Compex WLE200NX at txpower 16.00 dBm?

Good Morning.

I have all the IPFires (APU.2E4) with Compex WLE200NX wifi cards and in Hostapd it tells me that they are with 16db.

Someone else happens?. It is normal?. If not, how to solve it?

Thanks a lot.

The maximum transmission power depends on various things, but mainly on the regulatory limitation. You get find this by running “iw reg get” on the console:

[root@fw01 ~]# iw reg get
global
country GB: DFS-ETSI
	(2402 - 2482 @ 40), (N/A, 20), (N/A)
	(5170 - 5250 @ 80), (N/A, 20), (N/A), AUTO-BW
	(5250 - 5330 @ 80), (N/A, 20), (0 ms), DFS, AUTO-BW
	(5490 - 5710 @ 160), (N/A, 27), (0 ms), DFS
	(57000 - 66000 @ 2160), (N/A, 40), (N/A)

phy#0
country US: DFS-FCC
	(2402 - 2472 @ 40), (N/A, 30), (N/A)
	(5170 - 5250 @ 80), (N/A, 23), (N/A), AUTO-BW
	(5250 - 5330 @ 80), (N/A, 23), (0 ms), DFS, AUTO-BW
	(5490 - 5730 @ 160), (N/A, 23), (0 ms), DFS
	(5735 - 5835 @ 80), (N/A, 30), (N/A)
	(57240 - 71000 @ 2160), (N/A, 40), (N/A)

Here you can see that for the GB domain, transmission power is limited to 20 dBm on most channels except everything from 5490 MHz which is also using 160 MHz channel width (which is unpractical at the moment).

Depending on where you are in the world you might be further limited. My card defaults to US where more transmission power is allowed, but you absolutely should not configure it to a different regulatory domain than your own.

Increasing transmission power is also usually not helping with a better wireless network. Imagine being in a very full coffee house and starting to shout because you cannot hear your conversation partner over the conversations of all the other people around you. They will need to talk louder too because they won’t be heard any more if you are getting louder. Therefore you are creating more packet collisions which causes more retransmissions which ultimately results in lower bandwidth.

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Hi Michael.

Thanks for your fast reply.

I have it configured in the following way:

And iw reg get show this:

[root@bs ~]# iw reg get
global
country ES: DFS-ETSI
        (2400 - 2483 @ 40), (N/A, 20), (N/A)
        (5150 - 5250 @ 80), (N/A, 23), (N/A), NO-OUTDOOR, AUTO-BW
        (5250 - 5350 @ 80), (N/A, 20), (0 ms), NO-OUTDOOR, DFS, AUTO-BW
        (5470 - 5725 @ 160), (N/A, 26), (0 ms), DFS
        (5725 - 5875 @ 80), (N/A, 13), (N/A)
        (57000 - 66000 @ 2160), (N/A, 40), (N/A)

phy#0
country US: DFS-FCC
        (2402 - 2472 @ 40), (N/A, 30), (N/A)
        (5170 - 5250 @ 80), (N/A, 23), (N/A), AUTO-BW
        (5250 - 5330 @ 80), (N/A, 23), (0 ms), DFS, AUTO-BW
        (5490 - 5730 @ 160), (N/A, 23), (0 ms), DFS
        (5735 - 5835 @ 80), (N/A, 30), (N/A)
        (57240 - 71000 @ 2160), (N/A, 40), (N/A)

[root@bs ~]#

I think that the Spanish regulation limits the power to 20db and not to 16db.

I think I remember that a long time ago I had them at 20db but as of I don’t know which version of IPFire it went down to 16db. I did not give importance but now I detect less wifi power.

Do you have to put something in HT Caps or VHT Caps for this wireless card ?.

Thank you so much for everything.

Saludos.

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As far as i remember it was Core 131. There was new regulatory data. Before, i confirm it was 20 dBm. I never cared about because there are so many WIFI arround and I have never a problem with 16 dBm. And i dont think that all the WIFI gets better if i blow out with 20 dBm :wink:

You can try anyway if you wish 17, 18, 19 or 20. (Tx Power)

Edit. Found it what i was talking about.

The wireless regulatory database has also been updated.

Thanks for reply.

Finally I´ve put US in Country Code because it give me 21db and HT Caps [HT40-][SHORT-GI-40][DSSS_CCK-40][TX-STBC][RX-STBC1]

ES and GB only give 16db, is very strange.

Regards.

As long as you not telling us what you have tried under Tx Power there is nothing strange. Atleast for me :wink:

If you have still auto,

and 21 max possible 30 US

and 16 max possible 20 ES

looks not impossible for me…

Jeje, No, I tried removing auto and putting 20 with the same result. It kept putting 16db.

But normally you use antennas with additional gain so even 16db is too high with the usual +5db antennas.

The limits are the same throughout the whole European Union. It makes things so much easier for us :slight_smile:

And I forgot to mention that your antenna has gain, too - as Arne has pointed out. That means that a longer antenna will amplify the signal and therefore you need to take this into account.

Usual WiFi antennas have 5 dBi gain which will bring you over 20 dBm already when the card is sending with 16 dBm.

Do NOT use the US code if you are not in the US. It will allow your radio module to send on other frequencies and change other things - the way the radar detection is searching for carrier signals for example.

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Try RU and then back to EU. Restart every time. This is how i resolved 16dB limit. Now i have 15 dB and antennas in xy and half z directions-much better signal. Lapot have horizontal antenna.