This is a living document to track the failure of wpa_supplicant.
"NetworkManager switches to the worse one of two APs all the time"
Thanks, so I've looked into this now, and it indeed some to be an issue with wpa_supplicant: In its decision logic whether to roam between APs it basically uses estimated bandwith as first priority (https://w1.fi/cgit/hostap/tree/wpa_supplicant/events.c#n1927), so if another AP can do ht40 while the current one only has ht20, it will switch to the other one while (pretty much) ignoring how bad the signal quality is. ref
2020 - 474 and 465 https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/NetworkManager/NetworkManager/-/issues/474 https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/NetworkManager/NetworkManager/-/issues/465
2022-08
I have a wifi mesh. Meaning, I have two AP with the same SSID. One AP is in the basement the other on the ground floor. The laptop seems to always connect to the basement AP even when the ground floor has a much stronger signal. https://askubuntu.com/questions/1422292/connection-to-the-wrong-access-point
https://askubuntu.com/questions/1269388/wi-fi-keeps-changing-between-aps-frequently
In my vicinity are 2 WiFi access points with the same SSID (and on the same LAN). The signal strength of one is rather stable, while the other one is fluctuating. This causes devices like my phone to constantly hop from one AP to the other.
Can I set up Linux (specifically Raspbian) so that it will connect to only one of the two AP's, and stay connected to that, e.g. by specifying the MAC address?
https://superuser.com/questions/751436/connect-linux-to-specific-wlan-access-point
2021, locked https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?t=321753
2015, closed https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/network-manager/+bug/111502
I think this is more than a minor nit, especially in households (or small businesses, etc.) where the Android users are pitted against iPhone/IOS users - with the latter having no trouble at all moving from API to API, seamlessly!
More than 10 years have passed and the issue still exists. HOW POOR IS THAT? (2022-10-29)
https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/36936358?pli=1
Weird about signal strength https://superuser.com/questions/844471/how-does-a-wifi-client-choose-an-ap-if-two-have-the-same-ssid
More broadcom/pi related issues as recent as 2021 https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/119969/pi-zero-w-not-selecting-the-strongest-ap
Very nice bash script for finding top BSSID but requires user response, can be modified easily though: https://gist.github.com/archy-bold/9a4cdee49309e4a2d059c900362fa9dc
wpa_cli to specificy strongest BSSID AP within SSID set rather than fastest which is based on too small a sample (the root of the problem, probably). https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/612469
https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-Deco-Replacement-S4-3-Pack/dp/B084GTH5LL/
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/28460705/wpa-supplicant-association-failed/42184419#42184419