Originally Posted by twerppoet

I admit to some slight tendencies to the pedantic. I've also been know to tell really boring stories, that my audience politely pretends to listen to. On the plus side people seldom ask me to explain what I just said.

Now, if I can just figure out if that's because I'm doing good job the first time, or if they are desperate to escape.

Hahah. You sound like my father and law, but don't tell him that!

Sent from my iPad using iPF

Originally Posted by twerppoet

It doesn't choose the best signal, which is a good thing, or it would be constantly switching networks when you are on the edge of two.

Instead, when it loses a network, it keeps looking around until it sees a recognized one, and joins that. If it sees more than one, it chooses the one you joined first.

To stop if from automatically joining a network you don't want, got to Settings >> WiFi, and choose the network by tapping on the blue arrow. If that network is set to auto-join you'll have a Forget this Network option. When you do this the network will still show up (provided it is not a hidden network), but the iPad will not automatically join it. At least until you manually join it again. Then it goes back on the list. But it's priority should now be lower than other auto-join networks.

When the iPad auto-joins a network, it looks around for any networks it has been connected to before. As near as I can tell, it chooses from available networks based on when they were first set up, with earlier networks getting priority. Last added networks get last priority. That is why Forgetting the network and adding it again lowers it's priority. Still, if the iPad is trying to join a network, it's going to join what it sees at the time. It won't change just because a new, higher priority network is suddenly available. The old one has to drop off.

Disclaimer: This is all based on observation and guesses based on observation, so if your observations disagree with mine, feel free to correct me. But be nice.

I am probably missing the point of your post. But I am assuming that in OP's scenario the two access points are in the same wireless network. So whether it auto-joins or manually connects to a network makes no difference, because either way you cannot tell the iPad to connect to a specific access point.

Originally Posted by DontUnderstandMyIpad

I am probably missing the point of your post. But I am assuming that in OP's scenario the two access points are in the same wireless network. So whether it auto-joins or manually connects to a network makes no difference, because either way you cannot tell the iPad to connect to a specific access point.

If you are right, then there may be no point to my post. I read it as being two different networks, but again that was an assumption. A closer reading of a follow up post suggests that you are right, but the OP never really says.