How to change the channel of Mercury Tenda router? WiFi gets stuck at night, just change this "auto" to manual selection and it will be fine

There is a weird problem with the couple's WiFi upstairs.: I browse videos smoothly during the day, but start spinning around at 8:30 in the evening. It’s the worst around 10 o’clock, and I can’t even see pictures. Theirs is a Mercury D191G paired with a Tenda AC10 to bridge the bedroom signal. I have used both machines. My first reaction was that it was a broadband problem. I called customer service and checked the line, but everything was fine. ； My second reaction was that the router was old and I needed to replace it with a new one, so I almost placed an order. Later, I installed a WiFi analysis app on my phone and scanned it around, and the problem was revealed immediately - the 2.4G of the two routers were all crowded on channel 6, and there were four neighboring households on this road. Everyone came back to surf the Internet at night, and seven cars were squeezed into one lane. It would be strange if there was no jamming.

In the end, it didn't cost a penny.: Go backstage and change the channel's "automatic" to manual, pin the empty one, and it won't be stuck that night. Today, I will write down the channel entrances, change order, and "automatic" pitfalls of Mercury and Tenda. The WiFi at home gets stuck at night, so check this article first before considering spending money.

Let’s first put “faith” into adult terms: How many cars are crowded on one road?

It sounds mysterious to believe it, but it is actually the lane. The 2.4G frequency band has 13 channels designated in the national standard, which is like 13 side-by-side lanes. Your router can only broadcast one of them. The problem is that the 13 lanes are not evenly spaced, and adjacent channels overlap—the spectra of channels 1, 2, and 3 sit on shoulders. The only ones that really don't disturb each other are 1, 6, and 11, which are far enough apart.

The logic behind the card at night will be clear.: During the day, your neighbors have to go to work. Your road is clean. ； People start going home at seven or eight in the evening, and every router is broadcasting. If you and three neighbors are on the same channel, everyone's data will be interrupted. The rule of WiFi is that if it is interrupted, it must be retransmitted, and the speed will naturally slow down. So "the signal is full but the network speed is bad" is not a metaphysics. A full signal only means that you can hear the router, and the network speed depends on whether anyone interrupts the conversation between you two. If you want to see with your own hands who is crowding in which lane around you, install a WiFi analysis app and scan it, and you will get a heat map. I will write how to do this in How to check channel interference In that article, I won’t repeat it here.

There is also a background to tell: The factory default channels of the router are all "automatic", which is intended to let the machine choose its own channel. It sounds quite smart, but the pitfall lies in the following section.

「"Auto" pitfall: It only picks once on reboot and then plays dead

Many people think that automatic channels are routers that observe the surroundings in real time and change channels at any time. I thought so before, but I didn’t see it clearly until I experimented with the D191G upstairs.: Its automatic channel logic is When restarting, scan the surroundings, pick the one that is the emptyest at the time, and then weld it to death. . Restarted it during the day and picked channel 6 - it was indeed empty during the day ； But in the evening, the neighbors came home one after another and turned on their phones. 6 The road became crowded, and it would not move along with it.

What's even more annoying is the Tenda AC10 next door. As the secondary router of the bridge, the channel follows the main router, and both machines are locked in the same network segment for broadcasting. It's like the young couple has two machines fighting each other in their own home, and when they are stacked on top of each other, the street becomes as lively as a vegetable market at night.

So my conclusion is very straightforward: If you live in a building with close neighbors, manual channel nailing is more reliable than automatic channel nailing. . Hand selection is not a one-and-done thing. You can scan again and choose again if the environment changes in a few months, but at least it is normal for neighbors to gather together at night, so you have an idea when choosing. If you live in a detached house and you are the only one around, it doesn't matter if you have an automatic or a manual one, so don't bother with it.

Mercury router channel change: The old and new interfaces are slightly different in location.

The pitfall of Mercury is that it has two generations of management interfaces, two house numbers for the same thing. The easiest way to determine which interface you have is to look at the layout after logging in. If you are not sure, first read the article I wrote before. Comparison of two Mercury menus , you can identify the number at a glance.

New interface (such as D191G, log in melogin.cn or 192.168.0.1 ) ： After entering the backend, go to "Routing Settings" → "Wireless Settings". For dual-band machines, 2.4G and 5G are divided into two tabs. The 2.4G page is the first. Scroll down this page, and there is a row of parameters under the WiFi name and password.: Channel, mode, frequency band bandwidth, signal strength. Click the drop-down box in the channel column, replace "Auto" with a number, choose one among 1, 6, and 11, and save. Note that dual-band needs to be changed separately. You only need to change the 2.4G page. 5G is still automatic. Many people think that changing one page is enough.

Old interface (MW series old model) ： The path is "Wireless Settings" → "Host Network" (some firmwares are called basic settings). The channel column is also in the parameter line, and the modification method is the same. The save button of the old firmware is at the bottom of the page. Click it after the change is completed. Wait for the indicator light to flash once and restart the wireless module to take effect.

The moment the changes take effect, the WiFi will be disconnected and all devices will reconnect. It only takes a few seconds. This is normal, so don’t panic. After making the change, take your phone and reconnect it. Go to the WiFi details and take a look at the connection information. If the number displayed in the channel column is consistent with what you set, it means it has really taken effect - don't believe that some phones cache old parameters. If you can't see it, just disconnect and reconnect and look again.

