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WIFI keeps changing channels.

Gautam.Dey

Our hostel has access points (2 access points on each floor, this is a 3 story building and I live in the middle floor) with same SSID but every access point broadcast on a different channel. When I connect my USB WiFi adapter over 5Ghz (haven't tried 2.4Ghz for as everyone says it's over crowded) the wifi keeps changing channels. My wifi works great at channel 52 but sometimes my internet goes to a snail speed and then my wifi is connected at channel 149 (or something similar).

 

How can I prevent my WiFi from switching channels? My adapter doesn't comes with any kind of software I'm using windows default method to browse and connect to available WiFi SSID.

 

Please help.

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It's not your adapter changing channels, it's the APs moving to different, less congested/lower load, channels dynamically but that should be seamless to the end user and it shouldn't impact performance any. Unless you're being roamed to a different AP to avoid load and that AP is really far away for some reason but that's not best practice to do that anyway. If you're in between a bunch of APs in a pretty equal distance you can bounce/roam between them and if things aren't setup correctly then you could lose signal for a second during the roam before the client reconnects.

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2 minutes ago, Lurick said:

It's not your adapter changing channels, it's the APs moving to different, less congested/lower load, channels dynamically but that should be seamless to the end user and it shouldn't impact performance any. Unless you're being roamed to a different AP to avoid load and that AP is really far away for some reason but that's not best practice to do that anyway. If you're in between a bunch of APs in a pretty equal distance you can bounce/roam between them and if things aren't setup correctly then you could lose signal for a second during the roam before the client reconnects.

I've a AP right outside my room, then the other AP is right below my floor, like underneath the AP in my floor then on the top floor the AP is at the exact position.

 

So it's like APs are in a straight line from bottom floor to the top.

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2 minutes ago, Gautam.Dey said:

I've a AP right outside my room, then the other AP is right below my floor, like underneath the AP in my floor then on the top floor the AP is at the exact position.

 

So it's like APs are in a straight line from bottom floor to the top.

Ah, that's sub-optimal placement of the APs and you're likely bouncing between two of the APs (which will be on different channels obviously) can cause issues if you're just bouncing back and forth every so often. Not really sure if there is a setting to force you to attach to an AP and stay attached in Windows or anything.

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1 minute ago, Lurick said:

Ah, that's sub-optimal placement of the APs and you're likely bouncing between two of the APs (which will be on different channels obviously) can cause issues if you're just bouncing back and forth every so often. Not really sure if there is a setting to force you to attach to an AP and stay attached in Windows or anything.

So basically I've to suffer from bad WiFi. 

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4 minutes ago, Gautam.Dey said:

So basically I've to suffer from bad WiFi. 

Unfortunately, yeah.

 

As @Lurick said, the config you described looks like it was just put together by someone that doesn't know about WiFi. When we install APs at client's, we do an analysis to make sure the APs are placed for optimal coverage and non-interference.

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There might be an option with Intel based adapters to lower the roaming aggressiveness outlined here:

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000005546/network-and-i-o/wireless-networking.html

 

The only other option that I've seen, and I'm still not 100% sure about, is this:

https://www.netsetman.com/en/freeware

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1 minute ago, Lurick said:

There might be an option with Intel based adapters to lower the roaming aggressiveness outlined here:

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000005546/network-and-i-o/wireless-networking.html

 

The only other option that I've seen, and I'm still not 100% sure about, is this:

https://www.netsetman.com/en/freeware

I'll give it a go.

 

I've got one more query, so our APs are powered via POE and I've checked and researched a bit and found that they can be powered via this switch

TP-Link TL SG1005P 5 Port Gigabit Ethernet PoE Desktop Switch with 4 Ports, 55W

Now my concern is that, can I connect a POE connection as it's input (port no. 5)? I'll still power the switch via wall power. I know it's not a POE pass-through. I've read through Active and Passive POE delivery and I think our APs are connected via Active POE. I'm planning on connecting LAN and power the AP via this switch.

