A heads up: The BT TV Pro Box CAN use the 5ghz DFS WiFi channels!

[c64z86]

I wasn't sure whether to post this in the TV section or not, but I think this section is the best as it is not a problem I am reporting:

I read on here that the TV Pro Box cannot even seen any 5ghz channels higher than 48.

Ever since then there must have been some updated applied to it, as my box is connecting fine at channel 100!

It even connected when I changed to channel 128 on my router (But that takes 10 minutes for the router to set up and scan for weather radar, whereas the lower DFS channels just take around 60 seconds to set up).

So if you don't live near any radar stations at all, feel free to switch your router to the DFS 100-128 channel, enjoy the higher range and cleaner section of the 5ghz band, and be happy knowing that the Pro TV Box will still connect to it!

Please note that using the DFS channels on your router will make it consume more power, because it can now use up to 1000mW to transmit on this higher frequency 5ghz band. So if you are very power conscious, you might want to keep it on the lower channels. Also some older 5ghz devices cannot connect to and use these bands.

This also mainly applies to those using 3rd party routers, as the SH2 is not able to use these bands.

[c64z86]

Update: I can also confirm that all IPTV Sky channels and all apps are still fully working, with the BT TV Pro Box being connected to WiFi DFS channel 100!

[rbz5416]

Sounds like the thread I put up a couple of years back describing this apparent behaviour. Sadly it received no response, even from the BT employees that were tagged. So whether that was indeed the case or some other element of the general Pro Box WiFi flakiness is anyone's guess. Especially given BT's refusal to publish a change log alongside their updates.

For what it's worth, I'm currently connected by WiFi using a Deco M5 mesh system, that bizarrely doesn't allow manual selection of WiFi channels, so it's stuck on 36. Luckily there's little competing traffic from my neighbours. Although I did lose connectivity a while back & had great difficulty getting it to reconnect, having to resort to multiple attempts at WPS in the end.

Having looked at a number of other mesh systems it seems that manual control of WiFi channels is rare. Of the major players only the very expensive ASUS systems seem to allow it. Everyone else relies on auto-scanning the environment, although it's questionable whether T-Link's products even do that for 5GHz. They appear to be fixed at channel 36 which of course pretty much everything else defaults to, including Sky Q.

[c64z86]

Yeah, yours was the only thread I could find about the BT TV Box and Wifi channel selection. Sadly it doesn't seem like it's an interesting topic to too many on here 😛

At least we know definitively know that it does support those higher channels! 🙂

Ah I don't use mesh, just one good router! The TP-Link Xe72. The cheaper AX55 also supports channel selection! 

I was almost tempted to get the Axe73, which supports 6ghz in addition to the other 2 bands as it was only £15 more, but I don't have anything that makes use of it, and 6ghz Wifi 6e devices seem to be rare. So I'll just wait until Wifi 7 becomes a lot cheaper before I jump on that train.

[rbz5416]

I originally found the issue when switching from a Netgear WAP that didn't support the extended channels  to a second Fritzbox running as a mesh AP that did. What really screwed things up was the Pro Box simply hanging at startup & requiring a full reset instead of reporting an issue with WiFI. That made further troubleshooting impractical so I never truly got to the bottom of it.

[c64z86]

Hmm did both of these 2 networks have the same name?

If they did, I can see the box as maybe getting confused at seeing the same network on different channels, panicked, tried to connect to both of them and then froze up.

Or it could be that it just was very buggy with the DFS channels in general, and whatever has been pushed out since then in firmware has fixed it?

[c64z86]

I'm almost tempted to say try it out again, to see if it would now work for you, if you still have that mesh gear and if you don't mind another full reset if things go wrong? 😛

[rbz5416]

Yes, I've maintained the same SSID for probably 10 years across maybe half a dozen different bits of hardware. But there was only one SSID in operation as the WAP was simply repeating WiFi setting from the router. So the Pro Box should simply have seen the same SSID but on a different channel & carried on like every other piece of kit on my network.

As I said, the Deco can't change channel manually so I couldn't try it anyway. Not that I would given how painful the whole experience was back then!

All academic now but useful to know it appears to be fixed.

[c64z86]

I would give your comment a kudos, but for some strange reason we can't give those out on our own threads lol. So here is a doubly virtual one: 👍

[rbz5416]

Kudos are disabled in The Lounge board.