Right now, when he walks to the store he gets 2 out of 5 bars of signal, slow speeds, some dropped packets, etc. His phone and laptop never try and switch to the stronger network in the store unless he switches his network manually.
I did some reading about mesh networks, WDS, etc. So I tried a few configs. My goal is the fastest wireless speeds with the least latency, always. Here's what I tried:
Both "access points" are TP-Link WR841ND routers with Gargoyle 1.6.0 on them. There is a separate dedicated (non-wireless) router that handles the internet from the ISP.
Store AP. Config device as: Gateway. Internet/WAN: disabled. IP: 192.168.0.18, gateway 192.168.0.1, Wireless Mode: AP+WDS, SSID: house2, channel 1, wpa2 psk. LAN cable plugged into LAN port #1.
House AP. Config device as: Wireless Bridge/Repeater. Bridge IP: 192.168.0.19, Gateway IP: 192.168.0.18. Same SSID, channel, encryption key. Drop down, I've tried BOTH "Connect via WDS" and "Connect via Client bridge" and have the same issue. It works perfectly as long as I don't plug the network cable into the House AP (the network cable is connected to the same network as the Store AP). When I do, it shuts down the entire network, no communication between any computers on the network.
I can't use WDS or client bridge as a solution because the signal between the two routers is pretty poor so the speeds on the repeated AP are terrible. That's why I was hoping to plug the Ethernet cable into it.
If I change the House AP to "Gateway" and set it up as an access point then it works fine with the network cable plugged in of course.
Gateway mode doesn't solve my problem though. If I set both the House AP and Store AP to the same channel, same SSID, same encryption key, etc. then his phone and laptop still won't switch to the better network automatically. He has to "forget" the network, reconnect, enter his encryption key, THEN it'll be on the stronger network, but when he goes to the other building he has to do the same thing all over again
Even worse than how it is now (with two different named access points)!!So, am I missing something? Two AP's both connected to the same LAN by network cable. I want to seamlessly have my wireless devices connect to the AP with the strongest signal, even though I'm getting signal from both. I thought WDS would do it, but won't work with a network cable connected to the second/client AP
Let me know if you have any ideas.
-Jamie M.