Question smarthome with both router and plc repeater with 2.4ghz wireless networks for smartdevices

[thosecars82]

Hello
What is the best/recommended/most standard setup among the following two for a smart home with a router working also as wireless access point and a mess plc access point to increase coverage?
option A: both router R and an PLC mess access point (AP PLC) create a wireless network with the same name and password.
option B: configuring R and AP so that they create different wifi networks and pairing each smart device to the closest of R and the AP PLC.

There is a PLC device connected to the wifi router through ethernet and another one, the AP PLC, creating the wireless network in the area where I want to increase signal.

Cons of option A: in case the wifi signal of any of them is down for a few minutes for any reason, for example the wifi signal of R, the smart devices that are close to R might try to connect to the wifi signal of AP even if AP signal is not good for them because of the large distance. Then when R gets up and running back again, the smart devices might still be trying to connect to the router that is far from them.

Therefore I still wonder which the best option is for this simple smarthome setup.

 

[bill001g]

You have correctly identified the problem but it is hard to say which is best. The end devices are really stupid at times. They generally pick the strongest signal they can find but since they only have 1 radio chip they will not scan for a better signal even if you put the device on top of the other radio signal. When they are the same you can manually stop and restart the wifi radio and it will connect to the strongest signal. You can reduce the problem if you turn the radio power down on the 2 units so you get as little overlap as you can but it still be strong enough to work well in the middle.

I like to be in control so I use all different but it is mostly a personal preference.

A lot of people are lazy and just do not want to deal with having to choose where to connect