Transmit power max 20dbm

[eugene28]

Hi. Installed Gargoyle on my WNDR3700v1 router. I see there is limitation on the output power of 20dbm maximum. Is there any workaround to increase it? Can I follow the steps described in OpenWRT wiki for changing regulatory domain settings in chapter Wireless Regulatory Issues. http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/netgear/wndr3700. Can I upload regulatory.bin. to Gargoyle firmware?

[caeci11ius]

Given I wrote the bit about uploading regulatory.bin on the OpenWRT wiki, yes you can . You won't be able to set wireless power of greater than 20dBm on Gargoyle through the GUI, but you can edit the config file if you want to. You can find the max values supported by the hardware in the DD-WRT wiki...from memory it's 27dBm/22dBm on 2.4GHz for 20 and 40mhz channels and 24dBm on 5GHz. If you chmod 444 the wireless config file after editing it, the Gargoyle GUI won't be able to change it back either...though this will of course mean you have to set up all features affected by the wireless controls manually...can be a bit fiddly and defeats some of the point of using Gargoyle. Still, if you're like me and use it mostly for the excellent usage accounting and QoS, go ahead .

I've actually had some problems with the wireless on the most recent version. I initially thought it might be to do with running at high power, but now think it more likely that it's something else as I've turned power down and it's still happening. I'm doing a lot of other weird stuff with wireless that I didn't set up through the GUI (WDS on 5GHz, WDS repeater (i.e. virtual hotspot) on Atheros chipset etc), so haven't reported it, but I'm getting short wireless dropouts periodically. Just letting you know that your mileage may vary. Also remember high power probably won't help with getting reception to far away devices, as the router may not be able to hear them responding...it should help with talking to other high powered routers though...

Remember one more thing...just because the GUI says you're at x dBm doesn't mean you are...I'm pretty sure the box just reports whatever value is in the settings file. CRDA + Regulatory db will limit you to lower values if it thinks this is appropriate (even when it's not...you've clearly read my rant about Netgear's stupid EEPROM / bad drivers following it on OpenWRT wiki so I won't bother repeating it here).

[behappy]

I did use the regdomain file from wiki, better than the file from gargoyle

Set to Max value then you overwrite the limit 20 dBm from GUI.

[caeci11ius]

It's nothing wrong with Gargoyle really, it's really an upstream openwrt / netgear / american FCC policy issue.

* Netgear because they don't bother to set their regdomain EEPROM correctly for all the markets they sell their hardware in...(though their firmware ignores it so that's ok in a way)...
* FCC because they think people are too dumb to set up their wireless routers properly and insist on complex methods to prevent this instead of just telling the manufacturers to leave the option to change it out of their default firmware for that region; that, and they don't recognise that 95% of the world don't live in America).
* OpenWRT because they insist on listening to Atheros etc (even though the hardware vendors like Netgear don't) when they ask them not to distribute firmware where the region can be changed (I'm of the opinion that if you're technical enough to understand flashing alternative firmware, you're probably also good enough to understand that you should set your reg domain correctly to stay on the right side of the law). That said, the OpenWRT guys are the least to blame as they're kinda over a barrel as they need Atheros to provide details / assistance for driver writing...

It's still a problem for us though.

What we really need is for someone to give us an EEPROM flash utility so we can set it to our correct country instead of the USA...

[behappy]

-------
It's still a problem for us though.

What we really need is for someone to give us an EEPROM flash utility so we can set it to our correct country instead of the USA...

Now I don't understand why should you not use yr own country regdomain?
Get the list from http://madwifi-project.org/wiki/UserDocs/CountryCode
then set yr dBm power after.

[caeci11ius]

Netgear probably just set them all the same to save them the hassle of maintaining different inventory for different countries.

As for why individuals might set it wrong; to get more channels / power output of course.

[eugene28]

Given I wrote the bit about uploading regulatory.bin on the OpenWRT wiki, yes you can . You won't be able to set wireless power of greater than 20dBm on Gargoyle through the GUI, but you can edit the config file if you want to. You can find the max values supported by the hardware in the DD-WRT wiki...from memory it's 27dBm/22dBm on 2.4GHz for 20 and 40mhz channels and 24dBm on 5GHz. If you chmod 444 the wireless config file after editing it, the Gargoyle GUI won't be able to change it back either...though this will of course mean you have to set up all features affected by the wireless controls manually...can be a bit fiddly and defeats some of the point of using Gargoyle. Still, if you're like me and use it mostly for the excellent usage accounting and QoS, go ahead .

I've actually had some problems with the wireless on the most recent version. I initially thought it might be to do with running at high power, but now think it more likely that it's something else as I've turned power down and it's still happening. I'm doing a lot of other weird stuff with wireless that I didn't set up through the GUI (WDS on 5GHz, WDS repeater (i.e. virtual hotspot) on Atheros chipset etc), so haven't reported it, but I'm getting short wireless dropouts periodically. Just letting you know that your mileage may vary. Also remember high power probably won't help with getting reception to far away devices, as the router may not be able to hear them responding...it should help with talking to other high powered routers though...

Remember one more thing...just because the GUI says you're at x dBm doesn't mean you are...I'm pretty sure the box just reports whatever value is in the settings file. CRDA + Regulatory db will limit you to lower values if it thinks this is appropriate (even when it's not...you've clearly read my rant about Netgear's stupid EEPROM / bad drivers following it on OpenWRT wiki so I won't bother repeating it here).

Thanks for the info. So far I installed Gargoyle firmware on top of NA netgear image and geined 3-4% signal increase. I would like to experiment with output power, but I do not know about necessory commands to chance values. Can you point me to the site where I can find them. Thus signal level is increased I experiencing some drop outs also. You mentioned you noticed the problem with the latest firmware. What was the previous stable one?

[eugene28]

-------
It's still a problem for us though.

What we really need is for someone to give us an EEPROM flash utility so we can set it to our correct country instead of the USA...

Now I don't understand why should you not use yr own country regdomain?
Get the list from http://madwifi-project.org/wiki/UserDocs/CountryCode
then set yr dBm power after.

Hi. It is a good source of info about alloyed output powers, but unfortunately i think command for changing reg domains will not work due to being for madwifi drives. Not Atheros OpenWRT team uses. Correct me if I am wrong.

[behappy]

Hi. It is a good source of info about alloyed output powers, but unfortunately i think command for changing reg domains will not work due to being for madwifi drives. Not Atheros OpenWRT team uses. Correct me if I am wrong.

You misread my post. Change the regdomain as from Netgear WNDR3700 wiki !!! The power usage sets up after the guideline from madwifi

[KingJL]

Just installed Gargoyle 1.3.14 on a wzr-hp-g300nh. Performed the mod on my regulatory.bin file as descibed by caeci11ius
in the openwrt wiki. And like he said, you can change the power above 20dBm up to the regulatory limit via the CLI but not via the Gargoyle web interface.

I further edited the basic.sh script to eliminate the 20 dBm limit in the Gargoyle web management interface. Just find the line where the input parameter limits are set to 31dBm for Broadcom and 20:18 for atheros. Change the "20:18" to "30". Now I can set the TX power to 0 - 30 dBm via the web interface. I need to explore a more intelligent method to set the TX power to account for trying to set it above the regulatory limit for the channel.

As a side note though... if (in the gargoyle web interface) you set the TX power to a value greater than the regulatory limit for the channel, the underlying set tx power CLI command will fail, and the gargoyle web interface will not set the tx power option in the wireless config file, thus resulting in a 20 dBm default.

After months of frustration with dd-wr on these Buffalo atheros units... so far, I am happy!! Thanks eric!!!