I have a customer and he calls fairly often because he has an iPhone and uses MusicCast devices and Yamaha AVRs. Seamless roaming doesn't happen in that house, but that's because he still has a death grip on his old AirPort express pieces of crap. It's amazing how people who are very successful in businesses can be so unable to accept the advice about technology- not sure if it's because they live in large homes and think that makes them smart or because they're not able to understand that some brands don't work as well as they want.

I know (from discussions with suppliers) thatsome TP Link routers are on the NDAA 'Do Not Use' list because of the company's association with the CCP (not being political), but that seems to apply to their routers and not Access Points, which I have used. No black SUVs have pulled up in front of those places, so I assume nothing had has happened, but a few customers work in jobs that are governed by the SEC and SEC abides by the NDAA, so I didn't use that brand.

I like the setup for the TP Link- they work and perform well and I don't receive trouble calls, so there's that.

Opinions on these? People seem to think $500/AP is excessive.....

Thanks.

Apple's description of wifi roaming is always worth a read.

in short: Devices are responsible for roaming, although modern distributed wifi systems can offer assistance to ensure that devices roam intelligently and with a handoff as quick as possible.

If a home has legacy homeowner WAPs, there may be areas where signal overlap is keeping clients connected to their original access points, while overlapping channels or low minimum rates are preventing roaming from occurring.

I told him the Apple AirPorts need to go- APple stopped making them in 2016 and stopped supporting them in 2018 but as I posted, people have a death grip on them. AppleCare is no help whatsoever and when I called last week to verify that they're done suporting these POSs, three different people needed to be asked in order to find one who know what they were.

Not sure where you get your information, I have seen some idiot YouTubers spreading lies recently. But as far as I know, TPLink is NOT on any ban list yet. Despite the efforts of the 2 corrupt Senators who have stock ties to NetGear (which even if proven, they have immunity from being prosecuted for their crimes).
TPLink has been looked at by several 3rd parties and NOTHING has ever been discovered. The exploits (that they immediately patch) are the same exploits most other brands experience as well.

That being said, obviously I love using Omada (by TPLink) as it always works great for me and never any failures. Almost a decade using it now. I just got done installing 5 of the 615-WALL WAPs in a home with the OC200 controller (plus router and POE switch) with an iOS family. Macs, iPhones, iPads, etc.
You setup your programming correctly and roaming is perfect. This one was set so each WAP will kick any device that drops below -69dBm, forcing it to move to the next WAP. I've got about -67dBm overlap between WAPs, so again smooth. Plus 802.11r & k/v for roaming is all turned on and adjusted.

A long time ago I did have a customer's iPhone that refused to move to another WAP once it was connected. She would walk to the kitchen and the iPhone could see the local WAP with over -45dBm of signal but keep trying to connect to the bedroom WAP which it was getting -85dBm from the kitchen. I watched as my system kicked it from the bedroom WAP and it connected right back again. This happening a couple of times per second. Hundreds of times a minute. Thousands of times thru the day (filled the logs). I banned it from the network and told her to replace her iPhone. A few days later and the new iPhone she got worked perfect.
The logs very clearly showed me the problem and not hard to figure out what to do next.

[edit] = Oh, TP-Link DOES have some NDAA compliant products.

The expectation with audio tends to be "buy once, use forever". This worked well until audio gear started to have network, video, and Bluetooth connections. These connections come with evolving standards.

I didn't mean that all TP Link devices are on the list, I have only heard about their routers and have edited my first post.

Why would I listen to some nimrod on YouTube? I have had customers mention NDAA compliance when we were discussing adding or upgrading certain equipment like network hardware and cameras/recording devices.

Also, I like the TP Link APS and using Omada makes management easy.

As far as I know, NONE of TP-Link's stuff is on any ban list yet. Not a single product.
Now that could change this year but TP-Link already has a federal lawsuit against NetGear right now. And if somehow a ban is pushed thru, you better believe there will be many more lawsuits.
TP-Link has been trying hard for the last 8 years to distance itself from any apparent influence from China. Manufacturing moved to Vietnam & India, US headquarters in California, etc...
I would be surprised if it actually happens (seems no real threat of back doors or espionage) but this is a political fight that has money involved. So anything could happen.

*Might add that it is unclear if a ban would only affect the consumer grade stuff or would also impact the Omada business class stuff. Or the IoT stuff under the Tapo brand.

Ubiquiti would be the next company I would look at. Very polarizing however. People seem to either love them or really hate them.
They have a lot going on in their portfolio right now.
Seem to work well with iOS products, at least I've never had an issue like that. But I have less then a handful of Unifi systems out there.

I have an iPhone, mainly because too many customers had adopted that brand and I needed to be able to demo apps and functions on an iPhone, while holding their hands. They liked to say they understood technology and while some did, most didn't and a couple lied, which caused all kinds of additional problems.

Apple phones hang onto nodes that are well past useless, as you saw in the logs showing returning to weaker ones- Apple knows it, but they don't have answers. I have used a couple of UBNT APs and they worked well enough- I still have the UniFi app in my phone. Might have to revisit that brand.

Like I mentioned, with a good brand that lets you control how, when, and where the device connects. It isn't a problem. You just have to program it to do what you want.
That one iPhone I ran into was defective. That's why I had the lady to replace it with another iPhone. And I showed her the logs and explained what was happening, which help her understand she needed a replacement.

Those AirPorts are shite. I just tossed like four of them.

I found one in my basement yesterday.

I feel so cheap......

Using TP Link Omada and Ubiquiti I would lean towards Ubiquiti (Unifi/UI). We started using TP-Link during Covid due to availability and find that Omada is very limited in setup and information when compared to UI. With the growing product line of UI (networking, Access Control, Surveillance) we have been moving back to UI.

I was told/read that TP-Link uses the same manufacturing facilities as UI and also has some partnership with UI for the Omada platform thus why they look very familiar but feel like I am missing a lot of information and settings in Omada that UI offer.

There is also the price difference with TP-Link being the more affordable option. The systems that I do have using TP-Link and Omada are still working fine. I had one hardware failure with a switch and it was replaced really quickly.

You can't go wrong with TP-Link I put it in my house (Covid so no UI stock), I just feel there are better options for just a bit more money.

I need to look into the apps to find a way to set channels- how are you fine people doing that, just avoiding the most common (1, 6, 11), setting the router to Auto or USING other schemes?

DON'T avoid 1,6,11 - those are the ONLY non-overlapping 2.4 Ghz channels and if you use anything besides those in the US you're just ruining multiple bands.