WLJDHNFZXJJDOMFWWLK3UNBZGKYLEL52HS4DFVRZXKYTKMVRXIX3UPFYGLK2HNFZXIQ3PNVWWK3TUUZ2G64DJMNZZDAVEOR4XAZNEM5UXG5FFOZQWY5LFVA4TENZQG44TIONHORZGSZ3HMVZKMY3SMVQXIZI> . 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> .

I just noticed that the location of my router sends by the beacon is: DE, which presumably stands for Germany? Although my ccode and location code are set to US. I bought my router(ASUS BE98)here in the UK. Very strange. Can confirm this using S24 Ultra and winfi

I'm more confused about my iPhone 15PM and AX210 that decided not to work with the 6GHz band.

Guys, bad news. I think someone in ASUS saw our posts, after the last firmware update, I cannot change my ccode and country rev anymore... It will remain as US for my router now...

Doesn't work in what method? changing nvram or using wl commands?

when using just this:

nvram set location_code=#a
nvram commit

don't you get all the channels/max power?

Sorry for the misinformation. It still works...My bad.

Hi
Does anyone know how to disable DFS using nvram without changing country/local/transmit power?
I can do it using wl command but it's not persistent.

I think you need to change the country, as the chipset/firmware probably does some testing if it even can be disabled.

You don't have to change the transmit power. It's there as a reference.

Just a reminder: even when setting a different country or TX-power, it doesn't mean it actually works. The Intel chipsets most people have on their end devices, does some hidden checking and makes it really difficult to workaround certain 'hacks'.

So the given instructions, may or may work. It depends on your setup and maybe a bit of luck.

Thanks, I guess I'll stick with wl method using services-start which works for me (but I wish it was persistent)