Question Help selecting a router: DFS Support That Broadcasts 5G on 2 Channels simultaneously

Jan 11, 2023
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Hello,

I'm looking for a router that I can stand up behind an AT&T BGW320-505 gateway running in passthrough mode and I thought I'd stop by here to see if anyone could help me.

The BGW gateway has 2.4G, 5G, and 6G radios. In particular, it broadcasts on two channels simultaneously on the 5G band under the same SSID. On my BGW, a different SSID is assigned to the 2.4G band, and there is currently no SSID assigned to the 6G band. AT&T prohibits users from selecting 5G channel(s) manually and from disabling DFS channel selection. I have two Roku TVs that do not support DFS channels because of the way their wifi remote works. Thus, whenever the BGS switches channels such that both are DFS, my TVs disconnect. (Roku's non-support for DFS is a common complaint among its users.)

I'd like a router that I can stand up behind the BGW that supports both the 2.4G and 5G bands (I'm less concerned about 6G at the moment). I'd like to be able to specify two 5G channels, and I'd like to be able to specify at least one of them as a DFS channel. Ideally, I'd like to be able to ask the router to choose the "best" 5G channel among all channels available, including DFS, for one of the channels, but I'd like to be able to select a non-DFS channel for the other one. This way, my clients that can "see" DFS channels can enjoy the lower congestion on DFS channels if one is selected and my TV stays connected.

Apologies for the long-winded explanation. I'm not a technical guy and I wanted to be clear about what I'm looking for.

Is such a router available? Do my requirements make sense? Any feedback or advice would be appreciated.

Thanks for any help.
 
Maybe just run the tv on 2.4g it should not need the bandwidth.

Unless they added a new gateway the gdw320-505 does not run on 6g. It only runs normal wifi6 not wifi6e.

My guess is the restriction is related to the support of wifi6 which requires 160mhz radio bands and the only way to do that is to use the restricted radio channels.

Most routers allow you to set the channels. Maybe buy a inexpensive router and use it as a AP and let the ATT be your main router and provide wifi to other devices. I would read the online manual to be sure you can set the channels but most router I have ever seen allow it.

You have to keep the ATT box anyway you might as well use it.

Note DFS is no longer lower congestion. You have massive numbers of people both running wifi6 as well as running mesh system which use every possible channel block.

You would have to go to wifi6e to avoid congestion but I am sure that in only temporary until everyone has 6g radio support and we start seeing mesh unit using all the possible bands on that radio.
 
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Jan 11, 2023
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Maybe just run the tv on 2.4g it should not need the bandwidth.

Unless they added a new gateway the gdw320-505 does not run on 6g. It only runs normal wifi6 not wifi6e.

My guess is the restriction is related to the support of wifi6 which requires 160mhz radio bands and the only way to do that is to use the restricted radio channels.

Most routers allow you to set the channels. Maybe buy a inexpensive router and use it as a AP and let the ATT be your main router and provide wifi to other devices. I would read the online manual to be sure you can set the channels but most router I have ever seen allow it.

You have to keep the ATT box anyway you might as well use it.

Note DFS is no longer lower congestion. You have massive numbers of people both running wifi6 as well as running mesh system which use every possible channel block.

You would have to go to wifi6e to avoid congestion but I am sure that in only temporary until everyone has 6g radio support and we start seeing mesh unit using all the possible bands on that radio.
Thanks for the quick reply.

For now, I'll leave the TV connected at 2.4G and see what happens. The BGW works fine for all my other clients. I'd acquire a new router solely to provide a 5G connection to the TV.

If I understand your response correctly, you're saying that if that's all I need, I should consider configuring a cheap router that allows 5G channel selection as an access point and continue to use the BGW for all routing tasks, and to connect all of my clients except the TV to the BGW. That's a great idea given the BGW works well for everything but the TV. I need to look up how to do that to avoid conflicts, but I'm sure I could figure that out. I never thought about doing it that way, primarily because everyone talks about completely neutering the BGW in favor of another router to handle everything. In my case, I don't need that.

I take your point on congestion on DFS channels, especially looking into the future, but I will say that around my house there is almost no congestion on DFS channels right now, so it's worthwhile having DFS channels available to my clients that can use it.

I'm not sure I understand your comments about 6G. I'm not using it right now so 6G is not a big deal, but I do recall the AT&T tech telling my that the BGW was 6G-capable if I every got 'hold of a 6G client.
 
You have to be careful to not confuse wifi6 which only uses the 5G radio and wifi6e which uses a 6G radio. That really is the only difference between wifi6 and wifi6e.
I can't be sure but the stuff I see on gdw320-505 does not say it has a 6g radio chip.

A lot of people that replace ISP routers are relying on very old information. Used to be ISP routers lacked a lot of features and really old ones used lower power radio chips. Now days the ISP routers are as powerful if not more than mid priced consumer routers.
Att was offering wifi6 getting close to 2 yrs ago now when only high end consumer routers offered it.

Now if you need say VPN or some other very advanced firewalls stuff then the ISP routers generally can't do that. There is also the concern that the ISP can get into the router even if you change the passwords.... not sure if that is true or not. They can and do update the firmware since you can not do that yourself.