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Surface Pro won't connect to strongest Orbi access point
I recently installed an Orbi RBK23 in my house (4000 square feet). I have three access points connected with wired backhaul. It works very well for most devices. The exception is my Surface Pro 4. At first, it simply refused to connect at 5 GHz, even if I set the wifi adapter to use only the 5 GHz band. I fixed this by going into the Orbi settings and reducing the strength of the 2.4 Ghz signal to 25%. (I wish there were a way to turn if off completely.)
The remaining problem is that when I move from room to room, the Surface takes a long time to connect to a stronger signal. Disconnecting and reconnecting doesn't work; the Surface insists on waiting a few minutes before deciding to connect to the stronger signal. After disconnecting, the list of wifi networks shows a full 4 bars for the Orbi network - but when I re-connect to it, it goes down to just 1 bar (so it's connecting to the farther access point even though it knows there's a much stronger signal closeby).
Is there a solution to this?
It turns out that using Wifi Analyzer to switch networks doesn't work consistently. It works sometimes, but more often than not the network stays exactly the same.
What actually DOES work very well is to use a USB wifi adapter instead of the Surface's native adapter. I've been using this one for a couple of months now and it works nearly flawlessly - I get a good connection anywhere in the house without having to do anything, which is the way it should be.
I suspect that Microsoft has improved the wifi adapters in recent Surface models, but both Surface Pro 3 and Surface Pro 4 are stuck with this problem when using Orbi routers.
7 Replies
Its up to devcies to pick and choose where they connect too. Can try to enable Fast Roaming to see if this does anything.
If not, you'll have to temporarily turn OFF the devices wifi radio for 5 seconds then back on when nearer the other stronger signal.
Fast roaming is already turned on. Whether it's on or off makes no difference, as far as I can tell.
Turning off wifi in the Surface and turning it back on has no effect. The Surface refuses to connect to the stronger signal unless I wait a few minutes (not seconds).
I know this is an issue with the Surface and likely not the Orbi (as no other devices have this problem). The question is whether there is a way to get the Surface to connect to the stronger signal.
Something to contact the mfr of the Surface about.
