Macintosh OS X having problems with sticking to the strongest signal

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Macintosh OS X having problems with sticking to the strongest signal

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Macintosh OS X having problems with sticking to the strongest signal
Macintosh OS X having problems with sticking to the strongest signal
2020-06-30 23:24:34
Model: EAP225  
Hardware Version: V3
Firmware Version:

Hello Everyone!

 

I have this office with very thick walls and i have 3 eap225 on the same floor to service all the workspaces there, trouble is,  one Mac user has this EAP225  6 ft away from his desk, an the mac still choosees to link onto a weaker EAP,, when I finally get it to link to the strongest AP it will be givien 3 bars and -69dbm on the contorller at 351Mb (5ghz)

 

My transimt powers are set to low and i have specified 3 different 5ghz channels on this floor. 157,161,149

 

Anything else I have to do? or am I missing something??

 

Thanks!

 

 

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#1
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7 Reply
Re:Macintosh OS X having problems with sticking to the strongest signal
2020-07-01 07:18:37

@rtrevino how about updating the wireless adapter of the Mac device?

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#2
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Re:Macintosh OS X having problems with sticking to the strongest signal
2020-07-01 16:16:39

Hi @rtrevino,

 

A couple things to look at:

 

1) "My transimt powers are set to low and i have specified 3 different 5ghz channels on this floor. 157,161,149"

 

Are you using 80 MHz BW on 5.8GHz?  If so, there are only two non-overlapping channels in the USA.  36 & 149.  You've selected 3 channels that will conflict / overlap unless you are using 20MHz BW.

 

For 2.4GHz us 20MHz only, for 5.8GHz try either 40MHz or 80MHz only.  Your ability to use 80MHz will depend on whether AP1 can see AP3, for example (the two that are farthest apart would be set on the same channel).

 

2) Are the AP's ceiling mounted?  ideally the AP would be installed above the Mac PC.

 

3) Use the custom scale to set the powers.  You can try the "low" equivalent, but I've found this can be a bit, too low.

 

4) Many Apple products notoriously struggle with band steering and OSX lacks fast roaming.  Create a separate 5.8GHz only SSID to join your Apple products to. 
 

5) Update your network card drivers if possible.  Check the adapter properties.  There may be a "roaming aggressiveness" setting.

 

I have an Xbox that stupidly connects to the wrong AP all the time -- my other 45 Wifi clients work great -- I finally just gave up and hardwired it.

 

-Jonathan

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#3
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Re:Macintosh OS X having problems with sticking to the strongest signal
2020-07-01 23:57:15
Sorry, for the late reply. I will try what you suggest and let you know tomorrow morning, as I will make the changes off hours to prevent users from getting booted from the network. Thank you!
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#4
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Re:Macintosh OS X having problems with sticking to the strongest signal
2020-07-02 00:24:48

@rtrevino, which version of OS X (or is it rather MacOS?) are you using?

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Re:Macintosh OS X having problems with sticking to the strongest signal
2020-07-02 01:06:23

@R1D2 1 user has macOS catalina 10.15.4

 

the other one has macOS el capitan 10.11.6

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#6
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Re:Macintosh OS X having problems with sticking to the strongest signal
2020-07-02 09:37:00 - last edited 2020-07-02 09:53:32

@rtrevino, there are long-standing WiFi problems in many OS X and MacOS versions, which include weird behavior such as experienced by your colleagues. Try to fix it as suggested here:

 

https://osxdaily.com/2015/10/16/fix-wi-fi-problems-mac-os-x-el-capitan/

https://osxdaily.com/2016/09/22/fix-wi-fi-problems-macos-sierra/

 

In general, if EAPs work with most devices, but only a few fail, I would not look for bugs or work-arounds in EAP firmwares or settings.
It often leads to wrong assumptions such as that avoiding certain EAP settings could help to fix other device's bugs.

 

We have a saying in Germany: »Even Apple cooks with water.« I want to add: Albeit Tim Cook sometimes tries to cook with hot air. 

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#7
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Re:Macintosh OS X having problems with sticking to the strongest signal
2020-07-02 14:21:16

@R1D2

 

Thnks, I will give this a try!!

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#8
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