And if the FCC report of 29.7 dBm max Tx power for this router wasn't enough, I just did a quick test and flashed the original Bufallo firmware v1.77 (*), the one which is NOT based on DD-WRT. I can confirm I'm getting about 12 dB more received power compared to OpenWRT. That's on default settings, I didn't change anything in the Buffalo fw settings (I actually didn't find an option to change the Tx power in the Buffalo fw). You can do this test too, e.g. use an Android phone with Wifi analyzer.

So it is indeed capable of a lot more than 15 dBm. jow's latest reply above made me a bit sad but now that there is proof, can the devs please look into this?

I can't use the Bufallo/DD-WRT fw as I need Radius support for wired which only OpenWRT can provide cleanly via wpa-supplicant, otherwise I'd ditch OpenWRT. My next router will probably not have an Atheros 9k wifi chip. Can anyone confirm which routers can reach real 20 dBm or beyond via OpenWRT?

(*) if you wish to do the same test, make sure you download the Buffalo fw from your region. I was not able to flash the v1.78 fw from the USA downloads website; the router rejects it with an "invalid region" error. I had to flash the v1.77 from the Europe region downloads as my router was purchased from UK. You need to flash it via the tftp method -- I flashed the dd-wrt pro version first via tftp and then the buffalo v1.77 from the dd-wrt web gui.

(Last edited by mastabog on 11 Aug 2013, 19:02)

buy a 4W WIFI amplifier from ebay

you may not realise but these replies are not contributing anything to the current topic's issue, to say the least

(Last edited by mastabog on 11 Aug 2013, 19:01)

100% ACK. I would wish that the developers solve this problem, too. In all other things the WZR-HP-AG300H is a powerful and stable unit, but a loss of power only for fw-error isn't good. I need openWRT, too, as it works flawless and with option I can't get on original-fw or on ddwrt.

you guys can try the 'iw' binary from dd-wrt if it behaves differently than the iw binary from openwrt. Maybe this is just a tool issue. Should work copying it from dd-wrt.

I think the issue is with the driver, not the iw binary. Regardless, I already pointed out a thread on the Buffalo forums where many report that dd-wrt has the same issues. The Buffallo fw does not, which was also reported by others in that thread.

(Last edited by mastabog on 11 Aug 2013, 20:56)

Hmm. Today I've seen another problem: on 5GHz I could only use channels 36,40,44 and 48 regardless of what is set as "Country Code". What's that? In Europe there are 19 channels allowed.

already seen this?

http://luci.subsignal.org/~jow/reghack/

Of course. It's running, but it changes nothing. 4 channels, not more.

Did you leave the country code at its default value? Did you reboot after applying the patch?

I've tried DE, GB and 00. Of course with rebooting. At the moment the unit is running on GB. Luci is giving me only 36, 40, 44 and 48. Version is BB r37892. Some output of iw list:

[...]
        Frequencies:
            * 5180 MHz [36] (20.0 dBm)
            * 5200 MHz [40] (20.0 dBm)
            * 5220 MHz [44] (20.0 dBm)
            * 5240 MHz [48] (20.0 dBm)
            * 5260 MHz [52] (20.0 dBm) (radar detection)
              DFS state: usable (for 2389623 sec)
            * 5280 MHz [56] (20.0 dBm) (radar detection)
              DFS state: usable (for 2389623 sec)
            * 5300 MHz [60] (20.0 dBm) (radar detection)
              DFS state: usable (for 2389623 sec)
            * 5320 MHz [64] (20.0 dBm) (radar detection)
              DFS state: usable (for 2389623 sec)
            * 5500 MHz [100] (27.0 dBm) (radar detection)
              DFS state: usable (for 2389623 sec)
            * 5520 MHz [104] (27.0 dBm) (radar detection)
              DFS state: usable (for 2389623 sec)
            * 5540 MHz [108] (27.0 dBm) (radar detection)
              DFS state: usable (for 2389623 sec)
            * 5560 MHz [112] (27.0 dBm) (radar detection)
              DFS state: usable (for 2389623 sec)
            * 5580 MHz [116] (27.0 dBm) (radar detection)
              DFS state: usable (for 2389623 sec)
            * 5600 MHz [120] (27.0 dBm) (radar detection)
              DFS state: usable (for 2389623 sec)
            * 5620 MHz [124] (27.0 dBm) (radar detection)
              DFS state: usable (for 2389623 sec)
            * 5640 MHz [128] (27.0 dBm) (radar detection)
              DFS state: usable (for 2389623 sec)
            * 5660 MHz [132] (27.0 dBm) (radar detection)
              DFS state: usable (for 2389623 sec)
            * 5680 MHz [136] (27.0 dBm) (radar detection)
              DFS state: usable (for 2389623 sec)
            * 5700 MHz [140] (27.0 dBm) (radar detection)
              DFS state: usable (for 2389623 sec)
            * 5745 MHz [149] (disabled)
            * 5765 MHz [153] (disabled)
            * 5785 MHz [157] (disabled)
            * 5805 MHz [161] (disabled)
            * 5825 MHz [165] (disabled)

