WinXP SP2 "pick strongest signal"?

My XP machine seems to want to connect to APs in the order it finds
them in it's internal list of AP's rather than to see which of the
available ones is strongest. Is there any way to have it pick the
best signal?

It's really annoying to have it pick the one in the other house, with
a couple of concrete walls in the way in preference to the one that's
6 feet way in the ceiling of the room I'm sitting in....

Thanks!

William wrote:
> It's really annoying to have it pick the one in the other house, with
> a couple of concrete walls in the way in preference to the one that's
> 6 feet way in the ceiling of the room I'm sitting in....

I had the same issue with a router that I don't want to connect to.

Go to the "change the order of preferred networks" select the one that you
don't want. On the connections tab, uncheck the box.
This should happen automatically if you connect to the unwanted one and
select "disconnect" at the bottom of the "view wireless networks" page.

The unwanted router still appears, but it shows "manual" on the connect
list. The only problem is it needs to be a different SSID from any of the
routers that you want to connect to. There are lots of "Linksys". If you
connect to a same-named router manually, it sets it back to automatic,
instead of leaving the box unchecked.

--
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Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley (Lake County) CA USA 38.8,-122.5

<William P.N. Smith> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> My XP machine seems to want to connect to APs in the order it finds
> them in it's internal list of AP's rather than to see which of the
> available ones is strongest. Is there any way to have it pick the
> best signal?
>
> It's really annoying to have it pick the one in the other house, with
> a couple of concrete walls in the way in preference to the one that's
> 6 feet way in the ceiling of the room I'm sitting in....
>

You can just disable the Wireless Zero Configuration Service on XP that is
making the computer roam seeking out other networks to connect to. If
you're not walking about somewhere looking to connect to other networks as
you roam, then you don't need the service enabled.

You can use Google to search for *Wireless Zero Configuration XP*.

Duane

"Duane Arnold" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:qLg1e.104881$r55.103385@attbi_s52...

> You can just disable the Wireless Zero Configuration Service on XP that is
> making the computer roam seeking out other networks to connect to. If
> you're not walking about somewhere looking to connect to other networks as
> you roam, then you don't need the service enabled.
>
> You can use Google to search for *Wireless Zero Configuration XP*.
>
> Duane
>
>

Microsoft has some good web site explanation of how WZC works. There is a
set of rules that governs which APs are chosen. Definitely, the PREFERRED
LIST is a good place to start. Just delete the other routers from the
preferred list and keep one router there, which is YOUR Router. Also, WZC is
supposed to scan every X seconds for a higher priority router, in the
preferred list, and switch to it. Lets say you have ROUTER_A, ROUTER_B, and
ROUTER_C in your preferred list, in that order. If ROUTER_A is currently not
running and you have associated with ROUTER_B, then WZC will keep searching
for ROUTER_A and if someone were to turn it on, it is my understanding that
WZC will abandon your ROUTER_B connect and try to associate with ROUTER_A
and get authorization to use it as your current connection. I have not
proven this, but I believe the above to be plausible.

William P.N. Smith wrote:
>It's really annoying to have it pick the one in the other house, with
>a couple of concrete walls in the way in preference to the one that's
>6 feet way in the ceiling of the room I'm sitting in....

Sorry, I wasn't clear. I've got two (soon to be 3?) APs in separate
small houses next to each other. Sometimes I'm in the Pink house and
want the "Pink" AP, sometimes I'm in the Yellow house and want the
"Yellow" AP... I 'own' all of them, I just want to automatically
connnect to the strongest one.

Thanks!

<William P.N. Smith> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> William P.N. Smith wrote:
>>It's really annoying to have it pick the one in the other house, with
>>a couple of concrete walls in the way in preference to the one that's
>>6 feet way in the ceiling of the room I'm sitting in....
>
> Sorry, I wasn't clear. I've got two (soon to be 3?) APs in separate
> small houses next to each other. Sometimes I'm in the Pink house and
> want the "Pink" AP, sometimes I'm in the Yellow house and want the
> "Yellow" AP... I 'own' all of them, I just want to automatically
> connnect to the strongest one.
>

Good luck!

Duane

> William P.N. Smith wrote:
> It's really annoying to have it pick the one in the other house,
> with a couple of concrete walls in the way in preference to the one
> that's 6 feet way in the ceiling of the room I'm sitting in....
>
> Sorry, I wasn't clear. I've got two (soon to be 3?) APs in separate
> small houses next to each other. Sometimes I'm in the Pink house and
> want the "Pink" AP, sometimes I'm in the Yellow house and want the
> "Yellow" AP... I 'own' all of them, I just want to automatically
> connnect to the strongest one.
>

Have you considered doing the all the same ssid thing and have em all the
same?

"Peter Pan" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>Have you considered doing the all the same ssid thing and have em all the
>same?

Yeah, but then it's hard to tell which one I have, and it still
doesn't always connect to the strongest one. I suspect it connects to
the first one it finds (maybe the lowest channel, if it's scanning low
to high?). Maybe it's just the D-Link hardware, I'll have to try
again with Linksys...

William P.N. Smith wrote:
> "Peter Pan" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>> Have you considered doing the all the same ssid thing and have em
>> all the same?
>
> Yeah, but then it's hard to tell which one I have, and it still
> doesn't always connect to the strongest one. I suspect it connects to
> the first one it finds (maybe the lowest channel, if it's scanning low
> to high?). Maybe it's just the D-Link hardware, I'll have to try
> again with Linksys...

Doesn't really matter, it will go with whatever has the strongest signal as
you travel around. In bigger buildings/campuses (like schools) people can
walk around and will connect to whatever signal is strongest, and as they
move around, will hand off.. (like a cell phone does when traveling between
cell sites)