Tenda router changes channel: The two generations of firmware have different names.

What I used on Tenda’s side was AC10 and my neighbor’s AX12. The entrances and names of the two generations of firmware are different, so I’ll talk about them separately. If you want to flip the system to reach the entire backend menu, I wrote a Tenda backend function map , follow this to avoid getting lost.

New firmware (AX12 type, log in tendawifi.com ) ： Go to the backend and click "WiFi Settings" directly. This page displays 2.4G and 5G side by side, each with its own "WiFi name, password, channel, bandwidth" lines. Click the drop-down box of the channel, and also change "Auto" to manual selection. The new firmware has a comfortable place: There is an entrance to "Signal Analysis" or WiFi detection at the top of the page. Click on it and it will directly list the occupancy status of the surrounding channels for you. You don't need to install another app. Just pick the empty one and copy it down and fill it in.

Old firmware (such as AC10) ： The menu is "Wireless Settings" → "WiFi Name and Password". It looks like you can only change the name. In fact, the channel parameters are at the bottom of the same page, hidden in the "Wireless Channel" and "Channel Bandwidth" columns. Old firmware also has a so-called trap: It calls the channel "channel" and some versions call it "channel", which all refer to the same thing. Be careful when changing channels in bridge mode. The sub-router channel usually follows the main router. You have to go to the main router to change it. Changing the sub-router is a waste of time - the AC10 upstairs was changed in vain. Finally, it was changed back to the D191G before it was synchronized.

How to choose a channel: 2.4G only recognizes 1, 6, and 11. Most people don’t need to use 5G.

There is only one formula for choosing a channel: For 2.4G, only choose among 1, 6, and 11. Don’t touch any of the 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, or 9 in the middle. . The reason is mentioned above. The spectrum of adjacent channels overlaps. Channel 3 looks empty. In fact, it is rubbing shoulders with the cars on channel 1 and channel 6. Choosing it is like being criticized.

Which one to choose among 1, 6 and 11? See the scan results.: Choose whichever path has the least "stronger signals than you". Instead of counting the number of signals, count the ones that are stronger than yours - the interference from your neighbors who are weaker than yours is limited. My scan results from that night: There are two strong neighbors on channel 1, four on channel 6, and one on channel 11. One of the two machines nailed 11 and the other nailed 1, completely different from the neighbors. The speed was measured at 10 o'clock that night, and the speed changed from turning in circles back to normal speed.

By the way, let’s talk about two supporting parameters. One is The bandwidth of 2.4G is locked at 20MHz , don't drive 40MHz - the bandwidth is how many parking spaces you occupy on this road. 40MHz occupies a small half of the frequency band at a time. In the building, it means offending all the neighbors. In an environment with heavy interference, 20MHz is more stable. This account is calculated carefully. How to choose bandwidth That article. The second is Signal strength level , in the same row of parameters as the channel, the default is the standard gear. Don’t expect to adjust the through-wall gear to solve the channel congestion. Those are two problems. I have written about the gear. Actual signal strength measurement , the conclusion is only two dB more, not worth counting on.

In addition to 2.4G, should 5G also be changed? Most people don't need to move. The 5G channel numbers are 36, 40, 44, 48, 52 to 64, and 149 to 165. The 52, 56, 60, and 64 channels in the middle are DFS channels, which are shared with weather radar. You must listen to the radar for 10 minutes before using the router. If you find that your mobile phone is frequently disconnected when connected to 5G, or cannot find 5G at all, 80% of the time it is because the channel is on the DFS segment. I have written an article on how to troubleshoot this. The solution to the problem of 5G search failure , there are controls in it.

The situation of 5G and 2.4G is completely different: The frequency band is wide, neighbors rarely use it, most buildings are not crowded with 5G, and any automatic channel selected is better than 2.4G. So my suggestion is 2.4G manual, 5G optional , unless the scan shows that 5G is also crowded (the kind with dense apartment buildings), there is no need to bother. If you really have to choose, pick the 149 toward the back. The higher the power, the better it will go through the wall. Don’t touch the DFS section.

How to verify after modification: Take a test at ten o'clock that night

I changed my mind and said that I would do the acceptance test in the afternoon. The road would be empty at that time and the test would be in vain. During the evening rush hour, between 8 or 9 and 10 o'clock, it is the time when neighbors gather together. At that time, the speed test results are the real results. There are also things to pay attention to when measuring speed. You should stand in the most laggy position to test, and even measure in the frequency band where the speed is most laggy. Don’t stand in front of the router and call it a day after measuring a false high. I have been through a lot of pitfalls in speed measurement, and I wrote this in How to measure speed accurately In that article.

After the modification is completed, you can scan again every one or two months. If a neighbor changes equipment or a new household moves in, the channel pattern will change. If it gets stuck again, scan first and then make changes. Don’t reverse the order. The entire set of actions is condensed into a table and you can follow it:

By the way, I would like to add a word about bridging and Mesh.: The channels of the sub-router and sub-router follow the main router. It is enough to change it only on the main router. Don't bother with Taibai. That's it for the technical content of the channel. The difficulty is not the operation, but the knowledge that "automatic" is not smart, and the willingness to spend ten minutes at night to scan it and then nail it. The young couple upstairs has two machines, one with 11 pins and one with 1 pins. They have been using it for three months now and have never had any jams at night. This saves money on buying a new router.