PCE-AC88 Not able to see 5ghz-2 on tri-band router

[halfrican]

My new PCE-AC88 won't see my RT-AC5300's 5ghz-2 SSID if I enable smart-connect (forces channel 153). It sees and connects to 5ghz-1 just fine, but I would prefer to allow it to connect to the other. From what I have read it is likely some sort of "region" selection error that in previous models was fixable by flashing new driver/firmware on adapter, however ASUS only has one driver available for this card currently. I also tried disabling "smart connect" and selecting another channel for the 5ghz-2 which allows the adapter to see and connect as expected. My previous adapter (PCE-AC68) didn't have this issue, any recommendations?

Thanks!

 

[pete y testing]

My new PCE-AC88 won't see my RT-AC5300's 5ghz-2 SSID if I enable smart-connect (forces channel 153). It sees and connects to 5ghz-1 just fine,

which means you have a euro adapter driver that is designed to see the higher channels

so im in australia and the new pce-ac88 works fine here on ch 153

i think you will find its all locked down now and there is not a lot you can do about it with the new rules in place

 

[halfrican]

thanks for the quick reply. So is it likely that the vendor sent me the wrong version of the card? I don't see any markings on the box that would indicate region/country designation.

 

[pete y testing]

So is it likely that the vendor sent me the wrong version of the card?

depends where you live eg what country code / region you are in and how the rules apply there

here in australia my asus rt-ac88u only supports ch 36 to 48 and 149 to 165 , my pce-ac88 also supports the same channels , here we dont use the middle channels or at least the au country code on the asus doesnt use them

so check the country code of your router as it might be the router is transmitting on channels it shouldnt for your region

 

[sfx2000]

depends where you live eg what country code / region you are in and how the rules apply there

here in australia my asus rt-ac88u only supports ch 36 to 48 and 149 to 165

Concur - I do have one client device that I purchased in Japan some time back - and it supports the UNII-1/UNII-2 (and most of extended ch's there), but no support for UNII-3, which is 149 thru 165...

(FWIW - it's a really cool thin/light laptop, ultrabook but even more thin/light, and it runs chromeOS)

So this is a very good point to consider...

 

[pete y testing]

the op may need to consider if it is indeed the adapter that has the wrong country code settings or the rt-ac5300 as its quite possible the router is at fault as i had some asus routers for testing recently and they had all sorts of country codes lol

whats the telnet command to check the country code again for the asus routers ?

btw OP what is your country or region?

 

[halfrican]

I'm in the USA. I spoke to ASUS and the vendor today. Asus wasn't extremely "helpful" but they did imply that they felt it was likely that the card I received was locked to the Euro bands. The vendor didn't give any real feedback, other than to offer a full refund. I went ahead and returned the card and ordered another one, this time sold and shipped from Amazon, first card was sold by another vendor and fulfilled by Amazon.

 

[pete y testing]

this time sold and shipped from Amazon, first card was sold by another vendor and fulfilled by Amazon.

proof will be in the pudding

 

[halfrican]

Received the card I reordered from Amazon (sold and shipped) this time. New card works as expected! Looking at the UPC there was only one difference, under the f/w version there is a string of numbers. Last 5 digits on the original (EU?) Was BM0000, on the new card it is BA0000.

Problem solved, this is the first time I've had this happen from Amazon, but I guess I can't blame them since they only "fulfilled" the order but were not the "seller".

Thanks again to all that tried to assist.

 

[pete y testing]

glad you got it sorted , have fun , use ch 153 as in my testing its the best

 

[penyekz]

I bought my pce-ac88 from the UK and wanting to use it in Singapore. I'm encountering the same problem. I can see the 2.4ghz networks but not the 5ghz ones. Is this a country/region issue? Do I need to return this and purchase a specific Asia version? Is there any settings/program I can use to change the region setting?

 

[penyekz]

I've actually tried reinstalling the driver, rebooting router and PC and it still can't see the 5ghz network. My 2.4ghz and "guest" networks are at full signals. My previous TP-link N card could use both 5 and 2.4 networks.