In my home LAN, I have two access points, each of which has 2.4 and 5GHz bands. They are all configured for the same SSID and the same password.
As I understand it, when the phone connects to the network, it will select the one with the strongest signal. It will then stick with that AP until it decides that the connection is bad (lost the connection, too much interference, etc.) and it will then select another.
What it will not do is automatically switch from a good quality signal to one that is “better” - that’s one of the key benefits to using mesh networks. Without a mesh, you can do what you’re doing now (manually select a different SSID when you want to switch) or you can do what I do and manually flap Wi-Fi off/on, which will cause the device to seek out the strongest signal at that time.
I used to have that kind of a setup and the simple solution for the OP is when you know you’ve moved from a good to a weak network, if it doesn’t switch automatically, is to toggle wifi off and back on. When it reconnects, it connects to the “better” network. No need to mess with selecting a particular SSID.
Thanks. I do toggle the wi-fi on and off when things seem truly bogged down, but it often returns to the main router signal, which out in the Airstream, has lousy throughput. I’ll try it again soon to check it out. Things are inconsistent: sometimes the MacBook will automatically switch out to the Airstream router when I bring it out there, but more often than not, not.
You can always specify…at least with most routers…a reserved IP address for the MAC of any client and the DHCP server will always assign that one…and then you wouldn’t have to switch between Auto and Home. OTOH…setting it up might be more trouble than it’s worth.
Yes, I could do that. I tried it years ago, but a bug in the router I was using at the time (a Verizon-branded Actiontec router used for FiOS access) caused the mappings to get lost every time the router rebooted.
Today, I’m using ISC DHCP software on a Raspberry Pi for my LAN, so I could easily add the configuration there, especially since I also create DNS records for all my devices, but at this point I’m used to doing it with locations so I haven’t bothered switching it.
I’m also not sure MAC-IP static association will work reliably with iOS devices. I haven’t looked at all the ugly details, but it seems to me that Wi-Fi privacy features may result in a different MAC address every time you join an access point which, of course, won’t match a pre-configured entry in a DHCP table. But I can disable that for my home LAN SSIDs.
Indeed, though you can turn of Private Address in Settings > Wi-Fi > networkName to ensure that for a particular network, iOS devices don’t try to rotate their IP addresses randomly.
Well then this would drive you absolutely crazy. This is the list of neighboring access points over time. Most of these are cars with WiFi built-in or mobile hotspots on the move as they drive past my house. They are all 2.4Ghz as the range is too far for my access points to detect them on 5Ghz.
WiFi SSD’s are literally broadcast that’s how the technology works. Same with Bluetooth but much shorter range. Big Sur does hide the non-preferred WiFi so that helps.
