Roaming between Cisco RV220W and 2 WAP121's

[warhawk18]

Hello all,

I am looking to set up seamless roaming between my RV220W and my two WAP121's. 

I know WDS will not work between the RV220 W and the WAP121's however if I turn off wireless on the RV220W and enable WDS on the WAP121's will I be able to achieve seamless roaming between the two access points or should I try something else?

[warhawk18]

anyone have ideas?

[Michiel Beenen · Accepted solution]

There is no specific setting to make clients roam between these devices. Roaming works best when being used between WAP models of the same series. So for example Multiple WAP371 or WAP571 or 321.

As long as you use the same SSID (with different channels) for all WAP access points clients should roam fine.

[warhawk18]

Hi Michael,

Thanks for the info.

Since I do not have any type of wireless controller will my clients generally just latch onto the first access point they connect to and not connect to a different one if it has a better signal or is that up to the hardware / software of the device?

[Michiel Beenen]

That depends, usually (in the case of iphones for example) they will decide themselves when they switch (they look at the signal strength and difference). Ofc, you can play with the signal strength of each access point and lower it so they dont overlap to much.

In practical terms I usually have access points between 20-25% signal strength overlap. You can measure this for example with a tool like WiFi explorer on a macbook ;)

[warhawk18]

Ah ok, Thank you very much!

Do I need to adjust anything with the channels of each access point to make them operate together?

[Michiel Beenen]

For 2.4Ghz try to use : 1, 6 or 11
For 5Ghz you can usually keep each access point at : 36, 44 or 48 since the signal doesnt go as far as 2.4.

Another couple of tips that work: https://supportforums.cisco.com/discussion/12338441/wap-device-best-practice

[warhawk18]

Are you saying to use any of the channels listed or are you saying for each of my three access points use a different of the three channels listed?

Thanks for the link as well

[Michiel Beenen]

Example:

WAP 1 : channel 6

WAP 2 : channel 1

WAP 3 : channel 11

It's usually best not to use the same channel on all access points.

[warhawk18]

Ok, thank you for all the help. The link and your information here will be very helpful. 

[warhawk18]

Michael,

I have one more question.

If I decide to disable the wireless of my RV220W, and just use two WAP 321's for wireless will the same roaming steps apply or does having two of the same access points provide any other functionality with roaming?