PCE-AC68 not picking up 5GHz channels

[Joker91]

Hi, I live in Italy and I bought the PCE-AC68 from Amazon. The box says this card may be operated in Italy. My router is Technicolor TG789VAC v2 and I can only manually choose 36, 40, 44 and 48 channels. On these four channels the AC68 won't connect. If I let the router choose the channel it could choose channel above 48.
I noticed that the AC68 will connect to channels in the middle (56,60,64...) and will not connect to the rest (>100).
OS is Windows 10. I know there are some problems with ASUS drivers... I need to connect to 36-48 channels because they are the ones with stronger signal. Should I send back the card and take another brand?

 

[pete y testing]

I live in Italy and I bought the PCE-AC68 from Amazon.

what country did the pce-ac68u come from ?

what is your current make and model of wireless router and what country did you buy it from

when you say it wont connect to the lower channels what does it do ?

 

[Joker91]

1. I bought it from Amazon.it. The box reports ASUSTek computer Inc. (Taiwan), ASUS COmputer GmbH (Germany) and ASUSTEK UK Ltd.

2. The router it's Technicolor TG789VAC v2, delivered by Telecom (italian ISP).

3. It simply says it can't connect. Other devices can.

 

[pete y testing]

so its simple the

Technicolor TG789VAC v2

is running euro wifi standard

the

PCE-AC68

is running the usa / non eu standard

and is why you are limited to 36, 40, 44 and 48 for 5 gig channels \

I need to connect to 36-48 channels because they are the ones with stronger signal.

so just manually set it to one of the lower channels on the TG789VAC v2 and it will work ?

it is mostly recommended to not let the router be in auto for channels selection anyway

I know there are some problems with ASUS drivers

nope just it doesnt support the dfs channels , it does support the high 5 gig channels but your TG789VAC v2 doesnt support those

pete

 

[swetoast]

Had one of these cards too with my asus rt-ac56u couldnt connect at all to 5ghz gave up on it support from asus was minimal got me a tplink instead and been running just fine with that card on 5ghz at 1300mbit but that suites me just fine rather have it working then not working

 

[pete y testing]

got me a tplink instead

depends on which tp link card you got

the T8E is the same as the 68u in what channels it uses , the T9E is designed for EU and only does the lower channels and dfs channels

the OP wants to use the lower channels and the fix is simple , lock the channel on the router to one of the lower channels for 5 gig and ether ch 1,6 or 11 for 2.4 gig -- Problem solved

 

[swetoast]

yeah the OP solution is simple think my card was just a shirtty in general cause the 5ghz never worked as intended and the TP link works flawlessly along with my intel wireless on my laptop so all and all im not disappointed in dropping my asus pce card since it never worked as intended.

 

[Joker91]

If I lock the channel on the router to one of the lower channels, the AC68 won't connect! However, I'll buy the T9E and the Netgear R6400.

 

[pete y testing]

If I lock the channel on the router to one of the lower channels, the AC68 won't connect!

then you are doing something wrong

check there are no mac filters in place on the router and you are using wpa2 with ares encryption and passphrase is not got special characters in it , eg must be just upper case , lower case and numbers and no spaces

as if the 68u wont connect the T9E wont connect ether as they will be using the same channels and authentication

 

[Joker91]

then you are doing something wrong

check there are no mac filters in place on the router and you are using wpa2 with ares encryption and passphrase is not got special characters in it , eg must be just upper case , lower case and numbers and no spaces

as if the 68u wont connect the T9E wont connect ether as they will be using the same channels and authentication

I could even let the network open and it wouldn't connect! There aren't mac filters on router. My Z3 Compact connects without problems.

You said the AC68 is running non-eu standard, isn't this the reason why it cannot connect to lower channels (which are EU channels)? In fact it can connect to USA channels like I said in the OP.

 

[pete y testing]

You said the AC68 is running non-eu standard, isn't this the reason why it cannot connect to lower channels (which are EU channels)? In fact it can connect to USA channels like I said in the OP.

nope because every country runs the lower 5 gig channels and are the same

see

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_WLAN_channels

scroll down to the big chart

ch 36 40 44 and 48 are used throughout the world

channels above 48 and below 149 are whats called dfs channels and can be used in some countries but have to comply with radar scanning and interference so its best to avoid them anyway esp if you live near an airport or weather station

again something is blocking the asus from connecting if the modem is set to ch 36 to 48 , what that is ? who knows if you have set as suggested above and there is no filtering in place parental or firewall

here is a test start a wifi tether from your mobile phone and see if you can connect the asus to the phone and access the internet , if you can its something in that router causing the issue

 

[Joker91]

Unfortunately I cannot choose the band for the tethering and my Android device selects automatically 2.4 GHz. However I have also a dual band range extender into my network. AC68 can connect to the 5 GHz range extender to any channel I select, even lower channels. I also performed a factory reset on the router to be sure that there were not filter on my PC. Still it can not connect to the router. At this point I imagine that my router does not like the AC68 (and so it would be pointless to buy the T9E). But why should the router block the AC68 only on lower channels? It seems to me a singular policy.

I think I'll buy a router and cascade it to the combo unit.

 

[pete y testing]

AC68 can connect to the 5 GHz range extender to any channel I select, even lower channels. I also performed a factory reset on the router to be sure that there were not filter on my PC. Still it can not connect to the router.

but this does prove the pce-ac68 is not broken and something is not right with the router

At this point I imagine that my router does not like the AC68 (and so it would be pointless to buy the T9E).

yup as they are the same hardware

But why should the router block the AC68 only on lower channels? It seems to me a singular policy.

its a strange one , when you factory reset the router did you just do a basic setup and just put ssid and passphrase and wpa2 with aes

prob try a different ssid name and see if that helps


you can see the lower channels when set but it just wont connect right ?

 

[Joker91]

Yes, I changed the SSID too (the final part, from 5GHz to AC ). From the modem I can only set the lower channels. Strange thing is that if I let the modem choose the channel, it never chooses the lower channels. However AC68 can not connect not even to 56 channel (for example). It connects only to >100 channels. I'll buy the R6400 and let you know what it happens

 

[pete y testing]

I'll buy the R6400

get the R7000 as its a far better unit the r6400 is problematic

 

[Joker91]

Even with the R7000 I can't connect to lower channels.

 

[Joker91]

I solved buying a TP-Link T4U.

 

[pete y testing]

I solved buying a TP-Link T4U

apart from the fact its only 867M on 5 gig and 300M on 2.4 gig , so your missing out on the top speeds of your router wifi wise