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aces99

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 18, 2014
441
222
Canada
Anyone know how to block an iPhone from switching wifi network on a iPad when it changes wifi? Or vice versa. I am having a problem that just recently started and I can't seem to find an option or way to stop it from happening. I will be in one room and I will have my iPhone 5S and iPad Air hooked to a wifi network with full bars and signal. If I leave the iPad where it is and take the iPhone to another room and hook to another wifi network the iPad will connect to it as well even though the new wifi has weaker signal than it was already hooked to and the iPad has selected the "Forget this network" for that wifi network. I am looking for a way to stop the iPad from changing wifi when the iPhone changes to a different wifi network. This just started since the latest IOS version. Before then the iPad was always hooked to one wifi network. It is also the only wifi network that I have put in a password for. So I don't see how it could select another wifi network without me having to put in a password for it before I could connect to it. Only the iPhone has more than one wifi network to choose from because I move it around a lot. But the iPad stays where it is so only has 1 wifi that it should be connected to. But for some reason connects to the same wifi as the iPhone. I just want to find a way to stop that from happening. Anyone have an ideas. Thanks for any help you can provide.
 

I went to that link and there is no fix to the original problem. The only fix is to disable iCloud Keychain which then you will loose all iCloud Keychain functions and will just create more problems. That's only a bandaid fix. I want an option that will stop a device from changing the wifi network on another device. I don't think that is to much to ask and can't believe Apple has no option to do that or a way to block a wifi network from connecting on a device. There should be an option to do either.
 
The point is, that you don't need to start three different threads with the same problem. You have been given the resolution by several different people and it seems you refuse to accept it. If the mods see these threads, they will merge them anyway. As I told you in the other thread, set your network up correctly, and you won't have this issue. If you don't want to configure your network correctly, turn off the Keychain syncing.
 
The point is, that you don't need to start three different threads with the same problem. You have been given the resolution by several different people and it seems you refuse to accept it. If the mods see these threads, they will merge them anyway. As I told you in the other thread, set your network up correctly, and you won't have this issue. If you don't want to configure your network correctly, turn off the Keychain syncing.

I did that already were you set the SSID to the same on both the modem and extender and that made the problem even worse. Because if the modem and extender has the exact same SSID and both the iPhone and iPad are in the same room room hooked to the strongest single and working great. Then if the iPad stays right where it is but I take my iPhone into the other side of the house, it will switch the the other wifi device because the signal is stronger. The iPad will also switch to the same wifi device. But now the iPad will be slow or not work at all because the new wifi device just hooked to is so far away from the iPad and has little signal strength and the wifi device it was just hook to before it switched is only 5 feet away from it and has full signal. But now because both the modem and router has the same SSID I have no way to select the stronger wifi signal anymore because both SSID's are the exact same. So doing lit your way now the iPad will not work at all and I have no way to hook it back to the other wifi network. Your fix dos NOT work for this situation. Disabling the iCloud Keychain is just a bandaid fix, like the other poster said, and I'll then will disable all iCloud Keychain functions and options and is not a fix for the original problem.
 
Your fix dos NOT work for this situation.
How would you know, you haven't tried my fix. I asked you very specific questions about your network and you have yet to answer. Where is the router, is the router dual band or single band, what make is the router.. You have two different networks, and I suspect that the router is a ISP supplied modem/router combo (probably single band 2.4), and the extender (probably also single band 5GHz) is also ISP supplied. The ISP supplied networking equipment is very rarely quality equipment, and they usually buy the cheapest they can get.

If you want to fix your network, buy a quality dual band router, and a quality dual band AP/extender. Configure the ISP supplied modem/router for modem only, connect that to WAN port of your dual band router, then place the dual band AP/extender in bridge mode, with same SSID and connect that to a LAN port on your router...Problem solved. And no, you have not tried that.......All that you did, was change the SSID on that 5G only extender. In reality, that still gives you 2 different networks; A 2.4 and a 5, because one is 2.4 only and the other is 5 only. Never gonna work like you want it.

