Apple Device Roaming

[jeremy_west_564]

I am having a problem with frequent disconnects on apple devices when signal strength is great. In looking into this further, I noticed that the apple devices in question are roaming at an alarming rate. This is happening across iPad, iPod, and MacBook platforms. For example, I looked at an apartment with an iPod touch that was roaming every 30 seconds or so. There is a Win7 laptop in the same apartment that has not roamed one time. I have about 40 Apple devices on the network and similar behavior is happening on 70% of them. I have about 40 other devices on the network and this is not happening with any of them that I have looked at so far. What is more, the Apple devices are roaming out from a nearby AP to an AP several hundred feet away with a few buildings between them. The user is not leaving the apartment but the device is roaming to APs throughout the campus, even APs it either should not see at all, or just barely.

Any ideas? Has anyone seen anything like this before?

[bob_williamson]

Not as of yet. Although I have moved to the higher channels, only 149 and above, as they have a higher transmit power than the lower channels.

I am reading more and more that wireless networks are being adjusted as the future is 5GHZ. Networks designed for 2.4 ghz aren't dense enough.

Currently I am moving a number of APs in an attempt to get higher 5 ghz to the troubled clients.

Hope that helps,
Bob

[dtsblake_588878]

Ruckus: Does anyone at corporate care about these Mac issues? How about searching your corporate knowledgebase and/or oral history and provide some better answers. Good grief,buy a couple of iPads or Macbooks or _____ and run a few tests for yourselves.

[spikes_it]

We tried adjusting the 5Ghz to a different SSID originally but that didn't seem to resolve the issue. I'll turn off the 5Ghz entirely and see if that resolves the disconnects. It still doesn't explain why the MacBooks don't rejoin the network after disconnecting... it's very odd - they just sit there disconnected even with the SSID available. Perhaps with no 5Ghz, the clients will behave in a more expected manner.

[dtsblake_588878]

We are still having similar roaming problems. For us, the "rejoin" only takes place after we "forget" the network and then reselect. We have had these types of "rejoining" issues using iPhone 5x and IPad mini all using current updates. We are also experimenting with 5Ghz.

Does anyone really know they solved their Apple roaming problems? If so, at least let us know there is hope and maybe your Ruckus support case number so we can advise our assigned technician of a possible solution(s).

[bob_williamson]

So, I can shed a little bit of light on ipad/ipod stuff. The Idevices, as soon as it connects to a wireless connection, try to hit their "success" page. This way, if the device is behind a "captive portal", the user will immediately be prompted for credentials. The success pages are located (on IOS7 at least) at captive.apple.com, ibook.info, airport.us, itools.info, thinkdifferent.us and appleiphonecell.com.

Here is where it gets interesting: If the user chooses to NOT enter the credentials in the captive portal, the device drops the wireless and, depending on the ios version (even small differences. for example 6.1.2 vs 6.1.3) disables the "autojoin" on the "network".

We have firewall rules in place so that no matter who the user is, always allow access to those domains at all times, day or night.

Hope that helps,
Bob