Why Do My Clients Not Connect To The Closest Unit?

Generally, your client device will connect to the nearest Deco node. However, there are still some clients sticking on a Deco node further away, which may be decided by the roaming mechanism of the client device itself.  

A client device decides whether to roam or not depends on several factors.

1. A shorter distance does not mean a stronger signal.

Obstacles and wireless interference may affect the signal quality of the Deco units. You can get a better understand of the signal quality of surrounding APs via Wi-Fi analysis software such as Wi-Fi Analyzer.

2. It doesn't reach the roaming threshold.

For AP steering among different Deco nodes, only when the signal strength of the current AP (Deco) becomes lower than a threshold and the signal strength of another AP is good enough, Deco will recommend clients to roam via 802.11k/v standards.

3. The roaming behavior can vary depending on clients.

Deco can only provide a roaming suggestion. Whether to roam or not depends on the client itself as it has its own roaming threshold as well, which is decided by its manufacturer. In this case, clients may refuse the roaming suggestion or respond slowly causing the delay of roaming. There are also some clients that may decide to roam even though Deco doesn't recommend roaming.

If you want to stop your clients especially for stationary devices from roaming, you can try to disable the Mesh Technology option for these clients. Deco doesn't support the feature to fix clients to specific Deco at present. But we have planned to add this function in future updates. Please pay attention to our firmware updates.

If your client doesn’t roam to the nearest Deco node, just take it easy, it still has a good connection in most cases. If you find the connection is too weak, please try to power cycle the client and it will usually select the nearest Deco node to connect.