My notebook doesn?t connect to the nearest Access Point from my home network?

My set-up is such that in my house I have a router / access point with three other access points spread throughout the house. If I switch on my notebook it connects, most of the times, to the router. Should I then roam about the house, my notebook doesn’t connect to the nearest access point but maintains the connection with the router – even though the signal would be extremely weak at time while on the access points would be nearer!

Is there something in the settings that I haven’t activated? How do I ensure that my notebook connects to the nearest access point?

Thanks for any help / feedback.

 

Not all AP support the roaming feature. The setup I have done require the AP to have the same SSID and be on the same chanel.

So from what you have said. I locks on the first AP is sees and does not move. If you have all set to a different ID you should be able to tell MS zero conifig to connect to all AP with in range. This is not roaming but different networks.

 

First off, thank you for your reply.

As for the access points I have at home, they and the router are all from Linksys and I do believe that they support roaming.

The SSID are all the same (for example, they are set to “home” , the channels on all are the same too (for example, they are set to “1” .

As I have my whole house set to have one network, "home", with the same SSID and same channel, which my laptop sees; I need to have my laptop roam and connect to the nearest access point.

 

This was covered in another forum (toms networking) 6 mo ago. Need to check, I do not think the linksys support roaming. A user had to talk to a level 3 tech in order to get the answer. Documentation is wrong.

The one that they switched over to did. It required the ssid to be different and Association set with the other AP.

 

See this article on ExtremeTech http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,828040,00.asp for more details but basically you need to change the channels on the access points. You need to use the same SSID and use different channels, the recommended channels are 1, 6 and 11.

I use this setup with Linksys equipment at the factory where I do network support and it works well. I have used laptops and PDAs and both roamed perfectly.

 

I don't know about roaming, but I know in windows my intel 2945 had a setting to determine how "sticky" it was to particular access points. You could set it to aggressively connect to the strongest signal, or to stick with the one you're connected to until the signal is lost.

 

blue68f100,

Thanks for the feedback. I have checked with Linksys and they confirm that my router does support roaming. And I know that it does since, if I disable my WiFi then enable it the computer does connect to the nearest access point, however once I start browsing, etc., it will drop connection to the nearest access point and connect to the router instead.


jbandy,

I have tried to set each of the access points and router to a different channel, but when I did that my router wasn’t able to “see” any of the access points. So, I must be doing something wrong besides the channels! Please note that I have set the router and access points to run in 802.11g only (i.e. I don’t want it to use 802.11b at all).


BigV,

How do I “fiddle” with my WiFi stickiness? I don’t seem to be able to find anything to help me do this.


To all, thank you for all the feedback and help. If you can help further I would be even more grateful.

 

if you were to disable your wireless, then re-enable it when you are close to a different AP does it connect to the far one or the near one?

 

Most of the time it will connect to the router, which is always the furthest one from where I am at. However, there are the odd times when the notebook connects to the nearest AP but soon there-after switches to the router!

 

You said that the router cannot "see" the access points. Are the access points hard wired in your network or are you using them in bridge mode where they pick up the wireless signal from the router and act as a repeater?

Also, it might help if you posted the model of your router and access points.

 

The router is WRT54G. The access points are WAP54G. None of these units are hardwired to one another. They are all running wirelessly with the router connected to my modem and the access point set-up as repeaters. All have the same SSID which is hidden, and all have the same channel. I have tried to set each access point to a different channel but doing that makes them “invisible” to the router!

 

OK, your setup varies slightly from mine then. My access points are part of the hard wired network which is why setting them to different channels works (and is the recommended configuration for a business environment). I will have to do a little research to see if I can make any lightbulbs go off in my head that might help you with your problem.

Sorry I took you down the wrong road initially.

 

jbandy,

Thank you so much for the efforts, and I appreciate everything you have said / done thus far ... if you do come accross something useful, please let me know.

 

Sorry I haven't gotten back to you sooner. I've downloaded the users manuals for both the router and access points and there's really not much in the documentation. From what you've said it looks like your set up is correct since the the router sees the access points and all is on the same SSID and channel. Some other posters made mention of settings in the client software and I may be going over old ground so forgive me if that is the case. Here are a couple of questions / things to try.

1. What is the wireless card in your notebook? i.e. Is it a built in Intel B/G card or a USB adapter or PCMCIA card?
2. Are you letting Windows XP manage your Wi-Fi or are you using client software specifically designed for your Wi-Fi chipset / card / adapter?
3. Have you tried looking at your set up with a program like Netstumbler or with one of your client software utilities to get some more detailed information about how your computer is actually seeing the router and access point repeaters? (I would expect them to show up as one network on the same channel with the different MAC addresses of the router and access points showing up)

I do a lot of Wi-Fi at home and work and for friends but it's tough to nail down your problem since I don't have the exact same equipment. If you feel like doing some more troubleshooting and bouncing some more things off me I'm always up for a challenge. ;-)

 

just to tie up a loose end I left.

I have an intel 2915 wireless card in my notebook, and the intel pro/set software had a setting relating to roaming aggressiveness. to be honest, I use Linux now, so I can't check on where exactly this setting was, and to be really honest, it may have been in one of the driver dialog boxes. see if your wireless chipset manufacturer has some client-side software for managing wifi and try it out, maybe you'll find some magic setting. definitely check out all the dialog boxes relating to both the driver settings and client software. I'm almost thinking now that it was in one of the "advanced" settings boxes for the driver with some esoteric listbox of options with no decent documentation.

 

BigV,

Thank you for taking the time to come back to this thread and to help out. It sure is nice of you .. of course, and thanks to all the others who've have helped here too.

Sadly, I have not been able to find any solution to this ... not "Advanced" setting or something like that ... I will keep looking and should I stumble over something I will post it here.

Again, thanks to all who've helped.

 

Like I said earlier I did not think Linksys suported routing Below is what other users from another forum found out from Linksys support.

The complete thread can be found here.

http://forumz.tomshardware.com/network/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=21014&highlight=roaming