North American devices with UK/European WiFi access point

Shawn Lukaschuk

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Nov 5, 2012
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Wife just went to UK with the following Canadian devices:
  • HTC 8S
  • Surface RT (8.1 preview)
  • Apple iPhone 4S
  • Apple ipod touch (older)

The wifi access point where they are staying must be using channel 12 or 13 (not allowed in North America) because the Surface and Windows Phone can not see it. (Although they can see other access points in the neighbourhood). The two apple devices see and easily connect to the access point that the MS OS devices will not connect to.


Anyone know how to get these devices to use the unlawful channels?

  1. Microsoft just says that they are not allowed to and that's all there is to it. (But how do the apple devices do it?)
  2. There appears to be a registry change you can make in Win8 (and RT) to get the wifi driver to use the channels, but I cant get my wife to do that.
  3. From what I have read, I don't think changing the region settings on the device makes a difference (I think my wife tried it, but not 100% sure)
  4. Modifying the access point channels setting is out as well.

Anyone solved this problem themselves?
 

QuadraFX

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Feb 11, 2013
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Hi,

Wikipedia states : (List of WLAN channels - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

In the USA, 802.11 operation in the channels 12 and 13 are actually allowed under low powered conditions. The 2.4 GHz Part 15 band in the US allows spread-spectrum operation as long as the 50-dB bandwidth of the signal is within the range of 2,400–2,483.5 MHz[10] which wholly encompasses both channels 12 and 13. A Federal Communications Commission (FCC) document clarifies that only channel 14 is forbidden and furthermore low-power transmitters with low-gain antennas may legally operate in channels 12 and 13.[11] However, channels 12 and 13 are not normally used in order to avoid any potential interference in the adjacent restricted frequency band, 2,483.5–2,500 MHz,[12] which is subject to strict emission limits set out in 47 CFR ?15.205.[13]
In Canada, 12 channels are available for use, 11 of which at full power and the other (channel 12) is transmit power limited. However, few devices have a method to enable a lower powered channel 12

So I guess Microsoft devices just do not use these channels and Apple ones use them in the allowed way.
 

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