One SSID, Multiple UAPs

[Jackpot17]

I would like to buy a second Ubiquiti access point for my house.

I would like one SSID for both of the APs.

I would like zero hand off when walking between each of the AP's coverage.

Do I need to do any special configuration in the UniFi controller for this to work?

 

Help appreciated.

[Squish4058]

I dont think so. I think it helps the handoff if both routers have the exact same channels and frequency in addition to setting the same ssid and password but other than that I think, I really do think, as ive never tested it long term myself that it works fine

[Oshino Shinobu]

When in the UniFi controller, follow these steps:

 

>Settings (lower right of controller)

>Wireless Networks

>Add WLAN group ( + button in top right)

>Name group and tick "Enable seamless roaming (Zero-Handoff)" Just below the text box

>Follow the rest of the setup

>Go to devices and go to properties for a UAP

>In WLAN section, set the WLAN group to your Zero-Handoff group you created

>Apply Changes

>Repeat for other UAPs

 

That's it. I had to reconfigure my UAPs the other day when basically everything on the network broke so I remember how to do it

[Quindor]

Although you can enable the Ubiquiti zero-handoff feature there are only a few cases it's going to be useful for you. Most people will be much better off leaving it disabled.

 

The only real case of enabling it is when you have something like native VOIP (meaning SIP, not talking about skype, etc.) going over wireless and you can't suffer even the tiniest drop when roaming.

 

If you're doing anything else with your wireless (most people are), it's best to leave it disabled. You might miss one or maybe two pings while roaming between AP's, but most of the time you won't even notice it. The trade off's of enabling zero-handoff a way too big!

 

Trade-off's are for instance:

• All AP's will run on a single channel, when multiple AP's are being accessed at the same time, they will interfere with each other
• Total bandwith of your wireless network will be restricted to the max of the frequency you are on, a single freqeuncy!
• Performance penalties of zero-hand off besides all sharing the same channel
• Client device compatibility issues where it doesn't understand all AP's reporting as the same
• Configuration complexity

Wireless has been designed with multiple AP's in mind, them sharing the same SSID is enough to make it work (with or without a controller, controller based will work a bit better though). Be sure to set your different AP's to different channels (so that they don't overlap) and also try to space them out correctly. A generally important design rule is to set the AP's to low or medium power so they can "hear" very well, but don't try to blanket the whole house with just the one signal.

[Guest]

5 hours ago, kris2340k said:

I dont think so. I think it helps the handoff if both routers have the exact same channels and frequency in addition to setting the same ssid and password but other than that I think, I really do think, as ive never tested it long term myself that it works fine

Not quite - I don't have the time at the moment to explain why but I will later - radios should not all be on the same channel, even for roaming. 

[skywake]

I was going to post something longer but @Quindor has explained it all pretty well. So you should probably mark the thread as solved with that being the answer. I will add that if you really, really want zero-handoff from Ubiquiti you have to buy the right gear. There are some access points that don't support it. My understanding is that the LR and the Pro support it but the Lite doesn't. It doesn't work with, from what I understand, older SKUs. And all your APs need to support it for it to work.

[KuJoe]

I have 3 Ubiquiti APs in my house and I have zero-handoff disabled on all three. I ran a constant ping and walked from one end of my house to the other and didn't drop a single ping (although there was a few pings that had a little higher latency than the others). I also started watching a YouTube video and walked from one end to the other and the video played flawlessly the whole time (any latency spikes were handled by the buffer without problem). I haven't tried using Skype for a video/voice chat but I can give it a try next week when I have free time.

 

I don't see the benefit of the zero-handoff in my tests.

 

I have 2 UniFi In-Wall APs and 1 UniFi AC Lite AP.