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Forum Discussion
RBE771 Need to Connect Device to a specific satellite
I have a RBE771 with 2 satellites. My Ring doorbell is connecting with the Router on the IOT 2.4 network. Unfortunately, the Router is farther from the doorbell than one of the satellites, and often s...
This problem has annoyed owners of mesh WiFi systems for years. WiFi devices are in charge of the connection process. They survey the available WiFi systems, choose the most desirable, and associate with it. Devices designed to be mobile (or just better designed) continue to look for better connections. Alas, some devices appear to quit looking after they connect. When a mesh system is rebooted (after a firmware update, after a power outage, etc.) the router is often the first to broadcast a WiFi signal and these devices connect to the router and then quit looking before the satellites begin broadcasting their signals.
If the device is easy to access, the problem often can be handled by rebooting the device. (such as turn it off and then back on again) Ring doorbells are often hard wired and bolted to the wall, making it a serious effort to reboot them.
One solution is to provide a unique WiFi signal that the doorbell will always connect to. The TP-Link RE220 WiFi Extender sells for $15 on Amazon. It could be connected to the Orbi network at 5G and provide a 2.4G signal with a different WiFi SSID that the doorbell can be configured to use. If the RE220 is connected to the closest satellite, this should keep the doorbell happy. (If the RE220 displays the same behavior of connecting to the router, it could be put into Access Point (AP) mode and physically wired to the nearest satellite.)
It might be worth a modest expenditure just to find out if this "solves the problem" (or not).
Thanks so much. I’ll see how this works out. I really appreciate the clear, concise response.
Customers have asked for a method to force devices to connect to a specific WiFi unit for at least 7 years. There simply is not a way to do it. (I would be fascinated to see a reference to any other mesh WiFi system that provides this feature. i.e. Amazon eero, Asus, Linksys, TP-Link, Ubiquiti, etc.)
CrimpOn wrote:Customers have asked for a method to force devices to connect to a specific WiFi unit for at least 7 years. There simply is not a way to do it. (I would be fascinated to see a reference to any other mesh WiFi system that provides this feature. i.e. Amazon eero, Asus, Linksys, TP-Link, Ubiquiti, etc.)
Umm ... some models of the TP-Link Deco range provide this. I've used it on the BE85 (I think it's available for the XE75 models too but don't remember seeing it since I wasn't looking for it at the time). It does say it isn't guaranteed to connect to the selected node although I haven't seen it not do so. It's available for several models and is apparently coming to more. The other thing that is seen there is the ability to turn off mesh functionality which (I believe) just means your saying the device is stationary and doesn't need to migrate to another node.
