How can I force a client to connect to AP over another AP?

Product Discussion Pepwave AP & Surf
1

Hi, I have a client that connects to one of my AP’s but I would like to test something and want to get it to connect to another AP.
How can I force it to connect to the other AP?

Thanks

2

You can turn off the first AP. Another option would be to move the client device closer to the AP you want it to connect.

You might be able to use the MAC address filtering, but that seems like a lot of work.

AP association is managed on the client and not on the AP.

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3

You are talking about controlling when your client device drops the current AP and switches to a stronger one. At what point does your client device give up its current connection and move to another one that is stronger?

What kind of device is the client? In most Windows PC integrated devices there are settings for this. For example:

control panel > device manager > network adapters > xxx_name of your wifi card

Looking now at one for Intel Centrino Advanced N625, open the settings for the device, go to the Advanced tab. There is a setting for Roaming Agressiveness. By default it is 3 Medium. At this settinig the device needs to see a known SSID or channel that is x% stronger than its current connection before it moves to the other SSID or channel. If you change that setting to 5 Highest, that signal strength difference will be smaller.

For most applications you would not want 5, as it would be flipping to another access point too easily, with a temporary loss of connection during the change.

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