WiFi country is not set

What the audit found

A physical wireless interface under Wireless (the legacy wireless driver) is enabled but has no Country set — the field is empty or shows no_country_set. Without a country, the driver falls back to a generic set of channel and transmit-power limits that are not tied to any regulatory domain.

The audit rates this medium. The radio still works, and many networks run this way for years without noticing. But the limits it uses may not match the rules of the country the device is actually in, in either direction: allowing something that is not permitted locally, or withholding channels and power that are.

Why it matters

Wireless spectrum is regulated, and the rules differ by country: which channels are allowed, how much power may be transmitted, whether radar detection (DFS) is required on certain 5 GHz channels, and whether some bands are indoor-only. The country setting is how RouterOS learns which rule set to apply.

With no country set, two things can go wrong. The first is legal and practical: the generic profile may permit a channel or power level that is not allowed where you are. In most of Europe, for example, parts of the 5 GHz band require DFS and have lower power limits than elsewhere; transmitting there without radar detection can interfere with weather and aviation radar, which regulators take seriously. Operators of small ISPs and outdoor links are the ones most likely to be checked, but the rule applies to everyone.

The second is performance: the generic profile may be more conservative than your local rules, so you lose channels that would have given you a cleaner signal, or run at lower power than allowed. Either way, you are not operating the radio the way it was meant to be operated in your location.

Client devices also use the country information the access point advertises to decide which channels they may scan. An access point with no country can leave clients guessing, which shows up as slow roaming or devices refusing to see a 5 GHz network.

What it looks like in Winbox

Open Wireless, double-click the physical interface (wlan1, wlan2) and look at the Wireless tab. The Country dropdown will be empty or show no_country_set. The Frequency Mode next to it is usually regulatory-domain, which is correct; the manual-txpower and superchannel modes are reported by the audit separately.

Virtual interfaces (those with a Master Interface) inherit the country from the physical one and do not need their own setting.

How to fix it

The fix is to pick the country the device is installed in from the Country dropdown on the Wireless tab of every physical wireless interface, using the name as RouterOS lists it — for example czech republic, germany, united states. On a device with several radios, set it on each one; virtual interfaces inherit it. On a CAPsMAN controller the equivalent field lives in the channel or configuration profile. Together with Frequency Mode left at regulatory-domain (the default), the country makes the driver enforce the local channel list and power limits automatically.

The change causes the radio to reinitialise, so clients drop for a few seconds and reconnect. If you manage the router over that same WiFi, use Safe Mode in Winbox: if a channel you had chosen manually is not permitted in the selected country, the interface may fail to come up, and Safe Mode reverts the change when your session drops. The safer combination is to set Frequency to auto at the same time so that the driver picks a permitted channel itself.

On RouterOS 7 devices using the newer wifi driver, the equivalent setting is the country in the interface's configuration under WiFi; the audit checks those interfaces separately.

Afterwards, open Wireless → Registration to watch clients reconnect, and check the Status tab of the interface for the channel and transmit power now in use; if the audit is given your location, it can also check that the chosen channels are permitted there. Then re-run the audit: the finding should disappear.

The full MKRouterKit report gives the exact commands for your configuration — with your interface names and subnets filled in, in the order that will not lock you out.

FAQ

Will setting the country reduce my signal or take channels away?

It may change what is available, in either direction. If a channel you were using is not permitted locally, it goes away — that is the point. If the country allows more than the generic profile did, you gain options. Set Frequency to auto and let the driver choose from the permitted list.

My device is used across several countries. Which one do I pick?

The country where it is physically transmitting right now. A device that travels needs the setting updated when it moves; for a fleet, keep a note of it in your provisioning. There is no correct "everywhere" value, and the generic fallback is not a substitute for one.

The country dropdown has "etsi" and similar regional entries. Should I use those?

Prefer the specific country. Regional entries cover a broad rule set and may not include country-specific exceptions. The specific entry also sets the country code that clients see in beacons, which helps them pick channels correctly.