Tri-band 2/5/6 GHz router in the US

[salahcoronya]

I successfully build built a tri-band r2/5/6 GHzouter out of an old Mini PC (processor AMD E-350 Processor, quite old) with a 2 USB-3 ports. It already had a 2.4 GHz N card in it, which covers the 2.4 band. For the 5 and 6 GHz bands I tried the EDUP EP-AX1672 but it kept spamming the logs with "did not acknowledge authentication response" and would work intermittently at best. It would also disconnect and reconnect from USB on its own, requiring a hostapd restart. I returned it and got a NETGEAR Nighthawk AXE3000 WiFi 6E USB 3.0 Adapter (A8000-100PAS)(https://www.walmart.com/ip/NETGEAR-Nighthawk-AXE3000-WiFi-6E-USB-3-0-Adapter-A8000-100PAS/1457856595). It no longer spammed that error, but still occasionally disconnected. Upgrade to 6.12 solved the disconnect problem. I got it working with 5 GHz and later got another one for 6 GHz.

The setup is a mini PC running Gentoo Linux, along with 2 NETGEAR Nighthawk AXE3000 WiFi 6E USB 3.0 Adapters and 1 powered USB-A 3.0 hub with Ethernet. The 2.4 and 5 GHz bands were easy enough to get online (and with more understand, was able to increase the bandwidth). The 6 GHz was much more difficult, due to following 3 limitations:

1. The 6 GHz band is marked no-IR for the US regulatory domain
2. As of 1/17/2024, hostapd-2.10 is the latest version in Gentoo, and I needed hostapd-2.11 to work
3. The example 6e wouldn't work as is.

To deal with the first case, I adapted https://brunsware.de/blog/edit-wireless-regdb-regulatory-db to patch the regulatory DB and added a certificate to self-compiled kernel. The patching of the regulatory DB worked out of the box, but adding the certificate to the kernel (using sys-kernel/gentoo-kernel) required a few changed

To deal with the second care, I used a local overlay to add hostapd-2.11.

To deal with the third took a lot of trial and error. The hard part was figuring out the channels. It turns out "channel" needs to be to the 20 MHz control channel (the first channel for that class), "op_class" needs to be the corresponding value for the channel width (20 MHz = 131, 40 MHz = 132, 80 MHz = 133, etc, and "he_oper_centr_freq_seg0_idx" needs to be the center channel. Consulting List of WLAN channels, for an 80 MHz op_class and a center channel of 55, the control channel would be 49. and thus:

channel=49
op_class=133
he_oper_centr_freq_seg0_idx=55

This worked for hostapd 2.10, and it started up, but my cell phone (my only 6e device) would not see the SSID. I needed "he_6ghz_reg_pwr_type=0" to allow 6e devices to see the SSID, that wasn't in hostapd-2.10.

Here's the MINIMAL configuration for 6 GHz band (assuming a control channel of 49, 80 MHz op_class and center channel of 55)

interface=wlp1s0u2u2
hw_mode=a
channel=49
op_class=133
ieee80211d=1
country_code=US
country3=0x49
wmm_enabled=1
wme_enabled=1

# Security
ssid=YOUR_SSID
auth_algs=1
wpa=2
rsn_pairwise=CCMP CCMP-256 GCMP GCMP-256
wpa_key_mgmt=SAE
ieee80211w=2
sae_password=YOUR_PASSWORD
beacon_prot=1

# 8011.ax
ieee80211ax=1
he_oper_centr_freq_seg0_idx=55
he_6ghz_reg_pwr_type=0

hostapd also works very will with systemd-networkd. No dnsmasq needed. Systemd-networkd handles the wireless bridging, bringing up the interfaces, setting up the IP address, as well as assigning IP address with its built-in DHCP server. DNS is handled by BIND on a different server.

[morrownr]

@salahcoronya

Thanks for posting. You do good work.

I was aware that the example 6e likely would not work well. That is why the status is shown as alpha 1. That is why I do not link it to the Main Menu yet.

What I have been doing lately is working on a better 6e example:

https://github.com/morrownr/rtl8852cu-20240510/blob/main/hostapd-rtl8852cu.conf

That example is in the new repo for the rtl8852cu driver.

If you would like to work together on a really good example 6e, I'm up for it. Let me know.

I hate to hear you had problems with the Edup 1672, I have one and have used it a lot for AP mode but have not seen the error that you posted. Glad to hear the Netgear A8000 worked well. I do not have one of those adapters but it seems everyone I have talked to that has one has good things to say.

The 6 GHz was much more difficult, due to following 3 limitations:...

Yes, I am aware of this and it has slowed my progress at getting a solid example 6e posted. Now that I have a solid example 6e up for the rtl8852cu, I think it is time to get one up for the mt7921au. Many locations in the world will not have the no-IR that we currently have in the US so posting a good example 6e for mt7921au is a good thing. Something I need to be careful of posting how to work around the no-IR in the US as that appears to not fully comply with current rules and regulations regarding wireless operation. Did I work around regulations to do my example 6e for rtl8852cu? Yes but here is the story: The Realtek driver, as released by Realtek, does not comply with regulations. I had to work on the driver to get it in accordance with regulations. It is not clear to me why we are being restricted in the US.

hostapd also works very will with systemd-networkd. No dnsmasq needed. Systemd-networkd handles the wireless bridging, bringing up the interfaces, setting up the IP address, as well as assigning IP address with its built-in DHCP server.

I have had an example bridged AP guide up for a long time and a few years ago I moved to systemd-networkd after a lot of testing. It has performed well.

I would like to use the rtl8852cu example 6e as a template to get a good example up for mt7921au if you want to work with me on it. What do you think?

Regards

[salahcoronya]

Sure, I would be more than happy to. I posted a minimal configuration above for hostapd on the mt7921au for 6e in the above post . Other stuff can be added to optimize the connection.

They key parts:

1. The channel numbers needs to be the control channel - the 20 MHz channel at the top of the central band
2. The he_oper_centr_freq_seg0_idx value should be for the central channel
3. he_6ghz_reg_pwr_type option requires at least hostapd 2.11
4. If any of the minimal configuration is not present, either hostapd will refuse to start OR it will start but the SSID will be unavailable (won't appear/can't connect).

I needed neither disable_clc=1 nor ieee80211_regdom=US, even though at first it looked like everything was disabled, once hostapd started, it connect just fine and "iw list" appeared normal.