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Indoor Wi-Fi Roaming with OpenWRT

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Re: Indoor Wi-Fi Roaming with OpenWRT

#41

Post by ssl-3 »

toast0 wrote: post #12
ghrl wrote: post #5

I don't quite understand the benefit of the setup. If there are legacy IoT devices that need unique named 2.4G network, just broadcast another SSID for them. So each router broadcasts main 5G (common name, fast roam etc), main 2.4G (same as above) and legacy IoT 2.4G (with a different name for each AP, and possibly worse encryption and maybe even TKIP). That wouldn't hold back the network for legacy devices.

I run a single ssid dual band network ... what tends to happen is 5Ghz is effectively ignored. 2.4Ghz has better coverage, so everything wants to live there. At least wifi 6 brought improved encoding to 2.4Ghz. I haven't had luck with the roaming extensions; when I run them, some of my devices won't connect or won't stay connected and it's a pain to monitor. I guess I could run a different SSID with roaming enhanceme…

That's been my experience as well.

My workaround for part of that is using many SSIDs.

A. The SSID that covers both bands, in all areas

B. Two more SSIDs, one for each band -- again, used in all areas

C. Another SSID just for the AP in the garage (which also has A and B SSIDs)

It has some advantages: I like being able to set a portable device to SSID A. These things usually figure it out well-enough while moving around. When someone visits and asks for wifi access, I give them SSID A. It works; it's just not always perfectly ideal.

It also prevents fixed devices in the garage from deciding to use APs in the house; it never works well for them when that happens. (The opposite problem hasn't been observed to be an issue yet.)

And it lets me decide whether any device is able to use 2.4 or 5GHz, in the usual way of having per-band SSIDs. If my TV streamer weren't plugged in with ethernet, then I'd set it to use the 5GHz-only SSID.

---

A big downside is that it's ugly. Another is that the per-device config is spread out amongst all of the devices instead of centralized, but that's not so bad: I just make the SSID decision at initial device setup and forget about it.

Re: Indoor Wi-Fi Roaming with OpenWRT

#42

Post by drnick1 »

I still like the TP-Link E610 (flashed to OpenWRT) better. They are more compact and presumably more durable than "residential" devices. I also dislike anything that has "mesh" in its name.

To me at least, the gold standard for a large home is a standalone cable modem or ONT connected to an x86 PC that serves as home server and router, and as many ceiling mounted APs as necessary to ensure good WiFi coverage. No cloud, apps, or proprietary software anywhere. With such a networking backbone it is also easy to integrate self-hosted security cameras and other appropriately hacked IoT devices.

Re: Indoor Wi-Fi Roaming with OpenWRT

#43

Post by esseph »

ssl-3 wrote: post #38
anotherhue wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

for static clients that works well, though you can usually set a min rssi and get the same benefit without so much clicking.

That works for fixed devices like a TV, but also tends to shrink the effective coverage area of the wireless network as a whole. That can mean that the portable wifi speaker-widget (which itself doesn't need much bandwidth) might go from working fine on the back deck or well-enough about anywhere else in the yard, to not working at all outside.

> That works for fixed devices like a TV, but also has the effect of shrinking the effective coverage area of the wireless network as a whole.

Which is normally a good thing to push the clients to roam to a better AP, OR you walked out of the building and want you phone to disconnect. But yes, does impact overall coverage area size.

Re: Indoor Wi-Fi Roaming with OpenWRT

#44

Post by pickdan »

Jabdoa2 wrote: post #10

You can also "just" set the 802.11k entries manually. Add 802.11r and you should be mostly good. Usteer makes it slightly better by moving clients to the best AP when they stay stationary for longer whiles.

There is a pretty interesting option "nrsyncd" that uses UPNP rather than having to add the 802.11k entries by hand/script. Seems to work quite well, takes a few minutes to gather the information about the other devices. https://github.com/Fail-Safe/nrsyncd/blob/main/README.md

Re: Indoor Wi-Fi Roaming with OpenWRT

#45

Post by esseph »

ssl-3 wrote: post #41
toast0 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I run a single ssid dual band network ... what tends to happen is 5Ghz is effectively ignored. 2.4Ghz has better coverage, so everything wants to live there. At least wifi 6 brought improved encoding to 2.4Ghz. I haven't had luck with the roaming extensions; when I run them, some of my devices won't connect or won't stay connected and it's a pain to monitor. I guess I could run a different SSID with roaming enhanceme…

That's been my experience as well. My workaround for part of that is using many SSIDs. A. The SSID that covers both bands, in all areas B. Two more SSIDs, one for each band -- again, used in all areas C. Another SSID just for the AP in the garage (which also has A and B SSIDs) It has some advantages: I like being able to set a portable device to SSID A. These things usually figure it out well-enough while moving arou…

This also impacts maximum throughout / performance. You want to try at limit to 4 BSSIDs per AP, tops.

Re: Indoor Wi-Fi Roaming with OpenWRT

#46

Post by esseph »

toast0 wrote: post #23
opan wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can turn down the power on the 2.4GHz radio so it's not as overpowering.

I do, but I can only turn it down so much or I lose outdoor coverage.

Add outdoor AP, shrink all coverage areas. You should end up with better performance.

Re: Indoor Wi-Fi Roaming with OpenWRT

#48

Post by esseph »

lxgr wrote: post #16

> The obvious advice for roaming is “use one SSID everywhere”, and that is often correct if you’re running Wi-Fi in an office, a public venue, or generally somewhere where you don’t have (or care about) legacy devices. What difference does the presence of legacy devices make? Is the intent to isolate them from modern devices from a network perspective? Then create a separate SSID on both 2.4 and 5 GHz for modern devi…

> I can't think of any legitimate reason for split SSIDs anymore.

Different networks / vlans / firewall rules.

Re: Indoor Wi-Fi Roaming with OpenWRT

#50

Post by bdavbdav »

TimTheTinker wrote: post #32

Not to be that guy, but... If you want multiple SSIDs, roaming, daily neighbor scanning and auto channel selection, etc, but don't like to spend hours tinkering with your equipment beyond the physical setup, then Ubiquiti UniFi equipment is great. I stopped recommending UniFi around 2020 (several of their best engineers had left, and they made some dumb choices), but IMO they're back to being a decent choice. And I a…

Yep exactly. This stuff quickly falls into “choose your battles” for me, and I’d rather just offload the issue
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