Just wanted to add my support for this feature, please add it as fast as you can.

I owndered which wifi analysers people are using, any recommendations?

@Phelpsy This is simply madness.  Just did a scan and my mesh is on exactly the same channel as every person in my building.  How can that be optimised?  Add a manual channel selection come on now!

I've got the Tenda MW6 and the issue is the same across the board with them so if you're looking to move to something better in that respect then don't bother. They have fixed channels at either ch40 for 5GHz or ch6 for 2.4GHz so not even an automatic channel mode. Not a particularly sensible move I believe.

I did a Network Diag on my Mac and it said I should change my 5GHz to ch161 and 2.4GHz to channel 11 as particularly the 5GHz channel is "congested". Kind of cheeses me off so I thought I would consider something different than the Tenda as it's very choppy and changeable to the point you can stand 10ft from the main Mesh hub and you can sometimes get 30mbps on a 350mbps Virgin cable line and sometimes 180mbps. I got 290mpbs once. Seems like you guys are having a similar issue with Tp-Link!

All I want is a decent mesh that ideally lets me choose the channel (seems like a basic function for any router) or at least offers a functional automatic mode but it doesn't sound like TP-Link's is working at all from what i've read here. Wow..

Interestingly though, I did a LAN test and I don't appear to really have any congestion from anyone around here at all. The only other network I can see is operating on ch11 and it's around 12% strength. I wonder why the Diags thinks channel 40 is congested when it's just me using it. Maybe it's the three overall mesh hubs that is confusing it. I wish this stuff just worked.

I read this thread from the start and I suspect that although there was some involvement from a TP-Link person here some pages back, they probably got told that R&D are either not going to allow users to change the channel themselves, ever.. or that it wasn't actually possible to make that change. That in my experience is when these manufacturers go silent and just ignore the users and concentrate on all these glowing reviews they get from the magazines and people that have had them for half an hour. When reality hits, we get the door shoved in our faces and ignored from then on.

Shame, I was just about to pull the trigger on a set here in the Uk. Their loss not mine..

FYI. Tenda have a good customer services it would seem and are very attentive. I think i'll stick with this for a while or look elsewhere..

@Stevieruss 

The reason the only channel that's showing as crowded is because ALL the APs in your network are broadcasting on it. Enough spectrum to use 3 different 40mhz bonded channels, and yet TP-Link has decided theyre all gonna overlap with no option to change that. 

Like has anyone over there even read the basics of RF networking?

😩 oh well. As soon as Ubiquiti's Wifi 6 AP lites are back in stock on the early access store, I'm ditching this system.

OH! And bonus, I just found out that even the latest X20s with wifi 6 don't even support 256 or 1024 QAM, so theyre effectively kneecaping you to 802.11ac rates anyway.

This stuff is definitely not for Prosumers.

@matmatician1 

Thanks.

So are you saying that a system that allows channel changing may allow that change per AP?

I am suffering from this issue too. Please add features to able to change wifi channel. 

This tread is already more than a year old since people start to ask for this feature. Nothing happened at TP LINK.

I bought a M5 yesterday and now i came across this issue also. I am living in a city with around 14 wifi's signals surrouning me.. And channel 9 en 10 are by far the best to choose.. But my M5 Deco chooses 3, the same as a neighbour.. How can this be the best channel!?!?!?!

Thinking of returning this piece of sh*t. I know i dont ask for much features in a wifi mesh configuration but come on.. a simple channel ID selection is not too much to ask is it?!

@Tukker 

buy the Netgear Orbi and be done with it. 

Just bought 3 x P9 devices. First day was perfect and there are signs that this could be an outstanding product at a very reasonable price. One day later, the wifi loves gravitating to the busiest channels when there are a number of clear channels available. I want to fix the channel to a static one for both the 2.5 Ghz and 5Ghz signials so that others in the area move away from it. Everyone in the neighbourhood is set to auto channel selection so you can see why this might be my preference. The interfering wifis at the back of the house are different form those at the front. So, rather than have the P9s jiggle around all over the place with auto selection, it could be better my grouop of P9s to become the single loudest static wifi channel in the area, forcing every other wifi to say away from that channel. Make sense?

Two things we need from R&D:

1. Channel control on the app.

2. Some view of speeds and traffic between individual P9 devices. I want to check the throughput from one P9 device to another to check efficiency and that the backhaul is working etc.

These are pretty basic things and would make a huge difference in determining the reasons for issues and correcting them across the mesh. The HomePlug backhaul may be efficient or not. Who knows until I can see it?

One last point: It's not clear from the documentation how best to accommodate my wired network alongside my new P9s which are in Router mode. I have my wired network plugged into an ethernet port of the router itself (Virgin ISP with a singe router device - not a separate modem). However, both the router and the P9s have DHCP turned on and I'm concerned about potential for IP address conflicts. The P9s work on the subnet 255.255.255.0 and my Virgin router works on the same subnet. 

So, how should I install a wired network alongside my P9 mesh?

Thanks in advance for your interest and reply.

@Internetworker 

R&D: Rest & Donothing