G+_William Burlingame Posted May 11, 2015 Share Posted May 11, 2015 I have three 5Ghz APs in my house. As I move around the house with my Android phone or tablet, it doesn't appear that I'm always being handed off to the nearest AP. How can I tell which AP the device is using and if it's not the one with the strongest signal, how can I assure it will hand off the the AP with the strongest signal? I do not have the Ethernet cable plugged into the WAN ports and all the APs are setup with the same SSIDs and passwords. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Eddie Foy Posted May 11, 2015 Share Posted May 11, 2015 For which AP you are on, I'm sure there is an app (or even built into the OS) to find the MAC address of the AP. If you have a PC (win/mac/linux, and I think for rooted android) airodump-ng (of the aircrack-ng suite) will show all APs and clients connected to them. I could easily be wrong on this, but I don't think you would be handed off just because of a slightly stronger signal. I think its when the current signal is weak enough to be problematic (dropped packets, S/N ratio, etc.). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Akira Yamanita Posted May 11, 2015 Share Posted May 11, 2015 Eddie Foy is correct. This comes up a lot. Unless you have APs with a controller, the client device is solely responsible for the roaming decisions. I use Wifi Analyzer by farproc on Android to view info about the APs. Is your home a large bungalow or do you just have a lot of interference? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_William Burlingame Posted May 11, 2015 Author Share Posted May 11, 2015 I have WiFi Analyzer, I don't see if it tells me what AP I'm connected to. I have an old house with plaster that used a metal screen lathe. I have an AP in the basement, mainfloor and 2nd floor. The 5Ghz has more trouble going through the walls, but gives me faster results on Speedtest.net. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Akira Yamanita Posted May 11, 2015 Share Posted May 11, 2015 Switch to AP list. It will show you the MAC address of the AP that you are on up top. The different bands will show up as separate APs so you'll probably see 6. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_William Burlingame Posted May 11, 2015 Author Share Posted May 11, 2015 I should also mention that I have them all set to the same channel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Jason Marsh Posted May 11, 2015 Share Posted May 11, 2015 +1 for WiFi Analyzer. Open the app, and swipe over to the screen with the meter. The SSID and MAC are in a box at the bottom. You can also tap the box to select and view a different AP's signal strength. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Akira Yamanita Posted May 11, 2015 Share Posted May 11, 2015 They'd still show up as different APs. The channels should be different unless you have APs that support zero handoff like the Ubiquity UniFi APs or the other channels are so congested that it's the best of a bad situation. Otherwise, they just interfere with each other for no reason. It's unlikely that you'll have that situation on the 5 GHz band. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_William Burlingame Posted May 11, 2015 Author Share Posted May 11, 2015 Jason Marsh, when I open the Signal Meter view, the one that pops up is one of the 2.4Ghz signals and my device setting says I'm connected to a 5Ghz signal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Jason Marsh Posted May 11, 2015 Share Posted May 11, 2015 The selected AP in that view is sticky, but you can still change the measured network by tapping the box and selecting a different AP. I see this all the time when I open the app and it's still trying to display signal strength of the last AP I was checking out. Has nothing to do with what network you're actually connected to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Ben Reese Posted May 12, 2015 Share Posted May 12, 2015 William Burlingame?, tap the top left corner. It might say 2.4 Ghz or it might be just blank. Either way, it should switch to 5 Ghz. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Richard Hedderly Posted May 13, 2015 Share Posted May 13, 2015 Hi William Burlingame . I had the exact same issue. Android really doesn't cope with handover to different APs. There is a programme in the Play Store called Wifi Roaming Fix. (Ignore Wifi Strongest Signal) https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.heleron.wifiroamingfix&hl=en This forces Android to pick up the strongest AP given your choice. In the programme, I've set mine to change to a new AP when it gets to -55 dBm. It is MUCH improved. You've already set the APs to the same frequency. To speed up the changeover, you can also give each device (laptop, phone etc) a static IP address. This will stop them trying to negotiate with the DHCP server. I've found that some apps (VLC esp) will crash when they are running when you change AP. Not much you can do there. See how you get on with Wifi Roaming Fix. It's free. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_William Burlingame Posted May 14, 2015 Author Share Posted May 14, 2015 Richard Hedderly, I installed the app and so for it seems to be working. I'll keep checking. I did have to remove the 2.4Ghz SSID from the list on the device, because the those signals always seem to be stronger, but I get faster results on Speedtest.net with the the 5Ghz connection. Thanks. I'll set up a static address next. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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