How To Fix Wi-Fi Roaming

[JanL65]

a bit late for this. UNIFI is my experiment.
I have 1½ year experience with Asus-AiMesh (wifi-roaming) - which functions very close to 100% and have been stable.
I wanted to "upgrade" and Ubiquiti Unifi (AC-LR) seemed perfect.
BUT, turns out, that they don't release units, at least not the units (clients / mobiles) we own (Samsung S7, iPhone-SE-2016, PC, iPad-Pro).
Problem: The units sticks to the "first seen" AP - and doesn't switch band (from AC-5G to N-2,4G) ... so, it doesn't work at all, and it is one big setback, from the Asus-solution.
Right now, I am in the proces of "testing and probably returning" the Unifi's .. and are using the Asus's (running N-2,4G, extremely stable - because it is a house, not close to neighbourgs, and without too many "2,4G signal-interference").

Any good solutions ... I have tried changing parameters/settings in the Unifi-Controller-"App" (PC-Windows), to no avail!

 

[coxhaus]

So, if you are 100% stable why did you want to upgrade?

How did you setup the UNIFI equipment and what equipment did you use for the test?
Just curious. This sounds like marketing.

 

[JanL65]

So, if you are 100% stable why did you want to upgrade?

How did you setup the UNIFI equipment and what equipment did you use for the test?
Just curious. This sounds like marketing.

Why upgrade?: Because of "curiosity" and "the need for speed and new stuff" - I guess I'm human.

Unifi-setup :
- 2 unifi AC-LR's.
- placed appr. 12 meters from each other, with 3 "thin" wall in between (damping around 45 dB (down to appr. -75 dB).
- I was from the beginning 100% sure, because of marketing-hype AND lots of positive reviews by "network experts" on Youtube .. so I plugged the Unifi's in, at the exact same spots and distance, as the Asus-Routers .. mainly because that all connections were there (power, LAN).
- I then went through standard-setup, and then I did start testing ... and, I couldn't get the d... mobile-units to "let go" of the first AP and band, that they "got a hold of".

Comparison :
- this I also tried out when I tried the Asus-setup ... difference was just, that here my mobile units roamed (except our Samsunt-Tab-S2).
I don't think I'm biased - or, if I am biased, it would be "towards Unifi AC-LR", because "on paper" it shines (as it does in several reviews out there).
- If anybody has got a good input ... because as it is, the Unifi-solution really stinks in our home, with our mobile-units.

To "This sounds like marketing" :
- well, I'm just into, what works for me. I have now read, that the roaming is a jungle - some units only functions with 1 or 2 of the 3 current roaming-standards ... which can be the case here ....
- Another reason for me, to change to Unifi, is power consumption. My 2 Asus-Routers uses 15W (appr 8,7 (N66U) + 6,3 (N18U)) in AP-mode.
- The Unifi'es uses 8W (2 x appr. 4W). [and the Unifi LED can be "turned off", which my Asus-Router LED's cannot (more recent router's LED's can be turned off, if I do remember right ... this is no so much power-consumption, but more "annoying with the flashing light", at night-time .. since we have one of the 2 routers standing in our bedroom!]
- The power-consumption "thing" is not the main reason for me - as it will take me appr. 7½ years to "payback the cost for 2 Unifi's" in saved electricity ...
- Problem: Is it at all possible to get the Unifi's to work, if the roaming-standard isn't compatible with "standard mobile-units" (iPhones, iPads, Samsung-mobiles) ?
- Please do comment - I might not be able to "see the holy grail"...

 

[coxhaus]

It does not look like you used a UNIFI router and switch? I am not sure ASUS built-in switch works that well.

You know this is all marketing BS for ASUS.

 

[JanL65]

I don't understand, what you mean.
(I am only talking about the AP's - nothing to do with switch & router)
(and my setup is not BS or marketing - it is working IRL, for 1½ years now ... even with 5 ipcams doing realtime 24-7 streaming, parallel with normal wifi bandwidth usage).
(Cisco, Asus, Ubiquiti, TP-Link, hyper-xx, whatever - to me the important thing is: Does it work, IRL ... the rest is for VIP-jerks !!)

 

[coxhaus]

Here read this. AiMesh does not work well with more than 1 AiMesh router and is limited with 1 AiMesh.

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I think any regular AP system is going to be better than AiMesh including UniFi. AiMesh is a 1 channel system where as the AP system will talk on multiple channels and move more data.