Reliability concerns using Apple Watch on WiFi, how does it all work?

[februarian]

I live in a house where each floor has its own router, basically two routers connected to one central router, acting as WAP with their own SSIDs. The issue I'm facing is the watch sometimes tells its connected to iPhone when I'm on terrace and at other times I get the "iPhone not connected" sign at pretty much the same place.

I wonder whether the watch pulls known WiFi network information from the iPhone & thus can connect to a different network than the iPhone and still be able to communicate with each other? Or the watch can only work with the iPhone when both basically are on the exact same network? If the case appears to be latter then one way to get around the limitation would be to have all home networks to have the same SSID. Has someone tried this & did they get the desired result? And if someone has more information on the workings of Apple watch with the iPhone over WiFi, then please do share!

 

[Armen]

I live in a house where each floor has its own router, basically two routers connected to one central router, acting as WAP with their own SSIDs. The issue I'm facing is the watch sometimes tells its connected to iPhone when I'm on terrace and at other times I get the "iPhone not connected" sign at pretty much the same place.

I wonder whether the watch pulls known WiFi network information from the iPhone & thus can connect to a different network than the iPhone and still be able to communicate with each other? Or the watch can only work with the iPhone when both basically are on the exact same network? If the case appears to be latter then one way to get around the limitation would be to have all home networks to have the same SSID. Has someone tried this & did they get the desired result? And if someone has more information on the workings of Apple watch with the iPhone over WiFi, then please do share!

This is what I know based on articles I've read:

- The Apple watch connects to known networks (any network your other iDevices and Mac computers have connection information for)
- The Apple watch will not connect to a 5ghz Wireless networks.
- I do not have multiple routers to play with but if hand off doesn't work (idevice > Mac OSX) if both devices are connected to 2 different hotspots I would imagine the same to be true for the watch > phone combination.

 

[Scott-n-Houston]

I have two Airport Extremes connected to one Cable router. Both have the same SSID. The watch can be connected to AE1 while the phone is connected to AE2 and they still communicate with each other.

I can't comment on whether it would work with different SSIDs for each AE.

 

[Armen]

I have two Airport Extremes connected to one Cable router. Both have the same SSID. The watch can be connected to AE1 while the phone is connected to AE2 and they still communicate with each other.

I can't comment on whether it would work with different SSIDs for each AE.

Scott, are both devices connected to 2.4ghz band or is the phone on 5ghz and the watch on 2.4ghz?

 

[floridonet]

I was testing this over the past week. I set up a 2.4Ghz network for both the phone an watch. What I observed is that when I was out of BT range, the watch would show as disconnected. I think the problem is when the phone goes in standby, it shuts off WiFi to conserve battery. On the other hand, BT (Low Energy) continues to function when the phone goes to standby.

 

[friedmud]

Scott, are both devices connected to 2.4ghz band or is the phone on 5ghz and the watch on 2.4ghz?

It works either way. In my house my Watch connects at 2.4GHz while my phone is on 5GHz and all is good.

 

[februarian]

I have two Airport Extremes connected to one Cable router. Both have the same SSID. The watch can be connected to AE1 while the phone is connected to AE2 and they still communicate with each other.

I can't comment on whether it would work with different SSIDs for each AE.

Thanks for that. I can now confirm the watch can indeed communicate with iPhone even when both are connected to different WAPs with different SSIDs (them being on the same central router is key here).

 

[Armen]

It works either way. In my house my Watch connects at 2.4GHz while my phone is on 5GHz and all is good.

That's strange. At home hand off between my MacBook and iPhone won't work if they are connected on different bands in the same router.

 

[friedmud]

That's strange. At home hand off between my MacBook and iPhone won't work if they are connected on different bands in the same router.

Do they both have the same SSID and password?

 

[Armen]

Do they both have the same SSID and password?

No, I used 2.4 and 5ghz to distinguish the 2 bands. how else would you know which one you're connected to?

 

[februarian]

That's strange and really not supposed to be happening. Do you have VLAN enabled by any chance? What router are you using?