WIFI Selection: It's WRONG!!!!!

Housey · 26 Sep 2013 at 19:54

I have 2 WIFI points in my house due to thick walls, upstairs and downstairs. They all work fine and dandy and one is connected to the wall line, the other is simply an extension via a powerline connection. As I say they all work like a dream.

However, my iPad and iPhone ALWAYS chose the weakest one. If I am downstairs they ALWAYS connect to the weak upstairs device and vice versa. I am sure there is a pixie somewhere causing this and it is really doing my head in as it makes no sense, none!!!!

Why does it seem that my iDevices ALWAYS want to select the wrong WIFI device, whhhhyyyyyyyy

Housey · 26 Sep 2013 at 20:48

dav3evans said:
Probably just a result of you being upstairs connected to the stronger one, then moving downstairs and still being connected to it. You then manually switch yourself and then move upstairs, whilst still being connected to the access point downstairs, no?

It's not actually. I turn it off, turn it on and BANG, mongy internets

Housey · 26 Sep 2013 at 20:51

..to add...

I am sitting in my lounge and I connected my iPad to the downstairs WIFI as yes, it was connected to the one upstairs. I use the iPad for some Clash of Clans, put it down to do other stuff. I leave it not 2 feet from said WIFI.

I come back to it for some more Clash of Clans and BANG, it's decided I MUST connect to the upstairs router again even though its right on the edge of the connection.

Bloody pixie I'm telling you!!!

Housey · 26 Sep 2013 at 21:13

Skyboat said:
Are they using the same SSID or separate ones?

Different

Housey · 26 Sep 2013 at 21:13

dav3evans said:
Ah yeah... That's pixies.

I KNEW it!!!

Housey · 26 Sep 2013 at 21:43

kinobestew123 said:
From what I understand, the wireless standard does not allow devices to automatically swap to a stronger signal unless the signal it is currently connected to becomes non-existent. With your i-devices, by "switched off" you actually mean standby at a guess so the connection is still running in the background to pick up e-mails, use skype, whatsapp, etc.

If you were connected downstairs then moved upstairs, fully switched the device off, powered it up again, and reconnected to wifi, it would connect to the strongest signal as it should. Obviously this is not at all practical. I don't think there is a logical solution unless there is an app/some software out there that will force devices to always be connected to the strongest signal?

All that I get, so explain this then....

Housey said:
..to add...

I am sitting in my lounge and I connected my iPad to the downstairs WIFI as yes, it was connected to the one upstairs. I use the iPad for some Clash of Clans, put it down to do other stuff. I leave it not 2 feet from said WIFI.

I come back to it for some more Clash of Clans and BANG, it's decided I MUST connect to the upstairs router again even though its right on the edge of the connection.

Bloody pixie I'm telling you!!!

Housey · 26 Sep 2013 at 21:52

Skyboat said:
Make them the same SSID and your devices will automatically roam between whichever access point has the strongest signal.

Hmmm, will give that a try then

I still think the pixie will **** it up mind.

Housey · 27 Sep 2013 at 10:23

No-One said:
Wouldn't it be better to use a WDS configuration for this kind of setup. Providing the APs support it of course

Errrrrr, I have no idea what this means.....but it sounds ace

Housey · 28 Sep 2013 at 14:56

Right, I've taken the battle to the pixie to see if I can scare it away! I have renamed the networks to be the same and I have done a quick check of other wifi networks I can see, my 2 neighbours closest and made sure my channels are different to theirs, which have now been set to 3 as my neighbours are 1 and 6. I will see how it goes and if that resolves the issue.

Housey · 28 Sep 2013 at 15:01

No-One said:
Wireless Distribution System. Basically both access points work collectively to create one single wifi network.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_distribution_system

It actually works fine with a powerline internet connection from the upstairs router to the downstairs router (used purely as my 2nd WiFi access point) so not sure I want to change it. Both devices are right at the edge of my connection points, so joining the 2 devices together via WiFi I suspect would be problematic as it will need a solid WiFi connection between the 2 devices, which is the problem really as my lounge just doesn't get the signal from upstairs due to a 2 foot thick wall stopping the signal getting into the lounge.

Or have I missed the point of this (highly likely as you might be working out

)

Housey · 28 Sep 2013 at 17:34

OllyM said:
Channel 3 overlaps with channel 1. The only non overlapping channels are 1, 6 and 11 so I'd recommend changing to 11 in your case.

The old device only goes to 7

Housey · 29 Sep 2013 at 13:11

Well I have renamed the devices and put them on different channels to those around me, where I can and all seems to be working now, it does seem the stronger signal is the one chosen.