Right now, I suspect you have a single band 2.4 GHz router and a 5GHz extender with different SSID...ie, 2 different networks, on different bands. If you want two different networks, you are gonna have to turn off keychain sync, or expect the iPAD to follow the iPhone to the other network...Without going into a lot of detail why, IOS is working the way that it is supposed to.
 
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Sign out of apple id and log back in on both devices oh and forget the WiFi networks and enter pass again
 
Sign out of apple id and log back in on both devices oh and forget the WiFi networks and enter pass again
That's not gonna fix anything, because it's not broke.

In a nutshell, their are several features that require that both devices be on the same network in order to work properly. If you have the keychain sync turned on, then IOS is gonna try to maintain that.

The problem only arises when you have several different networks within range of both the devices, and you want the devices on different networks. So, he can upgrade the network, turn Keychain off, or live with it.
 
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How would you know, you haven't tried my fix. I asked you very specific questions about your network and you have yet to answer. Where is the router, is the router dual band or single band, what make is the router.. You have two different networks, and I suspect that the router is a ISP supplied modem/router combo (probably single band 2.4), and the extender (probably also single band 5GHz) is also ISP supplied. The ISP supplied networking equipment is very rarely quality equipment, and they usually buy the cheapest they can get.

If you want to fix your network, buy a quality dual band router, and a quality dual band AP/extender. Configure the ISP supplied modem/router for modem only, connect that to WAN port of your dual band router, then place the dual band AP/extender in bridge mode, with same SSID and connect that to a LAN port on your router...Problem solved. And no, you have not tried that.......All that you did, was change the SSID on that 5G only extender. In reality, that still gives you 2 different networks; A 2.4 and a 5, because one is 2.4 only and the other is 5 only. Never gonna work like you want it.

Right now, I suspect you have a single band 2.4 GHz router and a 5GHz extender with different SSID...ie, 2 different networks, on different bands. If you want two different networks, you are gonna have to turn off keychain sync, or expect the iPAD to follow the iPhone to the other network...Without going into a lot of detail why, IOS is working the way that it is supposed to.

Actually I did answer your original post you are referring to yesterday. It is the 17th post on page 1, right below your post. Here is the link to refresh your memory.

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...one-from-changing-ipads-wifi-network.1946970/

I told you that I have BOTH a separate supplied ISP single band 2.4 GHz modem and a separate supplied ISP 5G Extender AND I also have a high end Asus RT-AC68U Dual-band Wireless-AC1900 Gigabit Router. I also did basically what you said a few days when it was first suggested to me by someone else to make the SSID's the same on both devices. I have been using computers since the old commodore vic 20 and Commodore 64 days and work with computers everyday so I know alittle bit about them. I had the router unhooked when I answered your post yesterday because I was testing something out but I did basically what you said except I have the supplied ISP modem set to modem mode like it already is. Then I hooked it to the LAN on the router and set the router to bridge mode. I also have all the SSID's set to the exact same on all the devices, so there is only 1. I then also left everything the exact same except I took the cord plugged into the LAN on the back of the router and plugged it into the WAN port on the router to see if that would fix my problem. Either I am missing something or something because that made the problem worse. It was like I was still hooking up to the main routers 2.4GHz wifi network which has crappy signal instead of the much stronger 5GHz wifi band. and because all the SSID's were the same now I had no way of connecting to the better 5G network. Doing it your way how do you know you are hooked to the stronger signal. I get that it shouldn't matter because the devices are supposed to hook up to the strongest signal. But it seems like it does because doing it that way made no difference making the devices faster but as soon as I hooked back up to the 5G signal it worked like normal. I don't know if this would make a difference or not but I remember the Telus Internet installer mentioning something about Telus having the bridge mode disable on their end and that I couldn't have hook my ASUS route to it and have it asked as a bridge. Not sure if that would affect what we are doing. Maybe someone that has Telus fibre optic and knows more about it than me can chime in. But that might be why this is not working. But either way going back to my original post Apple should have an option on the iPad that stops another device from changing its wifi network it is on or an option to set the wifi priority on the iPad. Turning off iCloud Keychain is also not the answer because I will loose all the other passwords and stuff in iCloud Keychain. Also this problem only started since upgrading to the latest IOS version. Before that I never had this problem. All I want is an option to stop my iPhone from changing the wifi network on my iPad. I can't believe Apple doesn't have an option to do that.
 