(Last edited by naturelle on 8 Sep 2013, 16:04)

So no default. After applying reghack remove the country option completely.

Ok, thank you. Without any country-option I got this after rebooting:

[...]
        Frequencies:
            * 5180 MHz [36] (30.0 dBm)
            * 5200 MHz [40] (30.0 dBm)
            * 5220 MHz [44] (30.0 dBm)
            * 5240 MHz [48] (30.0 dBm)
            * 5260 MHz [52] (30.0 dBm)
            * 5280 MHz [56] (30.0 dBm)
            * 5300 MHz [60] (30.0 dBm)
            * 5320 MHz [64] (30.0 dBm)
            * 5500 MHz [100] (30.0 dBm)
            * 5520 MHz [104] (30.0 dBm)
            * 5540 MHz [108] (30.0 dBm)
            * 5560 MHz [112] (30.0 dBm)
            * 5580 MHz [116] (30.0 dBm)
            * 5600 MHz [120] (30.0 dBm)
            * 5620 MHz [124] (30.0 dBm)
            * 5640 MHz [128] (30.0 dBm)
            * 5660 MHz [132] (30.0 dBm)
            * 5680 MHz [136] (30.0 dBm)
            * 5700 MHz [140] (30.0 dBm)
            * 5745 MHz [149] (30.0 dBm)
            * 5765 MHz [153] (30.0 dBm)
            * 5785 MHz [157] (30.0 dBm)
            * 5805 MHz [161] (30.0 dBm)
            * 5825 MHz [165] (30.0 dBm)
[...]
        Frequencies:
            * 2412 MHz [1] (30.0 dBm)
            * 2417 MHz [2] (30.0 dBm)
            * 2422 MHz [3] (30.0 dBm)
            * 2427 MHz [4] (30.0 dBm)
            * 2432 MHz [5] (30.0 dBm)
            * 2437 MHz [6] (30.0 dBm)
            * 2442 MHz [7] (30.0 dBm)
            * 2447 MHz [8] (30.0 dBm)
            * 2452 MHz [9] (30.0 dBm)
            * 2457 MHz [10] (30.0 dBm)
            * 2462 MHz [11] (30.0 dBm)
            * 2467 MHz [12] (30.0 dBm)
            * 2472 MHz [13] (30.0 dBm)
            * 2484 MHz [14] (disabled)

But now iwinfo gives me this output-power (I only want to get the allowed power, I guess it's 20dBm):

wlan0     ESSID: "net"
          Access Point: ---
          Mode: Master  Channel: 11 (2.462 GHz)
          Tx-Power: 15 dBm  Link Quality: unknown/70
[...]
wlan1     ESSID: "net"
          Access Point: ---
          Mode: Master  Channel: 48 (5.240 GHz)
          Tx-Power: 17 dBm  Link Quality: unknown/70

So what is the correct setting for power? Also nothing? Or 30? Or what?

And another question: why are the Buffalo Airstation WZR-HP-AG300h and the D-Link DIR-825 b1 only showing a max. power of 19dBm on 2.4GHz, while the Netgear WNDR3700v1 is showing 26dBm direclty after restart (without tx-power or country-code setting in any conf-file)?

jow?

Probably different eeprom presets. The 26dBm on the wndr3700 are meaningless though, they're not real.

I found the Buffalo forum link in Post #18 to be dead, but I was able to find this -- http://forums.buffalotech.com/index.php … 9#msg60549

I think maybe I should give up trying to get more dbm out of this router whether on DD-WRT, OpenWRT, or the OEM firmware.  Also installing FW on atheros is always problematic.  It is so touchy, and if you turn off or reboot the device while it is setting up its services on boot (can take up to 10 minutes) you will have to start from again from a factory reset.

Do you guys have a suggested alternative dual-band router compatible with open source FW that allows 27dBm+ power out?

(Last edited by onix on 21 Apr 2014, 18:37)