As Valentin here said, do not mount the ceiling mounted AP´s pointing upwards, lying on the floor, or on top of a table or an a bookshelf pointing upwards.
You will lose a lot of the power it transmits by doing so.
I tested it myself, on 2 rooms with 2 AP´s:
In first room AP15 was just lying on top of the table, behind a printer (thus not being visible at all) , which was nice from looks point of view. Was a bit puzzled of the low speeds I received through it. Moved it towards the user, now clearly visible, and also turned it 90 degrees so that the top of unit now faces the user(s).
The difference was huge ! Getting much more speed through it now.
Second room, I had AP15 on top pf a bookshelf, again because it was looking good like that. But, ..... You guessed it, the speed through was not that great.
Took it down, mounted it a bit lower on that bookshelf (about face hight) and turned it 90 degrees so that the top of the unit points towards user(s).
Again , a big difference in performance.
Now considering getting 2 of these AP11D´s,
the tabletop/wallmounted models, as they might be best in those 2 locations.
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Erkki Ojansivu
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Original Message:
Sent: 07-18-2021 03:10 PM
From: Valentin Voica
Subject: Signal strength of AP's
Switching from an access point witch a weaker signal to one with a stronger signal is a decision made by the client (laptop, smartphone, tablet etc), and not by the access points (some of the enterprise grade access points can actually force a client to switch from one access point to another).
The network cards installed in consumer devices are not as smart we think they are, and WLAN roaming is not on their "priority list". As such, providing there is a reliable link, it is better for a client to stick to the lower signal strength access point than negotiating with another one. You have already noticed this in your Wi-Fi environment.
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Valentin Voica
Original Message:
Sent: 07-18-2021 02:08 PM
From: Unknown User
Subject: Signal strength of AP's
Even with fair connected clients speeds are pretty good. The biggest issue I've notice in my deployed systems is that clients will hold on to a particular access point in another room despite being feet away from another. Just look and the clients and see which AP they connect to and a lot of times you'll find this isn't the closest or the strongest signal. If you reboot a POE switch that powers all your APs the 1930 will supply power to a port one by one so the first AP that becomes fully active and available for clients will often get all the clients within reach which will be strong to weak signals so when the other APs come online the clients are already connected to an AP that isn't ideally where you'd want it to connect to. People may move but you'll see this a lot with fixed in place wifi devices after a reboot or update.
it would be nice if there was some logic built into these APs to periodically scan to see who has the strongest signal for a client and if none are currently forwarding or receiving traffic from that particular client the weaker AP holding that client should drop it so the client re associates with the strongest available AP kinda like a wifi controller would do.
Original Message:
Sent: 07-17-2021 01:06 AM
From: Erkki Ojansivu
Subject: Signal strength of AP's
Built a small system using Instant On switch, with PoE, and added 5 AP's to it.
After some simple issues works nicely now.
Extremely pleased with the easiness of app to control/monitor, use and modification of the whole set up, even when not in location.
Sometimes a bit concerned when I see from app itself that clients are connected to our wifi network, but showing only "FAIR" in signal quality.
Should I be concerned and start thinking about relocating the AP's to better (more centralized and open) location(s) ?
Currently just test mounted them to learn about them, and they are just hiding behind curtains, printers or laying on bookshelf. Not a single AP is (yet) ceiling mounted. Visually good this way, I have to admit…. :-)
So far not much complaints from users though.
I just thought, that if one is using our system and is sitting in the same same room where the AP is located one would always get a "GOOD" signal. But it seems not. Regularly see through app, they are connected with "FAIR" only.
Or is "FAIR" still OK and normal to see and no need to worry too much about that ?
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Erkki Ojansivu
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