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Sorry if the title is unclear. Let me explain the problem. The is a diagram of how my home is set up:

My home (Diagram)

The light red bubble is the Modem's signal boundary. The light blue bubble is the Router's signal bountary

Modem (HUAWEI HG659)

  • Connects to the wall/phone line and gets the internet
  • Provides WiFi and also has a computer connected to it via ethernet
  • Has another ethernet cable which connects the modem and my router together. Ethernet cable is a CAT 5, about 30-40m long

There are walls between the router and modem, but I still get signal!

Router (TP-Link TL-WR841N / TL-WR841ND)

  • Has multiple ethernet devices connected to it (eg. Computer, PS4 etc)
  • Also provides WiFi
  • IEEE 802.11n standard

Problem (Refer to diagram to understand where I am standing/walking):

  1. I am standing at Point A with my phone (connected to the router)
  2. I start walking towards Point B then C (Still connected to router)
  3. I start walking towards Point D (Still connected to router). However, clearly the signal is stronger if I connected to the modem, thus the internet would be faster. This is my first Issue.. I am still connected to the router, even though it would have been better to be connected to the modem.
  4. I start walking towards Point E. I've now lost my WiFi signal to my router. My internet disconnects and is now taking 10-20 seconds to re-connected to the modem. I now don't have internet for 10-20 seconds. This is my second Issue. How can I make my modem and router automatically and seamlessly connect me to the modem or vise versa?

Overall, the question being, how can the network seamlessly connect me to the strongest WiFi point without me even noticing or having to manually switch my WiFi connection point? Right now, I have to either manually change it, or be so far away from one WiFi point that the phone disconnects from the internet and re-connects to another WiFi point.

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  • We need more information. What is the 802.11 standard and frequency of your router? How long is the ethernet cable connecting the modem and router? Is there any obstacle or interference between the wireless network?
    – Wasif
    Jun 7, 2020 at 2:46
  • @WasifHasan Updated post!
    – Paul Shan
    Jun 7, 2020 at 2:55
  • 1) Do the two devices currently have different or identical WiFi SSIDs (network names)? 2) Does the router actually act as a router, i.e. providing its own IP subnet, or is it in bridge mode?
    – u1686_grawity
    Jun 7, 2020 at 6:42
  • @user1686 Both have different SSID & passwords. Router acts like its own subnet. It is not in bridge mode. I tried putting it in bridge mode but it didn't work.
    – Paul Shan
    Jun 7, 2020 at 12:52

3 Answers 3

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Two things to try:

  1. Try changing the channel. This helps avoid adjacent-channel interference from other WiFi sources, and it may avoid a non-WiFi noise source (e.g. microwave oven). It also may let you use a more powerful signal on some channels. See this table of maximum power by channel and country.
  2. Use a directional antenna, e.g. "cantenna", on the router to selectively beam across your household, rather than wasting power to the left side of your diagram.

BTW, Nice diagram! If devices are arranged as linearly as shown, a beam antenna should be effective.

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  • Hi, thanks for your answer but it doesn't actually address my question. I updated my post again to make it more clear. Overall, the question being, how can the network seamlessly connect me to the strongest WiFi point without me even noticing or having to manually switch my WiFi connection point? Right now, I have to either manually change it, or be so far away from one WiFi point that the phone gets no WiFi signal, thus disconnects and re-connects to another WiFi point.
    – Paul Shan
    Jun 7, 2020 at 3:26
  • Put your Router at Point E so your network is there. Leave the Ethernet cable. Put an Access Point at Point A connected by the Ethernet Cable. I use a Ubiquiti Lite AP for this and it works fine. If you need more devices add a small switch at A.
    – John
    Jun 7, 2020 at 12:33
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You have to use modem/routers that support seamless roaming to achieve the transition with no downtime/manual reconnection

Usual home setup uses multiple APs configured with same name/password/security, but usually this setup do not support seamless roaming(it will reconnect automatically only when it loses signal from the other router)

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  • More details: speedguide.net/faq/how-to-setup-seamless-wireless-roaming-483
    – Bogdan Stefanescu
    Jun 7, 2020 at 5:25
  • Sounds like standard "multiple APs" roaming should be sufficient for OP. It's true that it is not technically seamless because it does result in very short pauses where no data can be received, and it relies on the client device deciding when it's finally time to switch to a stronger signal (which is not consistent between manufacturers), but it still seems like an improvement over OP's current separate-SSIDs situation. (In particular "when signal degrades enough so that it is not usable" really doesn't seem to be true for Android nor Linux here, they roam a bit more aggressively than that.)
    – u1686_grawity
    Jun 7, 2020 at 6:44
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If you trying to seamlessly switch between Wifi Networks on a Windows 10 laptop, then this post might be useful to you - https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-networking/automatically-connect-to-the-strongest-wifi/fbfd061d-1725-43f0-8673-cc6660b97e63?tm=1600840334148

I had the same problem with my Windows 10 laptop not being able to switch automatically between the 2 Wifi networks that I have at home. My device would remain connected to the Wifi with the weaker signal until I manually switched it to the stronger network.

I ended up writing a Windows Service that scans the available networks, ranks them by signal strength and connects to the strongest network.

Hope this helps you.

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