I have a few cams and a few access points with the same SSID (not a mesh network). My experience is that the Wyze cam will attempt to connect to the AP with the strongest wifi signal, even if it has impaired WAN connectivity, so a camera can go down even if it is in range of a good AP. (Arguably, the AP should take itself offline if there is no backhaul, but that’s not generally the case.) It seems like a cam should cycle through the APs with the desired SSID until it can connect.
Maybe it already does this and I’m observing a different problem?
The camera is connecting to the AP so it has a good wifi signal. That being said, it isn’t going to look for another AP just because it doesn’t find the internet. It thinks the connection is good but that the internet connection is down. It will only connect to another AP if the one to which it connected goes offline.
In fact I’m not aware of ANY devices that do that. Many phones will try alternate paths via 3G if WiFi has no Internet, and PCs will find a route when they have both wired and wireless available, but neither is the same thing. You’re expecting a level of resilience between layers 2 and 3 that just doesn’t exist as far as I know.
I agree this isn’t common but is it so hard and what is the downside? I think the current approach would be defensible if the devices had some UI or LAN capability, but they’re basically useless without the WAN.
I don’t think there’s consistent behavior in the IoT space. Some smart devices (such as Leviton switches) appear to lock to the MAC address for the AP they’re set up with
Well for starters I would think it’s really an edge case to have two APs on the same network where only one has a path to the Internet. It’s just not going to be a common scenario in my opinion. So is it worth coding and maintaining software to deal with it…
That said, I would love it if there were more predictable behavior when it comes to devices choosing their AP. As far as I’ve been able to learn, it’s mostly a crapshoot that is left up to each individual device’s particular network stack. I have cameras stubbornly sticking to the “wrong” (distant) AP. I also use Leviton switches and all but one seem to be pretty stable.
I haven’t worked in IT for about 8 years but I believe there are some options on an enterprise level that help with associating devices to APs and aid in roaming. But that’s way beyond most home systems and expensive.
