My MR36 is on the ceiling, but the user prefers the farthest AP.

Schiller
Here to help

My MR36 is on the ceiling, but the user prefers the farthest AP.

I have an MR36 with the radio setting set to auto. I've noticed users in the same room are connected to the farthest access point. How can I resolve this issue?

Thank you.

14 Replies 14
KarstenI
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

This is a client decision. And there are countless parameters going into this. First is to look at the signal of the MR36 in the room and the signal from the other AP. Compare this to your Wireless design. Very likely, the roaming threshold is not crossed because the other AP is too "loud". If Wireless is important, let someone do a validation survey. Based on the OS, you can also reconfigure the roaming agressiviness on the client. But always only do one change at the time as things could easily get worse.

Schiller
Here to help

Thank you for your response.

Amit_pal
Getting noticed

I had similar issue , turning off client balancing fixed the issue ...

You can find that in Wireless---> Radio Settings--> Go to RF Profile and then turn off client load balancing

KarstenI
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

If I remember right, it should be disabled by default, at least nowadays. But it's still good to check.

GreenMan
Meraki Employee
Meraki Employee

Only off by default for newly created networks, I think

Amit_pal
Getting noticed

Screenshot 2024-10-28 at 9.44.54 PM.png

If i create a new RF Profile in the Network , it is On by default

Schiller
Here to help

Thank you!

Schiller
Here to help

Thank you @Amit_pal. I try it but didn't fix my problem. 

GreenMan
Meraki Employee
Meraki Employee

That's because the default behaviour lies with the Network, not the RF Profile.   If you created a brand new Network (not cloned or bound to a Template) it would be off.

GreenMan
Meraki Employee
Meraki Employee

Just one other thought;   do those users who are connected to the more distant AP actually suffer any noticeable problems that might be caused by that happening?   If not, I'd be tempted to just not worry about it.   If they are laptops, look at increasing the roaming aggresiveness in the driver settings

KarstenI
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

And what kind of devices are having these problems?

thomasthomsen
Kind of a big deal

Some clients (In my experience especially Apple computers, and I think it is even in their documentation) REALLY prefer wider channels, so if you are running "auto" on channel-width, and one AP is at fx. 40Mhz and the other one is at 20Mhz , then the client might prefer the AP with the 40Mhz channel, even though it is far away. I always recommend "static" channel-width, so 20,40,80 depending on your local regulatory domain, and whats feasible.

cmr
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

Totally agree with you there @thomasthomsen, fixed channel width is the way to go and invariably in any vaguely dense environment it is best fixed at 20MHz to maximise the number of non interfering channels.  In low density environments you can use 40MHz+

thomasthomsen
Kind of a big deal

Some Apple documents that might be of interest for some.

https://support.apple.com/en-jo/guide/deployment/dep3b0448c58/1/web/1.0 <- See the AutoJoin section, for some "dbm" numbers.

 

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/deployment/dep98f116c0f/web <- See the "Selection criteria for band, network and roam candidates" for some "trigger" values, how much better the new signal must be, and preference in wide channel, and "Wi-Fi generation" when roaming.

 

 

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