2 x Wireless access points

Ant555

A small office requires 2 wireless access points to provide good coverage for lap tops, phones etc.

At the moment its set up with the same SSID and password for each but I was wondering if that was the best thing.

This does seem to work but would there be any benefit in changing the setup so that the SSIDs have different names?

Any thoughts or experiences?

jbainbridge

That's the way I'd do it too. Then you only have to join the network once and it will swap over when required. Make sure the APs are not using overlapping channels.

esuhl

I do it that way too. I'm not sure that it makes much difference -- if I used different SSIDs and set the PC to connect automatically to either one, I assume it would just connect to the AP with the strongest signal anyway.

chunter

I tend to do it with different SSIDs.

What you need to be careful when placing the access points, is that signal strength is the same where people are mostly using it.

Does that make sense? You don't want the laptop constantly switching between the two access points because the signal strength of both is almost the same.

googler

If the points have different SSIDs, then won't any portable devices have trouble connecting at the break point between the two?

kwikbreaks

chunter wrote: »

You don't want the laptop constantly switching between the two access points because the signal strength of both is almost the same.

In my experience that doesn't happen. I have two APs with different SSIDs as one is internet only and if I connect to one of them I stay connected to it even if I move and the other one comes up stronger. I'm wondering if they had the same SSID if you would get swapping from one to the other - even if you did I'm pretty much certain that the designers of the specifications would have this covered and it wouldn't be a problem.

esuhl

I'm not 100% sure, but I *think* that once you've connected to a particular AP, the connection will be maintained and won't swap to the other AP when a stronger signal is detected. The only time it will swap over (I think) is if the connection is lost, and the device will re-scan for APs and connect to (what is now) the strongest signal.