Wireless Roaming not seamless

What Orbi system(s) and current installed firmware(s) are we facing here?

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karlf2059 wrote:

I am having difficulty with wireless devices connecting to their nearest access point. I have tried enabling or disabling the "enable fast roaming" feature but it doesn't seem to make a difference. A majority of my devices seem to just connect to the base router and not the satellites, even if it is a few feet away from a satellite and it never changes once connected. ... Similar issue with my Google Nest doorbell, the closest connection is a satellite directly above it one floor up, but it always seems to connect to the router only on the opposite side of the house and it affects the speed at which I receive notifications. Any suggestions on how to fix this and get devices connected to the nearest router/satellite instead of autp connecting to the router?

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This unrelated to the subject "Wireless Roaming not seamless". As JohnD333 already explained, these are so called sticky clients, apparently very basic WiFi clients which don't care about 802.11k radio resource management where Orbi does certainly offering a list of all access points and radios (a list of BSSIDs [Radio MAC] for each SSID). Similar, 802.11v assisting.

Appers there would be room to enhance for non-802.11k/.11v aware clients, Orbi could disassociating clients with weak signals expecting these will find the better suited BSSID.

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karlf2059 wrote:

If I am upstairs for a long while, my phone does seem to connect to the upstairs satellite, but if I then go downstairs, I notice that internet slows to a crawl and sometimes I have to disable wi-fi on my phone (which connects to mobile network) and data suddenly starts coming in. If I re-enable wi-fi again, sometimes it is better, sometimes it seems as if I am still connected to upstairs.

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This would be a typical case where 802.11k/.11v would help - all these are available on the Orbi system ... but again the undefined mobile phone WiFi must be able to deal with it, too. Apple has provided a reference for devices and operating systems for iPhone, iPad & Co. Wi-Fi network roaming with 802.11k, 802.11r, and 802.11v on iOS