Ever since moving to the Peplink AP One minis (from crapple airports), I have been seeing an issue where my iPhone says it has full wifi signal, it has a dhcp address, but it cannot connect to anything on LAN or WAN. I have to disable and red able the wifi for it to sort it out.
Tonight I looked at the wifi logs. It shows that my phone was associated to two different APs at the same time. It started working after the first AP disassociated the client. Basically, I think my phone was sending traffic to one AP and the router was sending the responses to the other.
The issue occurs when I move from one room to another. Access point 1 is in the bedroom. Access point 2 is in the living room, and access point 3 is in the playroom. They are laid out from west to east. Ap1 is furthest west. When I move from bedroom to playroom, I see my phone associated with AP1, then it is associated with AP3 - phone does not have a valid connection at this point - then I see it dissociate from AP1 - and the wifi starts to work again.
Is there some magical handoff setting that I am missing? I had enabled spanning tree on the APs, and it seemed to fix it, then I disabled it and it came back. Let me know what other information that I can provide that may assist. All devices are running newest firmware. Router is running 7.0, and APs are 3.5.4.
Hi jmjones,
Thanks for your report, there aren’t any magic handoff settings and Balance One core should not behave like that (Receive from APx and sent to APy).
Could you please open a support ticket here for us to check from your device? Make sure you include the following info in the support ticket for us to further investigate.
Serial Number for the Balance One Core
Remote assistance is enable for the device.
Thanks,
Lewis
Hi jmjones,
One possibly to check is the “Client Load Balancing” option within your SSID(s).
The “Client Load Balancing” option is applicable to a high density environment with multiple APs covering the same area. When a new client attempts to connect to a SSID in the area the system will direct the client to the AP that can most effectively serve the client and all other APs will not respond to the connecting client. This option is not intended for APs that do not cover the same environmental area and could be introducing some confusion if enabled.
I would recommend opening a support ticket, as previously suggested, even if after disabling this option your problem is resolved to facilitate code refinement and product improvement efforts.
Thank you jmjones, I hope you have a nice day.
Thanks for the replies. I haven’t quite dorked around with it yet to start logging a support case or allowing remote support in. It may be soon, but it really isn’t that big of a deal to flip a software switch twice. I do have some questions overall as to what AP management is really taking place inside the router.
Is it primarily a central configuration utility and information interface? By that I mean, is there any “behind the scenes” coordination going on in the background? Some companies call the technology to manage AP connection to clients is “zero handoff”. This basically allows the APs to manage which point will service a client. I imagine this type of feature is on the road map since there are several options available that might make it better. Signal thresholds, rogue APs (nearby devices), and client distribution (max clients) are some features that imply the APs “know” about each other. From what I see - the router is the only thing that knows all the APs exist. Currently, it looks as though the router is a configuration manager (awesome) and a front door to see consolidated views from the APs (awesome again)
My next steps are to do a wireless map of my house and see if I can determine where the “cut off” points will be. I will make note of the signal strength at these points with multiple devices and take the lowest signal strength as my threshold. Since I have no access to the iPhone wifi client details (thanks apple) - it is going to be a lot of trial and error.
What does marking the Nearby Devices do? Why do we need to specify that other Peplink APs broadcasting the same SSIDs are 
(Happy faces)? Seems that they should just know.
I am still loving my Peplink gear. Please don’t take me as just a dude that likes to bitch. I want to understand what is happening is all. Technology is my profession and the more you know means the more valuable you are. Thanks for the great products that expose so much to the home users. Big boy toys (enterprise class) gear is used to exposing it, so it is nice to have at home. Sure beats the old “reboot it” type of crap you deal with when using average consumer grade gear. And you sure don’t get a forum of users to help either. Still a very happy Peplink customer.
You can try to alter some radio setting like client signal strength threshold, tx power etc. to see if they can help.
The marking of the Nearby Device page provides a convenient way to show the “Marked” devices once you sort the list by “Mark” column.
We are happy that you enjoy playing the gear and also provide feedback on it. This can definitely help us to improve our products.
Thanks,
Lewis
(Happy faces)? Seems that they should just know.