Radio Channel's in AirPort Utility

The controls that you need are available.

Open AirPort Utility

Click on the AirPort Extreme to select it

Click Edit in the smaller window that appears

Click the Wireless tab at the top of the next window

Click the Wireless Options button near the bottom of the window

Click on the 5 GHz Channel selection box and drop down menu will appear with available 5 GHz channels

Choose one of the lower numbered channels to begin.....36, 40, 44, etc. Actual channels numbers may be different where you live.

Hi Jake253

I am in Australia so at least we have that in common. And you should have no issues selecting channels.

For Q2 we should have asked what OS you are running. The only one that really could be an issue is catalina.

Do you have iphone or ipad available that you can download iOS version of the airport utility? It is often better than Airport utility in the Mac in functionality terms if not layout. Or even the windows version which loudly proclaims incompatibility but still work for functions that are allowed, like changing channels.

Is the Airport the main router? Is it setup to extend wireless.. that is the one scenario where the channels are locked?

When you go to the wireless options tab what are you seeing?

I am running the gen5 AC Time Capsule so equivalent to the Gen6 Extreme. Mine happens to be set to the US but I can actually change that back to Australia.. makes no difference to the channels.

I can get you greater controls over the airport.. it is a bit complicated and with the Airports now several years old may not be worth messing around.

But the controls are definitely there.

I would try a factory reset .. configure again with very short names, no spaces and pure alphanumerics. Setup a different name for the 5ghz band. If that doesn't get you in post the setup details with some screenshots.. or talk to me direct.

rayhav@gmail.com

Another important question to add to the list from Bob..

4) Which country are you in? Did you buy the airport router locally?

Each country have a set of rules about which channels can be used.

I really think your issue is NOT the airport if other devices are using the 5ghz but the wireless card in the PC.

We don't know......

1) What model of AirPort Extreme that you have......the "tall" or "tower" shaped version......or......an older "flat" or "square" version of the AirPort Extreme that looks like a small white pizza box.

2) What version of AirPort Utility you are using with the AirPort Extreme.......the Mac version, the PC version, or the iPhone / iPad version.

3) Whether you have set up the AirPort Extreme to use the same wireless network name for both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz signals (which is the default setting for the AirPort), or whether you have assigned a different name for the 5 GHz signal.

If you could provide some answers for 1), 2), and 3), we can likely help you.

Hi its me jake253 (for some reason couldn't log into my other account). Thanks for replying answers below.

1. I have the tall tower the last one they made before discontinuing and its AC compatible.
2. Mac version of AirPort Utility.
3. I have done both. I have it setup to utilise both and my Asus AC53 USB dongle will only connect to the 2.4ghz channel. I then also setup a seperate 5GHz channel and the AC53 will see other 5GHz networks in my building but not the one created by my AirPort. I believe this is because Asus wont recognise the 5ghz within certain channels thus the desire to change this.
4. Australia and I bought it locally.
5. It is a known issue that Asus only recognise 5ghz within certain channels but rather than buy a new dongle or router I wanted to see if I could simply change the channel range to resolve first.

Thanks in advance for your support

Thank you. I used the iOS version of AirPort utility and was able to change the channel. This solved my issue and my PC now connects to 5ghz. Appreciate the help.