How to choose wich Deco my device connects to?
Hi,
I've been using TP-Link Deco products for quite a few years by now. I have both X60 and M5 in use at home, and have been generally happy with them since the day 1. I am commanding them via the iPhone app. The problem I have is that it seems to be rather difficult to convince a device to get their connection from another Deco instead. For example one of my laptops insists connecting on an M5 that is couple rooms away, even if I have a perfectly well functioning X60 next to it (less than a meter away). The iPhone app doesn't seem to provide an option to command the device to connect to a certain Deco in my mesh network?
I would love to have better control over which device connects to which Deco in my network. Now the connections seem suboptimal, and often devices have poor NW reception at where they are located.
And yes, I've used all the features available on the app, like the QoS and Wi-Fi optimization features.I regularly update the devices, although only the years before acquired M5 seem to be getting updates anymore. O.o
I'm running both networks, 5GHz and 2,4.
The one M5 in use is at 1.7.6 build 20240305
X60's are at 1.5.3 Build 20231227
With Deco models you have, and firmware they run on, the only option for Deco is to make Deco Main Network run on 5GHz only. This will convince devices to connect to Deco units nearby, because 5GHz travels shorter distances than 2.4GHz, so that device won't have much choice.
Here it is in Deco app:
For laptop specifically, if it is less than a meter away from X60, just hardwire it to X60 with Ethernet cable.
Also, check laptop WiFi network adapter settings. Adapter on my PC is from Realtek and it has two very useful settings:
One is Preferred Band. If you have that, set it to 5GHz.
Another, even more important one, is right below named "Roaming Aggressiveness." It specifies how often laptop scans WiFi mesh to find better signal. Set that to highest possible value, to force laptop rescan WiFi networks often and switch to stronger signal from nearby WiFi mesh node faster.
Your network adapter might have same parameters with different names, but you've got an idea. Check what you have on your laptop(s) and tune them correspondingly.