Home Network Community > All Threads > Please help me comprehend the logic of "Connection Preference" if it does not actually work.....
< All Threads

Please help me comprehend the logic of "Connection Preference" if it does not actually work.....

Please help me comprehend the logic of "Connection Preference" if it does not actually work.....

Please help me comprehend the logic of "Connection Preference" if it does not actually work.....
Please help me comprehend the logic of "Connection Preference" if it does not actually work.....
Tuesday
Model: Deco X20  
Hardware Version: V1
Firmware Version: 1.2.4

I've setup a BE65 Pro with a BE63 node and they have been working great, no complaints on a busy home network (80+ devices).

In my garage I have an Audio Pro speaker that always seems to get interference (these have a reputation for poor connections) so I decided to add an X20 node and plug the speaker directly into it, this works great and the speaker no longer has connection issues, perfect setup. As a side note there are a few other devices that benefit from this node in the garage including a few outside cameras, two garage door openers, irrigation controller, etc… but they don't actually need it as they connected fine to the main. 

The problem is now some devices are connecting to the X20 that really should not be... For example, I have a Eufy camera that is literally all the way on the other side of the house (outside, 60+ feet away) that keeps connecting with a poor connection to the X20 when the main unit or other node is closer (maybe 20/30 feet). Prior to the X20, it connected to the main and there were no issues. 

Under “Connection Preference” in the app it clearly states “This client will ONLY connect to Family Room Deco) and Mesh technology is turned off… Why the hell is it still connecting to the node on the other side of the house STILL? What is the point of having these settings if they cannot be utilized?

To be honest, it would be great if we had the option to just completely “shut off” the ability for a node to transmit wifi (except for connection to the main of course) and use it as a stand-alone device for a hard connection.

  0      
 
  0      
 
#1
Options
4 Reply
Re:Please help me comprehend the logic of "Connection Preference" if it does not actually work.....
Tuesday - last edited Tuesday

  @Connkall 

 

I heavily use Connection Preference in my Deco Mesh network at home, so I can definitely relate to your necessity for the feature.

 

That said, have you rebooted your Eufy camera since setting up the Connection Preference parameters for it? Sometimes a wireless device may exhibit similar connectivity behavior to what you've described, essentially making it a "sticky" client.

 

Apart from specifying which node you want the camera to connect to, have you specified a Wi-Fi band (e.g., 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz) - or did you leave it set to Auto?

 

In most cases, I haven't had difficulty with devices obeying their Connection Preference configuration; however, for some particularly stubborn wireless devices, I found that it helped to power cycle the devices so the Deco's Connection Preference feature could sort of "intercept" the client when re-negotiating its connection and send it to the designated node.

What's New? Sync Your Tapo Doorbell and Door Lock Optimize Your Network with the Wi-Fi Toolkit App Join our Official Subreddits: r/tplink, r/tapo, and r/omada_networks
  0  
  0  
#2
Options
Re:Please help me comprehend the logic of "Connection Preference" if it does not actually work.....
Tuesday

  @Ryan 

 

Hello Ryan,

Yes, I did the usual reboot everything in an attempt to clear things and hope it would latch onto the main yet it still wants to connect to the X20 which is the furthest one without question. Literally, outside and an the other side of the house with several interior walls and then a concrete wall in between. Interestingly the signal strength for this device bounces around from strong to medium per the Deco app but the camera itself reports a weak signal and this is causing live-feed issues.

I’m interested though as to why the “preferred Preference” would not be working and what reason it has to keep connecting to the X20 which is not only the furthest node but also the most inferior one compared to the other closer ones that it has to choose from.

  0  
  0  
#3
Options
Re:Please help me comprehend the logic of "Connection Preference" if it does not actually work.....
Wednesday

  @Connkall 

 

Well, as a follow up to this I went and changed the preferred device from the main to the other node, set band to 2.4 and turned off mesh technology and the camera (rebooted) seems to be connected to the set preferred Deco as of this morning. Not sure why it didn’t want to connect to the Main in my previous attempt, but I guess I’ll take what I can get... 

Only other oddity I noticed was another device (PC) that I was using “connection preference” with and set to wifi band 5ghz, lost its connection to the main and could not reestablish it. I had to forget the SSID and set it up again, then it worked. Not sure what that was about but strange behaviors like this are concerning and the reason why I “upgraded” form my older Asus ET12 setup.

I hope things continue to run smoothly from this point on.

  0  
  0  
#4
Options
Re:Please help me comprehend the logic of "Connection Preference" if it does not actually work.....
Wednesday

  @Connkall 

Okay, that didn't last long.... For whatever reason it connected back to the garage Deco with a low quality connection.... and then another camera that’s far from this node decided to connect also. Not really impressed with how this is working. 

I’d also like to add that the Roborock Vacuum is set to the main as preferred and it’s also connected to the garage unit...

So, this connection preference option does not work as far as I’m concerned, which means the product does not work as advertised. Unless support would like to clairfy?

 

 

Deco

  0  
  0  
#5
Options

Information

Helpful: 0

Views: 89

Replies: 4

About Us
Press
Copyright © TP-Link Systems Inc. All rights reserved.