Due to our house having concrete block construction for the original structure, plus two later additions(one on each end). WiFi has been a bit of a struggle for us. Our current setup is:
Modem -> wireless router(Netgear, ours) -> wireless repeater(Netgear, ours line-of-site to the router through glass double-doors) -> WAP(Netgear, connected to the repeater with Cat-6 cable).
Per the devices setup instructions, the repeater & WAP each have different broadcast names than the router & each other.
The problem is as we roam throughout the house, our phones don't automatically switch over to the device(s) with stronger signals. So we're constantly having to manually chose which one we're connected to.
We all have IPhones, are on IOS 14.4, and have all-3 of our home wifi devices set for "Auto Join". What can I do to get our phones to follow the stronger signal sources?
I don't know Netgear specifically, but you should be able to get the repeaters to extend the network instead of acting like separate access points. My house is set up like that, there's the main AP, a mesh repeater and then a second AP on the end of a wireless bridge. All on the same network, the phones jump all over without a problem.
Yeah, you should be able to go into the settings via the IP address for the repeater, and select something that says act as an extender rather than its own network.
I'm no expert at all, but our IT guy just upgraded our theater with 6 WAPs. They're all configured identically, same name, password, etc, and my phone seamlessly transitions to each one.
We used to have two wireless routers named something like Theater North and Theater South. As you walked through the building it held on to North until it just couldn't anymore, then connect to south. Annoying. Now they're all just called TheatreHBG and they act as one router with multiple antennas. No more disconnecting from one and reconnecting to another.
Not sure if the equipment has to be the same or not, but you should be able to find a way to make the SSID and configuration the same so your devices see it as one continuous WAP.
Yep, as others have mentioned, they should be same name (SSID), same security, and on complimenting (or auto if it supports it) channels.
What's the model # of your router & access point? We can probably tell you exactly what to do then :)
Thanks everyone - I really thought all-3 devices should have the same name, but the instructions stated to name it something different.
The router is a Netgear R6220
I was wrong though, the extender is a Linksys RE6500
The WAP is a Netgear R6080 setup as an access point, not a router
I don't normally see the need for a wireless mesh system, but it seems like you would benefit from it. I'd be impressed if you could ever get the 3 routers to work like you wanted. It doesn't seem possible to me.
