WLAN reliability problems with iPads on AP One AC Mini, roaming

Product Discussion Pepwave AP & Surf
1

Hello.

I have a client for whom I’ve installed an AP One 300M and an AP One AC Mini to cover the area. These sit behind a Balance One, but that’s on another floor so doesn’t factor in to the coverage in the problem area.

What’s happening is that iPads nearest the AC Mini lose their connection multiple times in the space of a few hours. I suspect an issue with the iPad’s roaming algorithm, but they remain stationary so should always be associating with the AC Mini since it is physically closer. This issue only started happening a few months ago and they’ve had the AC Mini for years so I’m also wondering if there is a problem with the AC Mini. How can I best troubleshoot this? Is there a different model that has better reliability?

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2

Would you able to provide detail info/behaviors for the lose connection as mention above ?

  • The Ipad disconnected from the SSID ? or connected to the SSID without internet access ?
  • How you recover the issue ?
  • Did you check from the AC mini whether the Ipad is associate for the device ?
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3

This happened at a client of mine and I didn’t know until the day after so couldn’t see if the devices were associated. But from what I know, they disconnected from the SSID and reconnected some seconds later on their own. (As if the AP stopped broadcasting for a few seconds every so often.)

Since it’s an ongoing problem, I can monitor more closely and see if they stay associated or not.

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4

Would you please open a support ticket here for support team to check ?

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5

I just changed the AP settings to increase the Client Signal Strength Threshold to -75dBm and auto-change channels each night, so let me see if that helps first. If not, I’ll open a support ticket, though the client is disgusted and suspects bad hardware right now and is ready to replace it with an Ap One Rugged.

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6

Hey man. Try to disable the “Wifi-assist” options if it is a cellular device. Settings-cellular. Scroll down and disable “wi-fi” assist.

I have crappy cell reception, but the iOS kept trying to supplement my WiFi with the crappy cell reception. Speedtest would be a very wavy line. I am still doing some testing, but I think this feature has been causing me a ton of grief.

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7

Hi,

Did you manage to solve the problem? Our Client faces the same issue, with iPads that use Wi-Fi to manage AV Console. After connecting to their SSID everything works well but after a few minutes the mgmt app stops working and displays “check WiFi status”. It kind of looks like the device is has a really bad signal and looses packets.

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8

Yes, we replaced the AC Mini with an AP One Rugged and the problem has drastically improved. (Still see it about once a week, once every couple weeks.) So I’m almost positive the AC Mini had developed a hardware problem.

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9

Firmware recently issued fixed this same problem for us:

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10

I found that moving from WPA and WPA2 to just WPA2 has fixed a bunch of my issues with roaming apple products. I did have to setup a special SSID for a printer that does not support WPA2, but that was an easy fix.

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11

I am also having the same problem. Might be because of a specific router. You can also check your router.The specifications of my are Netgear Powerline support

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