Network Extender - Seamless? Should appear as 3 separate networks with no auto switching among them?

[djb5]

I just installed the FiOS Network Extender and now have an Actiontec M1424WR Rev I router.

What I expected was that I'd see just a single network name, not the three separate ones I'm seeing now (my SSID, plus 2.4G and 5G names). All my devices (iPhone 5, iPad, HP 6515) see all three networks and there is no automatic switching from one to another as I move a device around the house. When a signal becomes weak, I need to manually go to settings to join whichever is strongest.

Is this for sure the way it's supposed to work? I had just assumed that the advertised "seamless" interface meant it would "just happen" without intervention.

I want to be sure things are set up and working correctly. Not such a bad thing to have three virtual networks I suppose (certainly better than having only a weak wifi signal in 2/3 of my home!).

I did try to find some documentation online, a User Guide or something for this product, but could not. If someone knows of one, please advise. All I have found is sort of a brief sales overview, no details.

[eljefe2]

There are different schools of thought about different SSIDs vs. a single name but here's my thinking.

You can edit the names of the SSIDs in the Network Extender, and you could make them the same as your original SSID.   However, I prefer to have different SSIDs, exactly as you do.

If you have 3 WAPs on the same SSID you'll still have no guarantee your devices will switch to the strongest signal.  And with a single SSID, you won't be able to tell which signal you're connected to.

At least now, if you see your device is still connected to a weak signal, it's easy to get it changed to the signal best for that location.  With all 3 networks having the same name, it's much harder, if not impossible, for force a connection to specific transmitter.

That's been my experience, and in a similiar situation to yours, I'm happier with separate SSIDs. 

[djb5]

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@eljefe wrote:

There are different schools of thought about different SSIDs vs. a single name but here's my thinking.

You can edit the names of the SSIDs in the Network Extender, and you could make them the same as your original SSID.   However, I prefer to have different SSIDs, exactly as you do.

If you have 3 WAPs on the same SSID you'll still have no guarantee your devices will switch to the strongest signal.  And with a single SSID, you won't be able to tell which signal you're connected to.

At least now, if you see your device is still connected to a weak signal, it's easy to get it changed to the signal best for that location.  With all 3 networks having the same name, it's much harder, if not impossible, for force a connection to specific transmitter.

That's been my experience, and in a similiar situation to yours, I'm happier with separate SSIDs. 

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Thanks eljefe - First, thanks for your response and also the terminology education - now I know these different names are called WAPs.

I understand the "no guarantee" wrt what my devices do. And yes, I can see that it does make it easier to select the strongest signal if you can easily identify each with a separate name.

My puzzlement though is that the description of the network extender says "seamless" and I understood that to mean there would appear to be just a single WAP. So, I thought I had done something wrong with setup (or still have unresolved conflicts). I'm just struggling to understand all this.

So - is the bottom line that my setup is working exactly as it's supposed to? (and I just misunderstood what "seamless" meant)

[eljefe2]

Let me clarify a little djb.... by "WAP" I meant Wireless Access Point.  WAP = the actual hardware transmitter/receiver.  The correct name for each signal identifider is SSID, as you had said.

SSID = Service Set Identifier.

I can understand how you might hope seamless would include perfect auto-switching between the invididual signals provided by multiple wireless transmitters/receivers, or WAPs.   In an ideal world it would be great if it worked that way.

I'm just passing along what my experience has been and why I prefer separate SSIDs.  (And, btw, separate channels for the 2.4 GHz signals so they don't conflict with each other.)

You can try it both ways....set all 3 SSIDs to the same, and see if that works for you.  Maybe you'll have better luck in that configuration that I've had.  If not....you'll know what the solution is. 

Good luck.

[djb5]

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@eljefe wrote:

Let me clarify a little djb.... by "WAP" I meant Wireless Access Point.  WAP = the actual hardware transmitter/receiver.  The correct name for each signal identifider is SSID, as you had said.

SSID = Service Set Identifier.

I can understand how you might hope seamless would include perfect auto-switching between the invididual signals provided by multiple wireless transmitters/receivers, or WAPs.   In an ideal world it would be great if it worked that way.

I'm just passing along what my experience has been and why I prefer separate SSIDs.  (And, btw, separate channels for the 2.4 GHz signals so they don't conflict with each other.)

You can try it both ways....set all 3 SSIDs to the same, and see if that works for you.  Maybe you'll have better luck in that configuration that I've had.  If not....you'll know what the solution is. 

Good luck.

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eljefe - thanks for terminology clarification.

And no, I won't be renaming SSID's. As I said, I just thought I had something wrong with my setup/installation.

[mfizzy]

By seamless you mean the extender replicates the ssid and password for your main router and it should. Initial setup should be plug and play with no configuration needed. 

[bbinnard]

I have the same equipment that you have and I see only 2 SSID names - my opriginal one and the same name with -5G appended to it.  I really can;t explain the difference between us in that respect.

As far as automatic switching between devices goes, my Nexus5 Android 5.01 phone does do that - I've seen it do it with the WiFi Analyser app.  My ASUS Win8.1 laptop does it also.  But my daughter's iPhone 5 does not.  So I think your issue is with Apple, not Verizon.

See if you can find someone with an Android device to test the auto-switching.  My guess is it will work.

[djb5]

Thanks hlppls and bbinard.
I'll need to table my efforts on this for a week or two - more things changed here and I'll wait for stable environment (iphone swapped out loaner while Apple repairs defective sleep/wake button, loaner phone has iOS 8. Strangeness all around now, "unable to join" any except basic SSID, problems with webmail). The "unable to join" issue is clearly an Apple issue, not FiOS and I saw lots of posts over few years on Apple forum so I'll work this there.
But would be a waste of everyone's time to work symptoms with hardware and software being moving targets!
As for this specific topic - all replies have been helpful, I now know that there is not a seamless interface ( in the sense that I have interpreted the phrase) and what you see is dependent on assortment of devices you have. I may end up unplugging everything and starting over to be sure I didn't do something wrong during installation. I know I may have messed up security settings cause I was trying to follow the one page instructions that came with the Actiontec router step by step (and didn't notice the pictures on the right of PC or MAC menus), so I cancelled out of the PC window and kept trying to go to the verizon website noted in the step by step.
Sorry, maybe tmi, but I don't want you all to think I'm ignoring your replies. Just makes sense for me to get things stable and do some homework on my router settings. Thank you all, you are so gracious with your help.
Be back in a week or two ... (Either a promise or a threat?)

[djb5]

As things are right now, password entry is required for each of the 3 SSID's