Homebrew Suggestion HOWTO: Possibly Increase Switch WiFi Speeds
Joined Nov 21, 2016 Messages 1,709 Trophies 1 Age 39 XP 4,297 Country
WiFi is complicated, every country has its own regulations for which frequencies can be used.
Rather than comply with every country’s regulations, consumer hardware devices often just use conservative values (slower speeds). I suspect Nintendo did this with the switch, which is one reason why I added WiFi Region changing to Incognito 2.0. There is a confirmed report of an American in the US, with a Japanese switch, allowing his switch to use faster US frequencies (that Japane does not allow) by changing the region code from R1 to R2: https://www.reddit.com/r/SwitchPirates/comments/fcjwcx/is_the_wifi_chipset_in_the_japanese_switch/
R2 Appears to be the default US region set, and R1 appears to be Japan. I do not know of any other default values Nintendo uses, though I have not tried to look very hard.
R1 and R2 are values that are passed directly to the broadcom wifi chipset, and appear to be proprietary codes that broadcom only shares with its partner’s privately. However it appears These two digit codes can also be ISO-3166-1 alpha-2 codes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-1_alpha-2 (SciresM RE’d this big piece.)
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#a, #e, #r, 0A, 0B, 0C, J0, JE, MF, Q1, Q2, X0, X1, X2, X3, XA, XB, XR, XS, XT, XU, XV, XW, XX, XY, XZ, Z2, ww
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I believe there is more Wifi performance to be eeked out of the switch by experimenting with different values here. I hope the community can experiment here, to see if the switch’s wifi chipset can be fully unlocked.
Here is the setting to change (US default is R2):
Tinfoil with Incognito can be downloaded from https://tinfoil.io/
JonJaded
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Joined May 22, 2016 Messages 635 Trophies 0 XP 2,464 Country
So I understand that the different country codes help unlock other bands, but is there really a potential for «better performance» in terms of exceeding the best case senario? All throughout the scene I’ve heard «the wifi chip in the switch just sucks.»
owie40
Member
Joined Nov 15, 2019 Messages 14 Trophies 0 Age 43 XP 90 Country
So I understand that the different country codes help unlock other bands, but is there really a potential for «better performance» in terms of exceeding the best case senario? All throughout the scene I’ve heard «the wifi chip in the switch just sucks.»
If you live near other people, the lower bands could be very crowded and have a lot of interference. You could certainly see an improvement moving to a «clean» channel.
blawar
Developer
Joined Nov 21, 2016 Messages 1,709 Trophies 1 Age 39 XP 4,297 Country
So I understand that the different country codes help unlock other bands, but is there really a potential for «better performance» in terms of exceeding the best case senario? All throughout the scene I’ve heard «the wifi chip in the switch just sucks.»
At the very least it should increase 5ghz performance for those with R1 setting (assuming you’re router will operate at the new frequent too, can import American router).
I hoping people do some experiments to figure out if more can be unlocked here.
Reecey
Mario 64 (favorite game of all time)
Joined Mar 7, 2010 Messages 5,867 Trophies 2 Location At Home 🙂 XP 4,239 Country
Blawar What would the UK one be changed to? I run only on 5ghz so this would be very interesting I will post my results. I usually hit the max in a switch 9.1.0 WiFi test 60Mbpsdown & 23Mbpsup but my WiFi is capable of so much more
F. Lobot
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Joined Dec 28, 2010 Messages 160 Trophies 0 XP 269 Country
Reecey
Mario 64 (favorite game of all time)
Joined Mar 7, 2010 Messages 5,867 Trophies 2 Location At Home 🙂 XP 4,239 Country
I changed it from R1 to R2, it made a 0.80Mbps worth of difference to my upload in testing on the Switch the download was exactly the same 60Mbps. Results were 60Mbps Down & 23.8Up.
blawar
Developer
Joined Nov 21, 2016 Messages 1,709 Trophies 1 Age 39 XP 4,297 Country
I changed it from R1 to R2, it made a 0.80Mbps worth of difference to my upload in testing on the Switch the download was exactly the same 60Mbps. Results were 60Mbps Down & 23.8Up.
Make sure your router can use the higher 5ghz channels as well. I do not know about UK wifi regulations. If it cant, you can get a US spec router to reclaim it.
Reecey
Mario 64 (favorite game of all time)
Joined Mar 7, 2010 Messages 5,867 Trophies 2 Location At Home 🙂 XP 4,239 Country
Make sure your router can use the higher 5ghz channels as well. I do not know about UK wifi regulations. If it cant, you can get a US spec router to reclaim it.