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Sign out of apple id and log back in on both devices oh and forget the WiFi networks and enter pass again

That was the first and third thing I tried. First I went and click "Forget this network" on the iPad and delete both wifi networks. Then when that didn't work checked to make sure "Personal Hotspot" was disable on both devices. When that wasn't the problem I signed out of my iCloud account after deleting both wifi networks again on both my iPhone and on my iPad. Then signed back into my iCloud account and only logged into the 5G wifi network on my iPad. But as soon as I logged into the other wifi network on my iPhone the iPad also connected to it even though it was already hooked to a wifi network that had stronger and better signal to the one it was about to hook to. Then as soon as it hooks to that other network it would stop working. Then I would get a call to come and fix it because I would take my iPhone and go to another room on the other side of the house and connect to the other wifi network. Which would cause the iPad to change wifi networks as well. The iPad would now have crappy signal then it already was hooked to a much better wifi network only 5 feet away from it. This is so frustrating. I don't get why it is all of a sudden happening.
 
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Actually I did answer your original post you are referring to yesterday. It is the 17th post on page 1, right below your post. Here is the link to refresh your memory.

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...one-from-changing-ipads-wifi-network.1946970/

I told you that I have BOTH a separate supplied ISP single band 2.4 GHz modem and a separate supplied ISP 5G Extender AND I also have a high end Asus RT-AC68U Dual-band Wireless-AC1900 Gigabit Router. I also did basically what you said a few days when it was first suggested to me by someone else to make the SSID's the same on both devices. I have been using computers since the old commodore vic 20 and Commodore 64 days and work with computers everyday so I know alittle bit about them. I had the router unhooked when I answered your post yesterday because I was testing something out but I did basically what you said except I have the supplied ISP modem set to modem mode like it already is. Then I hooked it to the LAN on the router and set the router to bridge mode. I also have all the SSID's set to the exact same on all the devices, so there is only 1. I then also left everything the exact same except I took the cord plugged into the LAN on the back of the router and plugged it into the WAN port on the router to see if that would fix my problem. Either I am missing something or something because that made the problem worse. It was like I was still hooking up to the main routers 2.4GHz wifi network which has crappy signal instead of the much stronger 5GHz wifi band. and because all the SSID's were the same now I had no way of connecting to the better 5G network. Doing it your way how do you know you are hooked to the stronger signal. I get that it shouldn't matter because the devices are supposed to hook up to the strongest signal. But it seems like it does because doing it that way made no difference making the devices faster but as soon as I hooked back up to the 5G signal it worked like normal. I don't know if this would make a difference or not but I remember the Telus Internet installer mentioning something about Telus having the bridge mode disable on their end and that I couldn't have hook my ASUS route to it and have it asked as a bridge. Not sure if that would affect what we are doing. Maybe someone that has Telus fibre optic and knows more about it than me can chime in. But that might be why this is not working. But either way going back to my original post Apple should have an option on the iPad that stops another device from changing its wifi network it is on or an option to set the wifi priority on the iPad. Turning off iCloud Keychain is also not the answer because I will loose all the other passwords and stuff in iCloud Keychain. Also this problem only started since upgrading to the latest IOS version. Before that I never had this problem. All I want is an option to stop my iPhone from changing the wifi network on my iPad. I can't believe Apple doesn't have an option to do that.
I never said anything about connecting your asus router to the modem, and making it a bridge. Read my post...

Disable the internal router in the ISP eq, connect dual band router to modem, connect dual band AP/extender to router, in bridge mode with same SSID.
When your devices connect to the ISP equipment, they are not connecting to the modem, they are connecting to a cheap internal router, that is connected to the modem internally. It sure won't work if you connect the asus to the modem and place that in bridge mode, because you then won't have a router, just an AP/extender.

At any rate...I'm done....
 
I never said anything about connecting your asus router to the modem, and making it a bridge.

