Re: NetworkManager connection priority - same ssid ?

[José Queiroz <zekkerj gmail com>]

2011/1/8 mike cloaked <mike cloaked gmail com>

I have a home LAN where there are two wireless access points.  I run
Fedora F14 and use NetworkManager to connect. The access points both
use the *same* ssid and encryption to try to make a seamless wifi
network around the house.

How does NetworkManager decide on which of the two APs to connect to?

AFAIK, the selection of which AP to connect, in a ESSID, is done by "wpa_supplicant", not by NM.
 

What I would like is that in this instance the connection is made to
that AP that is giving the strongest signal at the laptop but it does
not always do this.

That's exactly the criterium used by wpa_supplicant to choose which AP to connect: strongest signal.

But if there's some problem with the strongest signal (e.g. authentication timeout), it will try the other APs available.

This may happen also if the strongest signal is the most noisy.
 

I can't see a way of telling NM how to prioritise the strongest signal
at any time, but I don't know if this is already the logic that is
built in to NM or not - it does not appear that the connection
decision is based on signal strength but on perhaps other or
additional criteria?

Thanks

You can configure a preferred AP on NM, to always connect to the same AP. But I think that this isn't what you want to do.