WiFi channel 13

I can’t figure out how to make my American equipment connect to WiFi channel 13.

I’m at a hotel with adequate WiFi in Innsbruck. My Pixel phone connects to WiFi no problem, but my Windows 10 laptop (EdiMax and Killer Wireless adapters) and my Samsung Tablet can’t. Ken’s iPhone, iPad, and Windows 10 laptop (IBM) all do connect.

I used a scanner on my phone to figure out that the only AP near me is using Channel 13. Which is not allowed for use in the US and thus is blocked on American equipment. Usually it’s a simple software block and should work if the device realizes it’s in Europe. I tend to turn off location stuff on my computers, which may be why it works for Ken and not me. But after an hour+ of trying various settings, new drivers, etc I can’t make it work on either device. What a dumb thing.

Most online advice I found was “change your AP not to use that channel”, which is not helpful. Some Windows 10 advice is to look at Advanced device driver Properties (not registry) for a “Country Region” setting. Neither of my adapters have that. Trying to change locale settings and time zones and stuff doesn’t work. Hilariously, my Samsung tablet tells me I have to connect to WiFi to change region. But I think that’s just about video DRM anyway.

Update: another hotel with excellent 2.4GHz wifi has Channel 12 closest to me. My phone connects no problem; the laptop refuses. Fortunately there’s also service on many other channels, crazy strong actually (-50 to -60 dBm). WiFiAnalyzer on my phone seems to have a bug; I can’t always see the other channels, maybe some filter logic problem. NirSoft’s WifiInfoView on my laptop shows lots of networks on channels 1-10. Nothing at all on 11 and 12 seems invisible to me.