How to setup EX6200 Range Extender to extend an access point that shares a SSID with another router?

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JBinIL wrote:

Thanks for your quick response. Key follow-up question I have always wondered about: If I rename our long-distance access point's SSID that I want to extend to another SSID name and change all of our mobile wifi devices to automatically connect to the SSIDs associated with our home's primary router AND our wifi access point(s), will our mobile wifi devices seamlessly (without interruption) connect to our home router's and access points' SSIDs as needed when the mobile devices are in range of the SSIDs? For example, if we are streaming music while we are walking around our property, if our mobile devices are within range of our home router and access points/repeaters' SSIDs, will we even notice that our devices have connected to another SSID?

 

I appreciate your help! I am sure many other  people are wondering the same thing.

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The answer is maybe.  :-)

In most(*) home networks, the decision to roam is entirely up to the device.  Many devices will cling to their existing connection and will not roam until the connection is barely usable.  Apple documents the roaming behavior of iOS here.  iOS will not begin a search for a better signal until the RSSI is worse than -70 dBm, which is a pretty weak signal.  But the kicker is that it won't switch unless it finds a signal that is stronger by either 8 or 12 dB, depending on whether the device is active or not.  The implication is that you can have an access point/repeater that is too close to the router!  You could walk from the router to the repeater and an iPhone may never switch because the signal back to the router is better than -70 dBm.  Android is similar, BTW.

If a device does decide to switch, it will usually switch fairly quickly.  But there's no guarantee that it will be seamless.  If you are streaming video or music, the switch may be seamless because there's usually a few seconds of data buffered on the device.  A live video or audio call may experience a slight disruption.

BTW, switching between the same SSID is less disruptive than switching between different SSIDs.  To a device, a different SSID is a different network.  Most devices will be loathe to switch networks.  The device has to disassociate from the old SSID, join the new one and reacquire DHCP information.

This article goes into more details.  This thread is also pretty informative.  Credit to smallnetbuilder.com for both links.

(*) Some vendors have features that can facilitate the roaming process.  One feature drops the Wi-Fi connection to a device when the signal drops below a configurable threshold.  Another set of features involves the exchange of additonal information between devices and routers/access points/repeaters (aka 802.11 r/k/v protocols).

[Edit: I should add that there are legitimate reasons to use different SSIDs.  You may want separate SSIDs for 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz networks in order to force devices to stay on one frequency band.  I do this because my 5 GHz-capable devices are always faster on 5 GHz.]