Preskitt.man
Regular Contributor
I have two routers RT-AC86U as a primary router and an RT-AC68U as an AP. The 86U is in the front of the house, the 68U in the back. Admittedly, there is some overlap in signal. Roaming assist is disabled on the 86U and set to -65dbm on the 68U. The two routers are interconnected via Cat 5 cabling. Both routers are set for the same SSID on 5GHz and also same SSID on 2.4 (but distinct from the 5GHz SSID). For 95+% of what I do, this setup works beautifully. Most devices other than our phones are stationary. When I walk from one side of the house to the other, the phone will transition from one router to the other, and even if I am on WiFi calling (which I am most of the time), the calls do not drop.
So, here's the problem. I have my phone (a Samsung S20) set to gave WiFi enabled, connected to the 5GHz signal. A have WiFi calling enabled on the phone. WiFi calling has a sub menu which can be set to WiFi Preferred or Cellular Preferred. I have it set to WiFi Preferred. However the way the phone works, it seems to desperately want to connect via Cellular. This is fine for when I leave the house and don't have WiFi, but for reasons that I can't definitively explain, even inside the house, the phone will switch from WiFi calling mode to Cellular calling mode. Due to the poor cellular signal in the house, when this happens, incoming calls will often go straight to voice mail or connected calls will drop. The ideal solution would be for the phone to stay on WiFi preferred as long as there is a WiFi signal and reconnect to WiFi calling when reacquiring a WiFi signal. I have worked with Sprint/T-Mobile on this and bottom line is they have no solution.
So, I did get to thinking, maybe this transition is the cause of the problem. By example, If I am in the back of the house, and have WiFi calling connected, it will stay that way "forever". It's after walking to the front of the house - there comes a point where the phone decides the 86U is a better signal and it switches over. Or vice versa if I am walking to the back of the house. I am theorizing that it is during this ever so brief transition period that the phone decides - oops, no WiFi and switches to Cellular and stays there. So, I am wondering, would switching over to AiMesh solve this issue or not? Obviously, there will still come a point where the phone transitions from the 68U to the 86U (or vice versa), but maybe with AiMesh, this transition is more elegant.
So, here's the problem. I have my phone (a Samsung S20) set to gave WiFi enabled, connected to the 5GHz signal. A have WiFi calling enabled on the phone. WiFi calling has a sub menu which can be set to WiFi Preferred or Cellular Preferred. I have it set to WiFi Preferred. However the way the phone works, it seems to desperately want to connect via Cellular. This is fine for when I leave the house and don't have WiFi, but for reasons that I can't definitively explain, even inside the house, the phone will switch from WiFi calling mode to Cellular calling mode. Due to the poor cellular signal in the house, when this happens, incoming calls will often go straight to voice mail or connected calls will drop. The ideal solution would be for the phone to stay on WiFi preferred as long as there is a WiFi signal and reconnect to WiFi calling when reacquiring a WiFi signal. I have worked with Sprint/T-Mobile on this and bottom line is they have no solution.
So, I did get to thinking, maybe this transition is the cause of the problem. By example, If I am in the back of the house, and have WiFi calling connected, it will stay that way "forever". It's after walking to the front of the house - there comes a point where the phone decides the 86U is a better signal and it switches over. Or vice versa if I am walking to the back of the house. I am theorizing that it is during this ever so brief transition period that the phone decides - oops, no WiFi and switches to Cellular and stays there. So, I am wondering, would switching over to AiMesh solve this issue or not? Obviously, there will still come a point where the phone transitions from the 68U to the 86U (or vice versa), but maybe with AiMesh, this transition is more elegant.