How to force country code to be X1
Hi,
How can I force the broadcast country code to be "X1"?
(Router model: Archer C7 - AC1750 - v5)
I'm in India and bought the router from TP-LINK official seller from Amazon, but sometimes, the 2G band country code is broadcast as "CN" instead of "X1".
This causes a problem in my macbook pro beacuse the macbook automatically decides on what channels to allow based on the country code broadcasted by the wifi it's connected to. I've attached screenshots below. Sometimes, when I turn on the macbook, I see the country code correctly broadcast as "X1", but other times it's "CN".
Because of this, several region-specific 5G bands in my mbp is missing. This is the reason why I was not able to connect to 5G consistently as I complained here: https://community.tp-link.com/en/home/forum/topic/172722.
Finally got to the bottom of this issue and the solution seems to be to change the region or force the region of the router to be X1 or some region that has channels 46-48 for 5G. If I can make the router always broadcast "X1" as country code, then everything will work fine and my laptop will be able to connect to 5G consistently.
MBP wifi system settings when router broadcasts country code as "X1":
MBP wifi system settings when router broadcasts country code as "CN": (as you can see, there are missing channels in this! so 5G band is NOT picked up by the MBP at all!)
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Thanks for your reply; we did a test with MacBook Pro at our lab, and found that actually it has nothing to do with Archer C7, instead, it is related to the wifi adapter built in the MBP itself. Reasons are listed as below:
1. First, we connect our MBP(country code of the wifi card is CN) to a wifi (country code is CN)
2. Second the Archer C7 V5 has cancelled the country code info on the beacon frame. Below is a picture you can see(we take A7 as example):
3. Instead, the counrty code shows the country code of the wifi card itself, no matter what country code the connected wifi is. See pic attached.
A. The none country code A7 wifi shows CN once we connected to it.
B. The country code of Deco is US, while once we connected to it, it turns to CN.
So all in all, the country code shows this info of the wifi card itself, not the router; you can contact the tech support of the Apple to get some help.
Good day.
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Hi, thanks for the detailed reply, Kevin.
I have a few questions:
- Why would the router broadcast CN as country code?
- Even if CN was not working in macbook pro, it's clear that the router also broadcasts a different country for which MBP does show channels 36-48. So, it's not an issue of the laptop that the channels are not supported. MBP can technically support all channels, but automatically decides on the channels to use based on the region. FWIW, I'm running the latest MBP update and bought the laptop here in India from an official Apple authorized seller. Also, the region settings in my MBP is set to India.
- Is there any other way for me to check whether I can force the router to display specific country code?
- I've read several posts on apple forums and other websites where they have mentioned that it's the broadcaster's problem (i.e, router misconfigured with wrong code) since all the MBP does it pick up the strongest signal and use the country code broadcasted by it.
--https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6665548
--https://www.howtogeek.com/211993/how-to-fix-conflicting-country-codes-and-improve-your-macs-wi-fi/
---the part where it says "When it wakes up, it scans for nearby Wi-Fi networks and the country code information tells the Mac which Wi-Fi settings it should use for this area. It appears that the Mac uses the country code from the first network it finds broadcasting this information.". This proves that the channels set on the MBP depend on the router's broadcast code.
--here is another discussion confirming the above claim: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/9768/change-mac-os-x-wireless-card-country-code
--another discussion: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/my-macs-country-code-is-wrong-wifi-issues.1990925/ - "The country code is determined by the router that is used. ... The wifi channel, again, is determined by the router that you connect to. You would change the radio channel on your router. Your Mac cannot change the channel, you have to do that on the router, usually through the web access app that you use to change other settings on your router.".
-Essentially, if the wifi card is problematic, then I should never be able to pick up 5GHz bands at all, right? yet, why does it wary for each connection? and thus, the root of the inconsistent 5GHz connection.
-Finally, do you want me to perform any other additional tests that would give you some more information?
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@ArcherC
I've yet to try any of the code modifying changes reported in some of the online forums. But I have tried setting all the locations correctly as some posts suggest.
