iPad wireless network preference?

[UndisclosedP]

Hi,

So I've finally ponied up for data on my iPad in the uk with o2. I've also joined to a btopenzone to use my free access there. It's really great when im out and about but when I'm at home I want the iapd to join to my personal wifi. Annoyingly there is a btopenzone within range of my house and the ipad seems to always want to join to that, every time I come home i have to reset the wifi preference to join my own network. So is there a way to tell the ipad to prefer my wifi network over the btopenzone?

Tldr; is there a way to get the ipad to prefer one wireless network over another?

Thanks in advance.

UDP.

 

[aelalfy]

Hi,

So I've finally ponied up for data on my iPad in the uk with o2. I've also joined to a btopenzone to use my free access there. It's really great when im out and about but when I'm at home I want the iapd to join to my personal wifi. Annoyingly there is a btopenzone within range of my house and the ipad seems to always want to join to that, every time I come home i have to reset the wifi preference to join my own network. So is there a way to tell the ipad to prefer my wifi network over the btopenzone?

Tldr; is there a way to get the ipad to prefer one wireless network over another?

Thanks in advance.

UDP.

Hi,

How it works is as following, if the iPad locates two KNOWN wifi hotspots at the same time, it will join the one you were previously on. So if you joined that "btopenzone" last then went out came ohm again, it would automatically join that network again. To avoid that, you can either forget that "btopenzone" or you have to make sure if you go out that the last network connection was to your wifi not " btopenzone" and that way when you come back to a range of known networks it would detect both but choos your wifi

 

[UndisclosedP]

Ah, thanks aelalfy that makes a lot of sense! Guess i'll just have to deal with it every so often. Thanks!

 

[somerandomusern]

Two known access points...keeps swapping to one I don't want

Hi,

I have an ipad for work purposes. In our office there are TWO wireless access points.

I have entered the passwords for both so I can use either. The problem we are having (this is affecting both the ipads we have in the office) is I will choose the AP i want to be connected to, this AP is on the main LAN so I can surf from the ipad to my development web server.

The problem is the ipad will randomly (and often) swap to the other AP. This AP is just connected to an ADSL modem and it NOT on our LAN. So once the ipad swaps I sit there waiting for my web pages to load until I am informed the Safari cannot find the server. At this point I will go into the ipad settings and see that it has connected to the other AP.

Why is this happening? Better - how do I stop it happening (short of forgetting one of the AP's). This isn't a solution it's an annoying workaround.

Any ideas why it drops the first AP? Any ideas why it doesn't rejoin the first AP?

Cheers,
Scott

I really want to understand what is happening here. If you need further clarification let me know and i'll attempt to explain better.

 

[GFLPraxis]

Does anyone have a solution to this issue?

Some of us testing iPads in our corporate office are running in to issues with this. We have multiple networks with SSIDs that are not broadcast. The iPad connects to it's preferred network and we can't switch over to the other ones because they're not listed...only way to change networks is to re-enter it, key and all, which is obviously not acceptable. Further, it keeps switching to the hidden network we don't want (the guest one).

 

[GFLPraxis]

=/

 

[belvdr]

Does anyone have a solution to this issue?

Some of us testing iPads in our corporate office are running in to issues with this. We have multiple networks with SSIDs that are not broadcast. The iPad connects to it's preferred network and we can't switch over to the other ones because they're not listed...only way to change networks is to re-enter it, key and all, which is obviously not acceptable. Further, it keeps switching to the hidden network we don't want (the guest one).

By virtue of your wording, I'm guessing you may be using something like the Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers. Try enabling the "Fast SSID Change" parameter on the Controller tab -> General. It is normally disabled, and if left as is, the controller may not allow you to connect to other SSIDs unless you have disassociated for some time.

 

[thebirdbrain]

Forget unwanted network

If the network your iPad automatically connects to is one you do not want to use frequently, then this might help. Settings > Choose a Network > Select the blue arrow by the network you do *not* want > At the top of the page it says "Forget this network" - select this > tap 'Forget'. In future it should not automatically connect to this network.

 

[julianscox]

A solution to iOS WiFi device connection preferences

Hello,

After examining the behaviour of my iOS devices, it appears to me that they select the first working WiFi connection they can connect to, alphabetically. So the naming of the WiFi networks will dictate the order iOS devices will connect.

I chose BT for internet access and it works well. One reason I picked BT was that they include http://www.btfon.com/ and http://www.btopenzone.com/ WiFi access when out and about. Unfortunately the BT WiFi router in my house provides BTFON connections and I also have a BTOpenZone nearby. As my original WiFi network SSID was "Copper", the iPhone and iPad both connected to BTFON. Internet access would not work until I either used the BTFON app to login OR reconnected to "Copper".

I have now renamed my WiFi network from "Copper" to a 'Aluminium' and both iOS devices connect to it and not BTFON or BTOpenZone-H.

Changing the WiFi network names is a solution that may not be ideal, but a network administrator should definitely be aware of this iOS "feature" so as to plan business WiFi networks that help the users instead of hindering them.