Wi-Fi country code

[^Tripper^]

Hello folks. Wonder if anyone can help explain this issue that I’m experiencing.

I have an ASUS 87 that’s my main router. I also have a Linksys that I set up as an AP. The funny thing is that whenever I use any of my Apple laptops or desktops to connect to my Linksys, they show the Wi-Fi country code as “TH”. That’s Thailand as I understand it. I’m not in Thailand.

If I reset my Apple devices SMC/NVRAM and connect to my ASUS 87, it’s shows the correct Wi-Fi country code; SG. (I’m in Singapore...Disneyland with the death penalty. You guys should visit!!!) But once I connect to the Linksys, my Wi-Fi country code changes to “TH”. After connecting to the the Linksys, I disconnect and then connect to my ASUS, it shows “X1”. Like WTF.

I’ve googled and I can’t find the what the reason is.

Appreciate any suggestions to help trouble shoot this issue.

I’m on an ASUS 87 with Merlin’s 384.5 as the main router and a Linksys 8100 POS as an acesss point.

I’m currently suspecting the Linksys has some funky firmware but then again, I am an idiot.

 

[sfx2000]

With Mac's - it can be an adjacent WLAN that is set to TH, and the Mac will assume it.

Can be a problem in some areas where 5GHz is limited in some locales but not others.

 

[^Tripper^]

With Mac's - it can be an adjacent WLAN that is set to TH, and the Mac will assume it.

Can be a problem in some areas where 5GHz is limited in some locales but not others.

Looks like I gotta go harass my neighbours. About time I did.

Just to clarify, this is despite my ASUS 87 being set to the correct Wi-Fi locale? I would imagine that having the 87 in literally the same room, set to the correct locale and having a stronger signal then any of my neighbors would’ve mitigated my neighbour’s settings. But heck, what do I know.

Thank you for the reply!

 

[RMerlin]

With Mac's - it can be an adjacent WLAN that is set to TH, and the Mac will assume it.

Didn't 802.11d get deprecated a few years ago, because it's a really bad idea to rely on that in the first place?

 

[sfx2000]

Didn't 802.11d get deprecated a few years ago, because it's a really bad idea to rely on that in the first place?

The FCC memo on 802.11d client configuration applies only within the US - OP is in Singapore.

Anyways, doesn't make a different for TH or SG (see below)

Re-reading OP's initial post - it's his Linksys that is configured for the TH reg domain, so that's the one that needs to be be fixed perhaps - or start debugging the Asus RT-AC87U which we all know is full of crunchy wonderfulness...

Useful info below as a subset of an attachment that is global - this is the latest I have, so it might be a bit old...

country TH: DFS-FCC
    (2402 - 2482 @ 40), (20)
    (5170 - 5250 @ 80), (17), AUTO-BW
    (5250 - 5330 @ 80), (24), DFS, AUTO-BW
    (5490 - 5730 @ 160), (24), DFS
    (5735 - 5835 @ 80), (30)

country SG: DFS-FCC
    (2402 - 2482 @ 40), (20)
    (5170 - 5250 @ 80), (17), AUTO-BW
    (5250 - 5330 @ 80), (24), DFS, AUTO-BW
    (5490 - 5730 @ 160), (24), DFS
    (5735 - 5835 @ 80), (30)

 

[sfx2000]

Looks like I gotta go harass my neighbours. About time I did.

Just to clarify, this is despite my ASUS 87 being set to the correct Wi-Fi locale? I would imagine that having the 87 in literally the same room, set to the correct locale and having a stronger signal then any of my neighbors would’ve mitigated my neighbour’s settings. But heck, what do I know.

Don't harass your neighbors just yet - TH and SG have the same requirements - so that's really not the issue.

If you're having performance issues with the RT-AC87U, look at that first - the 87U has a track record compared to other Asus RT-AC devices...

 

[sfx2000]

Useful info below as a subset of an attachment that is global - this is the latest I have, so it might be a bit old...

So my local db.txt is a bit old - but still doesn't change much for SG vs. TH, and keep in mind that the reg domain stuff is valid for the time that the device was certified, not the present.

Anyways - here's the updated regulatory domain wireless database - this is from 31-MAY-2018...

One can also find things here -- https://mirrors.edge.kernel.org/pub/software/network/wireless-regdb/

 

[^Tripper^]

Thank you sfx2000 for the info. You’re right, Apple does look around before connecting and decides what country code to use. That sucks.


So I’ve been doing a “site survey” of the Wi-Fi networks in my area. Interestingly I see a bunch of networks that are set to “TH”. And as far as I can tell, most of em are Linksys units. Hmmm. (And one set to “US”, one to “CN” and one to “KR”. These come and go. I feel like I’m living in the UN headquarters.)


The reason I noticed something was strange was because every time I connected to my Linksys and went to Ookla speed test, it would show my location as Thailand and try to select a Thai server. This obviously threw up some red flags.


Whenever I’m connected to the Linksys, my whole network gets wonky. I occasionally get speed issues which may or may not be related. Secondly, my devices started dropping connections to the ASUS. Turn off the Linksys and connections to the ASUS are stable. Turn the linky on and connections to ASUS start randomly dropping. That’s repeatable so it led me to suspect the Linksys wasn’t playing nice. But then again, my ASUS is the 87 and like sfx2000 said, it’s full of “crunchy goodness” and has a track record. Yay.


Spoke to Linksys support and naturally, they made me reset,reinstall firmware, reset again, splay some chicken blood... and no difference, Linksys router says I’m in Thailand.


They’ve escalated the case and promised an engineer will get back to me. Two days later, they call back and it’s not an engineer but someone who doesn’t know what WiFi country codes are. After explaining everything again, he thanks me for the lesson (yeah.. me giving Wi-Fi lessons. All hope is lost), asks for screen shots and promises to get back to me by Wednesday after checking with the engineers.


Anyways, that’s where I am and still looking into this issue. Interesting no doubt.

 

[^Tripper^]

Updates - So support finally passed the issue to the Linksys engineers and they observed the same behaviour. They agree this isn’t correct and they will be pushing out a firmware update to address the issue, which I imagine would be a region change. Lord knows when the update will be available and I’m surprised this issue actually occurred.

Interestingly, support said they’d be pushing out an update for my model but I’ve been observing the issue on all Linksys/Belkin radios around my area. Well, will see how this goes.