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ERROR_NDIS_DOT11_AP_CHANNEL_CURRENTLY_NOT_AVAILABLE
ERROR_NDIS_DOT11_AP_CHANNEL_CURRENTLY_NOT_AVAILABLE (0x80342005) is returned when the WLAN stack cannot start a software access point on the requested channel at the time the request is evaluated. It is a channel-level availability result, not a statement that the channel is permanently unsupported or forbidden.
Availability is different from regulatory permission
The related status ERROR_NDIS_DOT11_AP_CHANNEL_NOT_ALLOWED is explicitly about regulatory restrictions. This status says only that the channel cannot be used right now. The HRESULT does not encode the reason, the radio state, a country code, or a replacement channel; those details must come from the WLAN component and the adapter driver.
Why the current radio state matters
Windows Hosted Network virtualizes a physical WLAN adapter and creates an AP-facing logical adapter that is mapped to an NDIS port. A station role and an AP role can therefore be present around one physical adapter, while the driver remains responsible for the radio capabilities and operation modes it advertises. Treat a requested channel as an input to that driver decision, not as a setting an application can safely force.
What to record before retrying
- Record the requested channel, centre frequency, channel width and the code path that selected them.
- Capture the current station and AP roles, connection or scan transition state, and the exact adapter driver and firmware version.
- Compare the requested channel with the driver-reported PHY and AP capabilities rather than with a hard-coded country channel list.
- Retry only after the operation that changed the radio state has completed; an immediate retry without new state is not a diagnosis.
Do not confuse a scan result with AP availability
A scan describes a received BSS. Its country and channel information is useful evidence, but it does not prove that the local adapter may start a transmitting AP on the same channel at that instant. The final decision also depends on the local adapter mode and the constraints currently applied to it.
Microsoft: Wireless Hosted Network and the SoftAP virtual adapter
Microsoft: Native 802.11 adapter attributes and ExtAP capability
Linux Wireless: regulatory rules, device limits and enabled channels
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