WiFi priority

[jcaswell]

I have two WiFi hubs at home, and would like to be able to prioritise the use of one over the other. That is, if both are aavailable, it will always link to the prioritised one. Is this possible?

 

[sliceoflife]

My understanding is that it connects to the wifi networks in alphabetical order. So it possible to do this by renaming the one you prefer to start with an earlier letter in the alphabet.

 

[Kaykaykay]

I have two wifi networks and from my three+ years on iPad, it just uses the last one continuously until I toggle off and switch to the other. My two networks have about equal strength. I don't know if behavior varies if there's a big diff in wifi strength.

 

[Mickey330]

The only way I can think of to reliably make the iPad link to the one you wish is to make the iPad "forget" the other one. If it's on the iPad, the iPad will connect to it.

Marilyn

 

[Kaykaykay]

The only way I can think of to reliably make the iPad link to the one you wish is to make the iPad "forget" the other one. If it's on the iPad, the iPad will connect to it.

Marilyn

It defaults to the last one used, even if you have two. That's what mine does, even though I have both remembered on my iPad.

 

[Mickey330]

Yeah, normally. But, sometimes, the "better" signal you want isn't the one that's broadcasting the strongest when you go to connect. At least on my Belkin router - I have two different channels and I often try to use the 5GB one. It's the last one I'm using [when I leave the house or go to cellular], but when I remember to look, the other one is in use. It just does what it wishes...

All that to say - I really don't know how/why the iPad picks among two different WiFi points.

M

 

[Kaykaykay]

Yeah, normally. But, sometimes, the "better" signal you want isn't the one that's broadcasting the strongest when you go to connect. At least on my Belkin router - I have two different channels and I often try to use the 5GB one. It's the last one I'm using [when I leave the house or go to cellular], but when I remember to look, the other one is in use. It just does what it wishes...

All that to say - I really don't know how/why the iPad picks among two different WiFi points.

M

Interesting. Mine doesn't switch unless I switch it manually.

 

[jcaswell]

There seems to be no consistency which one it links to - i have proved to myself that it is not alphabetical, and not the last one it linked to (at least not on my machine). I have 'forgotten' the one I do not want to link to usually, and that seems to have done the trick. Thank you all for your suggestions

 

[Kaykaykay]

Interesting, there must be a way to set up so that you can prefer one to another, because we have two, and they're of equal strength (at least judging by the crude indicators we can see on iPad), but when I use them, iPads default to it unless the other was the last used. My husband set up the wifi, so I will ask him if he knows how that occurred. He might not know, because maybe it was just a happy result of whatever else he was trying to accomplish. (That happened with iPad printing -- he set up wireless printing for other devices in our house, and it just happened to work with iPads, even though he didn't set out to make that work. I just hit print to test, and it worked, lol.)

One thing I noticed on our wifis, which all my iDevices are set to remember permanently, one always pops up before the other -- there's a lag, like I'll see our primary one and neighbors' signals, and then our other wifi will pop up as a choice, even though signal strength is equal.

For a few months recently, we had four wifi signals going in-house, because my husband moved his office to another floor but left the modem on the previous level. Even then, iPads defaulted to the same signal. But I don't know why and it didn't matter to me as long as I got online. We use a dual-band router, if that offers any clues.

 

[Kaykaykay]

My husband says he did nothing special in setting up our wifi, so it's unclear why my iPads default to the last signal used. I did a quick google search and someone else asked the same question -- how to prioritize. But then another user said the same thing I did -- his iPad 2 and iPhone 5 default to the last one used as well. So apparently some of us have stumbled onto some way to prioritize, but don't know the cause that creates the effect.

 

[allon_peter]

My two sons and I all share one wifi network and when i am on my laptop I am doing important business and sending documents but my internet always slows down because they are always downloading games or connecting to over sea servers for their games which intterupts my ability to work. Other then kicking them off their computers I was wondering if there was anyway to change priority of the wifi between different laptops. Meaning like if i need more bandwith or speed or w/e is there a way to make it so other computer currently connected wirelessly or directly would lose speed or bandwith so that my computer could run the internet at better speeds let me know if this doesnt make sense

 

[batty505]

My two sons and I all share one wifi network and when i am on my laptop I am doing important business and sending documents but my internet always slows down because they are always downloading games or connecting to over sea servers for their games which intterupts my ability to work. Other then kicking them off their computers I was wondering if there was anyway to change priority of the wifi between different laptops. Meaning like if i need more bandwith or speed or w/e is there a way to make it so other computer currently connected wirelessly or directly would lose speed or bandwith so that my computer could run the internet at better speeds let me know if this doesnt make sense

You can segment the kids or port forward term and specify when they can update
It's easy just tedious
Most parents I know complain about the network lagging when kids get on it's just how you configure your router
HTH