In the past, what has worked for me is to configure the routers to disconnect clients whose signal level drops below a specified threshold. Clients aren’t savvy about this / will stay connected to a poor signal when a better one is available. You’d have to look at router-reported signal levels in your physical space to figure out where to set the thresholds.
I’ve found that a lot of clients just don’t roam well, they hang on to even unusable weak signals.
On my Unifi setup I’ve ended up turning on minimum RSSI on the APs so they force kick off any devices with a signal that is too low. You end up with a delay of like 5-10 seconds while the client reconnects, but it does work.
Ha, I didn’t specify it but both routers are connected by normal ethernet cable (TP-Link -> Turris).
Don’t think extender (as in forwarder) is good solution here as it would needlesly increase latency for the secondary, though will check! maybe there are some important bits about the mobility domain and roaming in it.
Yeah didn’t add that bit before, edited in.
Archer is here as just dumb AP/routing box for the furthest room, connected to Omnia by ethernet (so yes, Archer acts as client device @ .1.20 and forwards everything to Omnia).
EDIT: Sadly I don’t have OpenWRT on the TP-Link, but the plan was to replace it with more capable Mikrotik so that I could setup the more advanced bits (Mobility Domain, “roaming”)
Tp-link is stock sadly, but could replace with more capable one (Mikrotik L009 probably, I don’t care about single-band in this case because it literally covers a single, open space room)
Well what you’re probably looking to setup is 802.11r, but I think you’re still going to run into issues because of the proximity of where your routers are.
The issue you’re seeing is related to band shaping and signal-to-noise ratio. Your wifi client is actually the thing that is supposed to be more smoothly handling the transition between access points with your current setup, but it may not work as expected without the signal for one or the other being drastically worse. 802.11r helps with that. Results are hit or miss though, so don’t go buying new equipment just to try it out.
If you had two OpenWRT devices though, I would just make a mesh and skip the above.
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In the past, what has worked for me is to configure the routers to disconnect clients whose signal level drops below a specified threshold. Clients aren’t savvy about this / will stay connected to a poor signal when a better one is available. You’d have to look at router-reported signal levels in your physical space to figure out where to set the thresholds.
Good tip, thanks!
I’ve found that a lot of clients just don’t roam well, they hang on to even unusable weak signals.
On my Unifi setup I’ve ended up turning on minimum RSSI on the APs so they force kick off any devices with a signal that is too low. You end up with a delay of like 5-10 seconds while the client reconnects, but it does work.
This is what I do with my Asus AX mesh setup, running a Merlin fork (gnuton).
Kicking low-signal devices didn’t occur to me, and should be easy to implement on the OpenWrt one, thanks!
Yeah give it a try, I use -75dBm as my setting. Currently only on the 5ghz band, but you can try on all of them, 2.4ghz might want more like -80dBm.
This is really smart!
@taaz Have a look on OpenWrt for wifi extender with wps
Ha, I didn’t specify it but both routers are connected by normal ethernet cable (TP-Link -> Turris).
Don’t think extender (as in forwarder) is good solution here as it would needlesly increase latency for the secondary, though will check! maybe there are some important bits about the mobility domain and roaming in it.
@taaz Ok there is a wired extender version of the guide on the OpenWrt website. Just done it
Use OpenWRT and enable Fast Transitioning, works perfectly.
Looking into it, ty!
Is that working better now? Every time I’ve turned it on in the past, half my devices lose connection.
Need some clarification here:
So you have the Omnia as the primary routing device, and the tp-link in AP mode connected via Ethernet to the Omnia, correct?
Are both running OpenWRT then?
Yeah didn’t add that bit before, edited in. Archer is here as just dumb AP/routing box for the furthest room, connected to Omnia by ethernet (so yes, Archer acts as client device @ .1.20 and forwards everything to Omnia).
EDIT: Sadly I don’t have OpenWRT on the TP-Link, but the plan was to replace it with more capable Mikrotik so that I could setup the more advanced bits (Mobility Domain, “roaming”)
Both running OpenWRT, or the Archer still runs stock firmware?
Tp-link is stock sadly, but could replace with more capable one (Mikrotik L009 probably, I don’t care about single-band in this case because it literally covers a single, open space room)
Well what you’re probably looking to setup is 802.11r, but I think you’re still going to run into issues because of the proximity of where your routers are.
The issue you’re seeing is related to band shaping and signal-to-noise ratio. Your wifi client is actually the thing that is supposed to be more smoothly handling the transition between access points with your current setup, but it may not work as expected without the signal for one or the other being drastically worse. 802.11r helps with that. Results are hit or miss though, so don’t go buying new equipment just to try it out.
If you had two OpenWRT devices though, I would just make a mesh and skip the above.
Thanks, especially for that openwrt mesh bit, that might end up as the the best solution.