Why don’t my clients roam to the nearest Halo unit?

Generally, your client device will connect to the nearest Halo unit. However, there are still some clients sticking on a Halo unit further away, which may be decided by the roaming mechanism of the client device itself.

A client device decides whether to roam or not depends on several factors.

1. A shorter distance does not mean a stronger signal.

Obstacles and wireless interference may affect the signal quality of the Halo units. You can download a Wi-Fi analysis software such as Wi-Fi Analyzer to get a better understand of the signal quality of surrounding APs.

2. It doesn't reach the roaming threshold.

For AP steering among different Halo units, only when the signal strength of the current AP (Halo) becomes lower than a threshold and the signal strength of another AP is good enough, Halo will recommend clients to roam via 802.11k/v standards.

3. Client-Driven roaming behavior

Halo can only provide a roaming suggestion. Whether to roam or not depends on the client itself as it has its own roaming threshold as well, which is decided by its manufacturer. In this case, clients may refuse the roaming suggestion or respond slowly, causing the delay in roaming.

There are also some clients that may decide to roam even though Halo doesn't recommend roaming.

If you want to stop your clients, especially stationary devices from roaming, you can try to disable the Mesh Technology option for these clients.

And if your client doesn’t roam to the nearest Halo unit, please take it easy, the client still has a good connection in most cases. If you find the client's signal is too weak, please try to disconnec/reconnect the Wi-Fi or power cycle the client, and it will usually select the nearest Halo unit to connect.

4. Fast Roaming compatibility

Halo Mesh supports Fast Roaming (IEEE 802.11r). Some devices may not be fully compatible with this feature, which can prevent them from roaming between Halo units.

If some of your clients have trouble roaming between Halo units, please launch MERCUSYS App and go to More > Advanced > Fast Roaming, try disabling the Fast Roaming feature and check if the issue is resolved.