I didn't say you did, that's why I put in "basically and except I have" Sorry if it sounded like I said that you told me to do that. I don't have a dual band extender, just that ASUS dual band router. So I did basically what you said except for omitting the dual band extender part. I also tried to hook the ISP extender directly into the ISP modem and put it into bridge mode and put both SSID the same like what was suggested to me a few days ago by someone to see if that would work. That didn't fix the problem either.

[/QUOTE]Disable the internal router in the ISP eq, connect dual band router to modem, connect dual band AP/extender to router, in bridge mode with same SSID.
When your devices connect to the ISP equipment, they are not connecting to the modem, they are connecting to a cheap internal router, that is connected to the modem internally. It sure won't work if you connect the asus to the modem and place that in bridge mode, because you then won't have a router, just an AP/extender.

At any rate...I'm done....[/QUOTE]

Someone told me earlier to just make my SSID's the same on both the ISP's modem and on the extender and that would work. But I tried that and it didn't do nothing. It was either in this thread or the other one. So I thought if that would work then I could get rid of the ISP's extender and I could hook the ASUS dual band router up to the ISP supplied modem and stick it into bridge mode and use that as an extender with the same SSID and that would work. That's why I am getting confused because one person says do this and it will work and another person says do this. I have done and tried so many different things my head hurts, lol. So you are telling me that the expensive ASUS router is not enough and a person also needs another good quality router as well? That is BS that Apple is making people spend all that kind of money on a good dual band router and on another good quality extender. I paid good money for that router. And I saw the cost of good quality extender's. I thought buying that good ASUS dual band router would be good enough. It wouldn't be that hard for Apple to just put in a option to disable another device from changing its wifi network or an option to set the priority for a devices wifi network, That's all I want is an option to do that. I don't think I am asking for to much. But anyhow I appreciate all your help and info. Now one thing I don't know how to do is to disable the internal router on the ISP modem. My ISP is Telus Optik and the modem is an Actiontec T1200. Hopefully that is enough info for you.
 
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I didn't say you did, that's why I put in "basically and except I have" Sorry if it sounded like I said that you said that. I don't have a dual band extender, just that ASUS dual band router. So I did basically what you said except for omitting the dual band extender part. I also tried to hook the ISP extender directly into the ISP modem and put it into bridge mode and put both SSID the same like what was suggested to me a few days ago by someone to see if that would work. That didn't fix the problem either.
Disable the internal router in the ISP eq, connect dual band router to modem, connect dual band AP/extender to router, in bridge mode with same SSID.
When your devices connect to the ISP equipment, they are not connecting to the modem, they are connecting to a cheap internal router, that is connected to the modem internally. It sure won't work if you connect the asus to the modem and place that in bridge mode, because you then won't have a router, just an AP/extender.

At any rate...I'm done....[/QUOTE]

Someone told me earlier to just make my SSID's the same on both the ISP's modem and on the extender and that would work. But I tried that and it didn't do nothing. It was either in this thread or the other one. So I thought if that would work then I could get rid of the ISP's extender and I could hook the ASUS dual band router up to the ISP supplied modem and stick it into bridge mode and use that as an extender with the same SSID and that would work. That's why I am getting confused because one person says do this and it will work and another person says do this. I have done and tried so many different things my head hurts, lol. So you are telling me that the expensive ASUS router is not enough and a person also needs another good quality router as well? That is BS that Apple is making people spend all that kind of money on a good dual band router and on another good quality extender. I paid good money for that router. And I saw the cost of good quality extender's. I thought buying that good ASUS dual band router would be good enough. It wouldn't be that hard for Apple to just put in a option to disable another device from changing its wifi network or an option to set the priority for a devices wifi network, That's all I want is an option to do that. I don't think I am asking for to much. But anyhow I appreciate all your help and info. Now one thing I don't know how to do is to disable the internal router on the ISP modem. My ISP is Telus Optik and the modem is an Actiontec T1200. Hopefully that is enough info for you.[/QUOTE]


Apple is not making you buy anything....It's your home network, not Apple's.

You only need that second Ap/extender, if the single router doesn't give you complete coverage in your home. I'm not trying to be rude here, but I think that you are struggling to understand how home networks work, and how to set them up correctly.