My router is always setup for 5ghz I turn 2.4ghz off I have no need for it nowadays I also use a Netgear Nighthawk EAX80 Extender alongside I do have a BT Business 1GB/1GB fttx connection. If I knew the correct settings for the uk I might be able to test this properly but I cannot understand the codes etc.. for the uk it might not be «R2» could be something else. The Nintendo Switch seems limited to 60Mbps Down and 23Mbps Up in testing but it would be nice to see if it went any further.
blawar
Developer
Joined Nov 21, 2016 Messages 1,709 Trophies 1 Age 39 XP 4,297 Country
My router is always setup for 5ghz I turn 2.4ghz off I have no need for it nowadays I also use a Netgear Nighthawk EAX80 Extender alongside I do have a BT Business 1GB/1GB fttx connection. If I knew the correct settings for the uk I might be able to test this properly but I cannot understand the codes etc.. for the uk it might not be «R2» could be something else. The Nintendo Switch seems limited to 60Mbps Down and 23Mbps Up in testing but it would be nice to see if it went any further.
izy
Advanced Tech Pleb
Joined Sep 17, 2010 Messages 2,301 Trophies 2 XP 3,767 Country
wouldnt it be better to test it in the linux setup instead of default os.
then you are not limited to the consoles servers and can see actual hardware stats
doing some testing as we speak.
on 2.4ghz its limited to 72Mbps RX and TX rate
on 5ghz the peak RX and TX rate is 173.3Mbps
This is 21.66MB/s peak data transfer rate
it fluctuates depending on use
my GB switch will connect to 120hz, 140hz but not the 144,149,153,157,161,165mhz bands
Interestingly enough using nintendo’s speed test it can only do 13.9Mbps upload for me and 60Mbps download.
But in my limited html5 test I could do with the dns bypass it was hitting 22Mbps which is my actual limit for my package.
Couldnt hit more than 42Mbps though that could be limited to many factors especially finding a good server.
designgears
Well-Known Member
Joined Aug 8, 2016 Messages 289 Trophies 0 XP 651 Country
wouldnt it be better to test it in the linux setup instead of default os.
then you are not limited to the consoles servers and can see actual hardware stats
doing some testing as we speak.
on 2.4ghz its limited to 72Mbps RX and TX rate
on 5ghz the peak RX and TX rate is 173.3Mbps
This is 21.66MB/s peak data transfer rate
it fluctuates depending on use
my GB switch will connect to 120hz, 140hz but not the 144,149,153,157,161,165mhz bands
Interestingly enough using nintendo’s speed test it can only do 13.9Mbps upload for me and 60Mbps download.
But in my limited html5 test I could do with the dns bypass it was hitting 22Mbps which is my actual limit for my package.
Couldnt hit more than 42Mbps though that could be limited to many factors especially finding a good server.
You can get more info under System Log > Wireless Log. If you’re using Asus Merlin firmware it has a pretty nice GUI for that info.
izy
Advanced Tech Pleb
Joined Sep 17, 2010 Messages 2,301 Trophies 2 XP 3,767 Country
You can get more info under System Log > Wireless Log. If you’re using Asus Merlin firmware it has a pretty nice GUI for that info.
aye I can cause im using the Netgear R700 so i get the good merlin
downside of it being at 140Hz is my note 9 doesnt like it for some reason and limits itself to the same TX rate of the switch which is annoying because it can hit 866Mbps
I drop it down to 124hz and it still hits the its max speeds again.
The switch also hits 60Mbps down on tests and 14mbps up which is a record as it never did it on 120hz
Im in another room atm but its literally no distance from my router so dbm could be better.
regardless this console really prefers on wifi to only give 48Mps down majority of time.
This could be credited to how nintendos servers to the console in general works or region servers.
That or it could be a could be a hardware limitation of the actual console itself limiting the peak speed test speeds.
I know wired gets a better transfer but maybe more resources get assigned to it via usb.
I know usb ethernet adapters were pretty trash connection wise until smash came out then they suddenly worked great.
So maybe to just assigned more resources to it.
Thats why it would be great if someone ran the linux switch os and also the android one and tested to see how much they can theoretically get.
But yeah 120-124mhz is the sweet spot it seems at least for me and compatibility with my devices
also @Reecey gets 23Mbs upload max on his tests but thats only with the nintendo test.
I only get 14Mbps with it and 22Mbps with a dns web browser test.
So if he ran the html5 version his upload speeds should hit higher and we may see what it actually is limited to.