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Up and running and now reasonably stable (nodes stay connected) after removing one of the RBS750 re-siting all the bits.
The Router is now much more central in the location. This is OK, but most of my devices will prefer to connect to the router despite being closer to a node. This might suggest I'm overprovisioned but given the location / layout of devices where I have APs makes sense.
But this means that I occasionally get wifi drop outs on devices which I think is caused by them being connected to a more remote AP and would be mitigated by being attached to the closer one.
Now there may be some issue here with the 'closer' node - devices will occasionally attach to it. I've rebooted them to make sure that's all fresh and this survived for a while but devices went back to connecting to the Router. So I'm not sure on that point, and there is nothign helpful in the logs.
But,if we assume the Router > Nodes connections are OK, is there any way to control by device the preferred AP to connect to? I can't see anything in the settings.
The only option I can see is transmit power, and I guess if I reduce it then this may achieve it?
But would this affect the backhaul as well? Obviously I don't want to impact the quality of that connection.
In other manufacturers, I've seen the ability to control the the thresholds at which a mobile device will roam from one AP to another. It stands to reason that similar could be used for non-mobile devices.
I'll see if I can judge why non-mobile devices are attaching to the router (as you say, it could just be startup order of the Router / Satellites) but consider adjusting the transmit power if this won't affect the backhaul.
The user has no ability to force a device to connect to a specific WiFi unit. When it powers up, each device scans the available WiFi channels making a list of available WiFi networks, their capabilities, signal strength, etc. The device then decides which WiFi network to associate with. When one of the available networks is one that the device knows the password for, it tries that one first.
Devices intended to be mobile (phones, tablets, laptops, etc.) usually continue to scan in case they determine that a different WiFi broadcaster is a better connection. (There are internet standards that affect how this process works.)
Sometimes devices that are expected to remain in one place are programmed to stop searching once they get connected.
When the WiFi network boots up, often the router begins broadcasting first and a device may connect to the router and quit looking before nearby satellites begin broadcasting. One way to test this is to power off a device that has connected where one would not expect it to and then power it back on.
Transmit power affects only the user facing WiFi radios. It does not affect the backhaul connection radios.
In other manufacturers, I've seen the ability to control the the thresholds at which a mobile device will roam from one AP to another. It stands to reason that similar could be used for non-mobile devices.
I'll see if I can judge why non-mobile devices are attaching to the router (as you say, it could just be startup order of the Router / Satellites) but consider adjusting the transmit power if this won't affect the backhaul.
Depending on your technical skills, available equipment, and degree of obsession with the problem, this is an interesting topic to investigate. WiFi utilizes a system of management and control frames to connect user devices to a WiFi system.
Configure one to the WiFi system 2.4G channel number and the other to the WiFi system 5G channel number.
Set both to monitor mode.
(Although the article describes using Windows, I was unable to get Windows 10 to support monitor mode and used an old Linux laptop. Now have a Windows 11 laptop, and probably should try to get this working on Windows as well.)
Install Wireshark on the test computer, select these two WiFi adapters, set them to monitor mode, and begin collecting data.
If this is working, Wireshark will begin collecting management and control frames. My test system at the time had one RBR50 router and two satellites. Each WiFi unit was broadcasting beacon frames for the primary WiFi and the Guest WiFi on both 2.4G and 5G at the rate of 5-10 frames per second each. Thus, when all three units came on-line, they broadcast a total of 30-60 beacon frames every second - forever! When the AX series units have enabled both Guest and IoT networks, each unit generates beacon frames for all three SSIDs. If there is one router and 3-4 satellites in the system, that can amount to a LOT of beacon frames.(3 SSIDs times 4-5 units times 5-10 per second = )
There are articles on the internet that describe the process a device uses to search for and connect to a WiFi system and this test mechanism will document what is actually taking place. Fascinating (at least to a computer Nerd).
By now, it is probably obvious that this is not a trivial or quick process to deploy. And, it does not affect the end result.
