How can I force a Nest Wifi Router to use a different 5Ghz channel?

[JoeChristy]

How can I force a Nest Wifi Router to use a different 5Ghz channel? My Nest Wifi Router is connected to a Comcast Business  CGA4131COM router. Unfortunately, both the Comcast Router's built-in, non configurable XINFINITY access point and my Nest Wifi are using 5Ghz channel 149. 

If not, how can I force the Nest Wifi Router to use a different 5Ghz channel?

I don't see how there couldn't be interference since the two are separated by the length of a 1m ethernet cable. Am I wrong?

[MichaelP · Accepted solution]

Hello @JoeChristy 

There are surprisingly few 5GHz channels available in the 80MHz bandwidth without having to deal with some complex rules in the middle part of that band. So, I'm not too surprised they are both using the same channel. But, as long as the Comcast router's WiFi access point doesn't actually have any clients connecting to it, there won't be much competition for the channel (it will be transmitting a few little beacon packets every second, but that won't be a problem) – they will both share access to the channel "nicely" without stepping on each other.

At a 1 meter distance, it's possible there could be some interference issues, though. If you're concerned, you might just pick up a longer cable for a few dollars and move the Nest WiFi Router a bit further away from the Comcast Router. 

[LovelyM]

Hi everyone,

@MichaelP, thanks for the help that you provided.

@JoeChristy, it looks like your question was already answered, so I'm going to mark this thread as resolved in the next 24 hours. If you have further concerns, please feel free to create a new post.

Kind regards,
Lovely