How to change wifi channel on a router, and which one to choose

Which channel to pick

Auto first. Apple’s recommendation for every band, for routers used with its products, is Auto: the router selects the channel. NETGEAR says its routers choose the 2.4 GHz channel from the surroundings and use default 5 GHz and 6 GHz channels for the region, and recommends the defaults unless you have interference. Only then, it says, try different channels and keep the one that works best.

2.4 GHz: 1, 6 or 11 in the United States. TP-Link’s explanation of channels says the band is split into 14 channels; channels 1 to 13 are five MHz apart but 22 MHz wide, so neighbours overlap. The United States usually allows channels 1 to 11 and most other countries 1 to 13. With a 20 MHz width, TP-Link gives 1, 6 and 11 as the three US channels that do not interfere with each other; elsewhere, sets such as 3, 8 and 13.

5 GHz: more room, and some radar channels. In the same TP-Link page, 5 GHz channels are 20 MHz apart and 20 MHz wide, so there are more channels that do not overlap. Some of them use Dynamic Frequency Selection, a rule for sharing the band with radar; and channel 165 only works with a 20 MHz width.

6 GHz: the preferred scanning channels. NETGEAR’s advice for 6 GHz routers, used by Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7, is to pick a Preferred Scanning Channel if you change the 6 GHz channel by hand, or devices might have difficulty connecting to that band.

More than one router. Apple asks for a different channel on each router, especially when they are close to each other.

Channel width, the setting next to the channel

TP-Link describes channel width as the slice of spectrum one channel occupies: wider carries more data at once and is more open to interference. Two 20 MHz channels joined make 40 MHz, two of those make 80, two 80 MHz channels make 160, and Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be) goes to 320 MHz.

Apple’s settings for routers used with its products: 20 MHz on 2.4 GHz, which it says helps avoid performance and reliability problems near other Wi-Fi networks and 2.4 GHz devices such as Bluetooth ones; Auto or all widths on 5 GHz and 6 GHz, where interference is less of a concern. TP-Link’s Deco app has the width in the same place as the channel, band by band.

Seeing the band from a computer

Windows 11. Microsoft’s Wi-Fi page gives Settings › Network & internet › Wi-Fi › your network’s properties, where a line reads Network band (channel). The same page uses the command netsh wlan show drivers to see which Wi-Fi versions the adapter supports.

An Intel adapter. Intel’s article on advanced adapter settings, written for its older adapters and for Windows 10 and earlier, opens them from Device Manager › Network adapters › the wireless adapter › Properties › Advanced. There, Channel width on Auto uses 20, 40, 80 or 160 MHz on 5 GHz depending on the router, and Preferred band can be set to prefer 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz.

An iPhone, iPad or Mac on Wi-Fi 6E. Apple’s page on 6 GHz networks has a Wi-Fi 6E mode setting under the network’s details; turned off, the device stops using that network’s 6 GHz band. Apple adds that the router should use a single network name for all its bands.

When there is no channel setting

Xfinity says its XB6 and newer gateways manage advanced Wi-Fi settings automatically, and that the 2.4 and 5 GHz channel settings are not visible in the Admin Tool or the app on those models; the same holds when Xfinity WiFi Extenders are on the network. On an XB3 without extenders, the Xfinity app shows them under Advanced settings › WiFi bands.

Where Auto is on, Xfinity lists some of what its gateway weighs: how many devices use a channel, the distance from the device to the gateway, and whether the device can use 5 GHz.