In my tp-link router, I can only see channels 36 to 48 for 5GHz and the auto defaults to 36 (at least from what I have observed so far). But, I'm surprised there are no country settings like the one given in here: https://www.tp-link.com/us/support/faq/105/. So, naturally, if I set the channel to be 40 and if the MBP picks up the code as "CN", no 5GHz wifi will be displayed. Scan results will also return '0' 5GHz bands since in "CN" mode, only bands over 149 are "supported" by MBP. (Note: support in the sense, MBP decides that since it's in some specific region, that it's not supposed to connect to bands 36 to 48).
I still don't think it's the issue of the laptop since I am able to connect to 5GHz - just not consistently (i.e, when MBP picks up CN code from the router).
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I'm afraid that there is some misunderstanding due to my description.
For the first picture, we take a router which country code is CN to do the test on our MBP, which country code is CN too; So as you see, the country code shows CN after they connected.
For the country code of Archer C7, cause you are in India, the country version is EU, so the country code is DE, not CN; and this info has been cancelled on the beacon frame of the router, that is the reason why you cannot see the country code on picture 2.
While once we connect the MBP with country code CN to the A7's wifi, the country code info shows CN, the same as the MBP.
To verify it, we took Deco M5 as a comparison analysis. Using Wireless Diagnostics, we can see that the country code of Deco M5 is US(P4), the result is that the country code shows CN as the MBP itself once we connect to it, like Picture 5.
Besides, I do read the links attached, there did have some feedback, while on the one hand, C7's country code is DE ONLY, no other different country code, so there is no conflicts; and the first person shared his experience that the country code shows JP which is the same as his MAC mini's(computer) wifi card, even though the country code of the Airport Extreme (router)is TW; What is more, the brand and model number of the routers involved in this issue varies and differ from each other;
One more thing, we try to search the country code X1, but no related results appeared.
So we still agreed that it has something to do with the MBP itself. It is very suggested to contact the tech support of Apple to get some help.
If there is something we can do, please let us know.
Good day.
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I understand the photos you have attached in your previous post. The only surprise I have is that bands 36-48 are also displayed for country code "CN", other than that, I do not have any other misunderstanding.
>"while on the one hand, C7's country code is DE ONLY, no other different country code, so there is no conflicts;"
If so, why am I getting "CN" as country code sometimes?
There have been many mentions in the links I've attached that the wifi card's model can't be country restricted in MBP. Just think about it, a laptop is meant to be carried everywhere and anywhere - what is the point of locking something in the hardware level - especially for wifi essentially restricting internet connectivity? So, because of this, I'm saying that MBP's hardware is not at fault here. Besides, you are ignoring my point that this issue happens only _sometimes_. If the problem was with conflicting country code in the MBP's hardware, this should happen _everytime_.
Ok, leaving everything aside, why doesn't this model of the router have an option to specifically set the country code?
The only option left for me to try is to flash openwrt or some sort of OSS and try to force the router to broadcast only EU region.
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That is the point--why the country code shows CN. As you know, the country code showing there is the same as the wifi card of the MBP no matter what wifi it is connected, that is the reason why we recommend you to contact the MBP to get some help.
I understand what you said, while the products sold in different countries are different, they need obey the local regulations and laws, in some countries, some bands of 5GHz is not available. So the hardware varies even it is the same model.
Besides, the country code of the device is limited and unchangeable. As I mentioned above, regulations and laws.
All in all, it is very suggested to contact the tech support of Apple to get some help.
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Use the MAC's built in WIFI scan tool so you can see the country code before you connect to the router. Power cycle the router, with WIFI on, press and hold the option key and click the WIFI symbol in upper right hand corner, click 'open wire diagnostics', do not click 'continue', instead click 'window' in upper left and in the drop down, click 'Scan', you will get a list of all of the WIFI channels and at the far right it will list country code.
If it shows wrong counrty code before you connect, then it would appear not to be the MAC.
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Hi
I don't know if this is your problem, or whether you have already solved it, but I had similar issues with my old MacBook (2008), and came across this on the Deco page;
https://community.tp-link.com/en/home/forum/topic/200398
Good luck!
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@petereh Hey! thanks for the tip! I'll check it out!
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