 

Will it work or the power from the POE input can damage the switch?

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2 minutes ago, Gautam.Dey said:

I'll give it a go.

 

I've got one more query, so our APs are powered via POE and I've checked and researched a bit and found that they can be powered via this switch

TP-Link TL SG1005P 5 Port Gigabit Ethernet PoE Desktop Switch with 4 Ports, 55W

Now my concern is that, can I connect a POE connection as it's input (port no. 5)? I'll still power the switch via wall power. I know it's not a POE pass-through. I've read through Active and Passive POE delivery and I think our APs are connected via Active POE. I'm planning on connecting LAN and power the AP via this switch.

 

Will it work or the power from the POE input can damage the switch?

It won't cause any damage. The switch behind the APs is doing Active PoE because the Cisco APs you linked earlier only do active PoE.

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1 minute ago, Lurick said:

It won't cause any damage. The switch behind the APs is doing Active PoE because the Cisco APs you linked earlier only do active PoE.

Thanks a lot for the responses.

 

Have a good night.

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2 minutes ago, Gautam.Dey said:

Thanks a lot for the responses.

 

Have a good night.

You do the same.

I will make a small adjustment to my earlier statement though, just to be clear :). While it's possible to do passive PoE and not negotiate power before hand on the switches and just supply power constantly (I'm assuming Cisco just for consistency here) and still power the APs that way, based on the information provided I'm pretty confident that's not been done since it's not a standard setting.

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1 minute ago, Lurick said:

You do the same.

I will make a small adjustment to my earlier statement though, just to be clear :). While it's possible to do passive PoE and not negotiate power before hand on the switches and just supply power constantly (I'm assuming Cisco just for consistency here) and still power the APs that way, based on the information provided I'm pretty confident that's not been done since it's not a standard setting.

Yeah we have Cisco APs and the switch, even though I can't really make out the model or the brand seems like an enterprise one with 24 ports and fiber input. I hope this info helps. As the switch are locked in a cage (not sure what to call it) and is placed high on the wall.

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58 minutes ago, Gautam.Dey said:

Yeah we have Cisco APs and the switch, even though I can't really make out the model or the brand seems like an enterprise one with 24 ports and fiber input. I hope this info helps. As the switch are locked in a cage (not sure what to call it) and is placed high on the wall.

Yah, I wouldn't worry about it then, if you plug a PC into the port and it works fine then it's definitely active PoE :)

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Just now, Lurick said:

Yah, I wouldn't worry about it then, if you plug a PC into the port and it works fine then it's definitely active PoE :)

That I actually did while trying to connect my PC via the AUX port of the Cisco AP, as the AUX port wasn't working so I thought my cable might be broken but as soon as I connected my PC directly in the LAN Box it was working and my PC is still fine.

So yeah now I'm fully set to take the next step and thanks for the software link, it doesn't actually solved the issue but I can switch the AP immediately as it shows all of them, so it's kind of a fix but I'm unable to lock it to that particular AP or maybe I'm not doing is correctly.

Screenshot (22).png

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5 minutes ago, Gautam.Dey said:

That I actually did while trying to connect my PC via the AUX port of the Cisco AP, as the AUX port wasn't working so I thought my cable might be broken but as soon as I connected my PC directly in the LAN Box it was working and my PC is still fine.

So yeah now I'm fully set to take the next step and thanks for the software link, it doesn't actually solved the issue but I can switch the AP immediately as it shows all of them, so it's kind of a fix but I'm unable to lock it to that particular AP or maybe I'm not doing is correctly.

 

There is supposed to be an option that lets you connect to a specific AP by MAC address. Not sure the steps though.

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2 minutes ago, Lurick said:

There is supposed to be an option that lets you connect to a specific AP by MAC address. Not sure the steps though.

I'll try to figure that out.

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