Mobile printer not able to connect with an 802.11n network on the 5GHz band

Details

Topic or Information

A 802.11n compatible radio may not connect in the 5GHz band if the country is not properly set in the printer configuration.

When connecting to a 5GHz band on an 802.11 network somewhere other than the USA or Canada, you may need to set the country code.

Configuring the 802.11 n Country Code

Applies To

802.11n compatible Zebra Mobile Printers Qln, ZQ, and iMz Series Printers

Details

 When configuring the 802.11 n radio it is important to configure the wlan.country_code parameter in order to define the channels allowed in that country, group of countries, or region. The list of country options is determined by the wlan.region code parameter, which is set at the factory based on the Group designator in the printer SKU, as indicated by the “?” as follows:
QNx-xxxx?xxx-xx. The choices are shown in the table below:

For Groups 0 and J the wlan.country code is set at the factory as shown above, and no changes are permitted. For Groups E, L, A, and B the wlan.region_code is set to “rest of world”, and the default value for wlan.country_code is “not selected”. In these cases it is necessary to configure the wlan.country_code parameter for proper operation. Examples showing how to get the region and country codes, and how to set the country code are shown below:

! U1 getvar "wlan.region _ code"

! U1 getvar "wlan.country _ code"

! U1 setvar "wlan.country _ code" "europe"

! U1 setvar "wlan.country _ code" "australia/nz"

! U1 setvar "wlan.country _ code" "brazil"

! U1 getvar "wlan"

Note:

• EU/EFTA countries should set the country code to “europe”
• The choices provided do not imply the printer is certified in those countries, rather that the printer knows what channels that country, group, or region allows
• SGD conventions dictate that all choices are lower case text only
• For USA, Canada, and Japan the wlan.country_code parameter is set at the factory, no changes are allowed
• If wlan.region_code is set to “rest of world”, it is not possible to configure the wlan. country_code to usa/canada or japan.
• Setting the wlan.country_code parameter to an incorrect value based on the installed location may result in incorrect operation
• If the wlan.country_code is not configured the 802.11 n radio will default to only use channels 1 – 11 in the 2.4 GHz band

Additional Information 

:  NOTEThe user channel list can only include channels allowed for use in your region/country. This list can be seen by examining the wlan.permitted_channels parameter.

! U1 getvar "wlan.permitted_channels".

Once your printer is configured, you can determine the list of channels that the radio will use by sending the following command statement to the printer.

! U1 getvar "wlan.active_channels"