We have been testing different configurations for wifi. We tested the performance of a Ubiquiti UniFi Access Point (the device that creates a wifi Hotspot) and a MikroTik mAP lite. By setting both access points up with some distance between them, and the same network name (ssid), we were able to see how well mobile devices handled being disconnected. Our investigations showed that a mobile device will connect to the access point with the strongest signal when it is disconnected. As such, it will not automatically attempt to connect to an access point with the same name – although it will connect to a network to which it has previously connected.
A second result which we observed is that a device will not switch to an access point that has a better connection than the current one. Like all rules, this one has an exception: if both the access points are ubiquity UniFis, the access points will co-ordinate the transfer.
What does this mean for the user? Well, firstly, if you have moved and you are experiencing poor signal, you can fix this by turning your device's wifi on and off. This is because when you reconnect, your device will automatically select the fastest connection it can find. Alternatively, you can set your access points to have different network names (ssids), for example: 'TV Room' and 'Study'. By doing this, you can manually select the closest wifi access point if you find that you are no longer getting satisfactory connection to the Access Point.