The way you have your network configured now, is not gonna get you what you want. If it were me, I would configure the ISP modem/router in modem only mode, and connect the Asus Router (in router mode, not bridge mode) to that. Since the Asus is dual band and probably has more coverage than the ISP router, that might be enough. See if that gives you the coverage that you need, if not, add an Access Point (AP) (preferably dual band) (same SSID as router, and in bridge mode). You are trying to make it more difficult than it is. If you can't figure out how to set the ISP modem/router in modem only mode, call your ISP or do a Google search. In fact, I just found it...less than 60 seconds, and it certainly looks doable...
http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/197.../214650-brand-new-actiontecs-t1200-t2200.html
 
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How do I disable the Internal router in the ISP's modem? I went into the setting for the ISP's modem and found "Port Bridging" and in there it had one option that said "set the port1bridge state" and it was set to disabled. Is that what you are referring to and if not what am I looking for? Also will this still work even though the ISP installer said that the ISP has disabled bridge mode on their end? I ask because when I first got the new Telus Optik Internet the installer seen my ASUS Router and said to bad you can't hook it up to the modem and bridge it. So I was just wondering if your procedure will still work despite that?
 
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JamesMB just go to his house bro and set it up for him.
Damn Apple... lol
They should change the way they have it, not this poor guy that dont know much about home networking:D
LOL...The link I supplied, tells how to place the modem/router in bridge mode, and which port to connect the router to. I don't know what else I can do other than book a flight from Dallas to Canada, and that aint happening. I give up....
 
Dude, tech support or a network technician would charge an arm and a leg to walk him thru everything or set it up for him.
He owes you a beer:)
It's pretty obvious that his ISP doesn't have a clue, because they are the ones that gave him that single band 5GHz extender to connect to a 2.4 GHz single band router. I guess that I am being naive, but I just can't imagine that any ISP would be installing single band routers in this day and age.
 
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It's pretty obvious that his ISP doesn't have a clue, because they are the ones that gave him that single band 5GHz extender to connect to a 2.4 GHz single band router. I guess that I am being naive, but I just can't imagine that any ISP would be installing single band routers in this day and age.

That's one thing that I haven't had a lot of experience with is setting up home networks. All the home networks I have seen was one router hooked into a modem and another router hooked to that router and so on. The other routers were basically acting as extenders to reach areas in the house that the original modem couldn't. The Internet provider I had 6 months ago before this one gave me just one box that was a dual band that had 2.4GHz and 5G all in one. I wish I had that modem now as it would be a lot easier. I don't have much experience with home networks and it makes it even more harder because the main modem is located in the basement and I can't get at it because I am in a wheelchair. So I am not sure what I am going to do.
 
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How many threads are necessary to deal with this issue? I've seen at least TWO different threads with activity just today.

I started one up originally but nobody answered it and got moved so far down the list. so I started another one which got all kind of replies. Then the originally one started getting replies as well. I am not sure how to merge them all to one or how to delete a post completely. Hopefully one of the mods will.
 
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That's one thing that I haven't had a lot of experience with is setting up home networks. All the home networks I have seen was one router hooked into a modem and another router hooked to the that router and so one. The other routers were basically acting as extenders to reach areas in the house that the original modem couldn't. The Internet provider I had 6 months ago before this one gave me just one box that was a dual band that had 2.4GHz and 5G all in one. I wish I had that modem now as it would be a lot easier. I don't have much experience with home networks and it makes it even more harder because the main modem is located in the basement and I can't get at it because I am in a wheelchair. So I am not sure what I am going to do.

Yep, that's the way I have my network set up. I have a modem and three routers. One router is connected to the modem (in router mode) and the other two routers are hardwired to the main router and I have both of them in bridge mode, all three are dual band with the same SSID.

If you had coverage with a single dual band router before, just connect your Asus, and leave that wonky extender disconnected. You can't just connect that extender to the Asus without resetting it back to default, and letting it reconfigure itself to the other router anyway, because it will have configured itself for the modem/router and likely won't work with the Asus, until reset. Any time you make a hardware change, everything downstream of that change should be reset to default, and any time you make a software/programming change, everything downstream should at least be rebooted in sequence. Some changes don't require it, but some do, and it's simple to reboot.
 
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