My lPad seems to stay stuck on last Pod

[rickatk]

I notice my iPad Pro seems to stay stuck on one of the three pods in my house. This slows down my wifi connection as the pod speeds are slower than the XB8.  Clearing the WiFi connection and joking the XB8 resumes the full speed.

Any tricks to get the iPad to select the closest antenna?

I know the Plume app allows self direction to antennas, but Shaw’s doesn’t 

[mdk]

@rickatk -- the pod speeds are slower than the XB8.  

Is it possible that the Shaw Pod is getting a less-than-optimal signal from the XB8, which causes the slower stream? 

Power-off the Shaw Pod, then take your iPad to be physically near the XB8, and connect to the XB8's WiFi, and then move the iPad to the room where the Shaw Pod is offline, to see what speed your iPad gets at that location?

Repeat this experiment with ALL of the Shaw Pods powered-off, and do a "survey" of the iPad's speed in every room in your residence.

Clearing the WiFi connection and joking the XB8

Comedian: I named my dog "XB8", but my dog has no nose.

Side-kick: how does the dog smell?

Comedian: terrible

🙂

[rickatk]

I don’t doubt that the pod speeds are slower than the XB8. my concern is my iPad seems to hang on to the slower pods even though I entered the main room where the faster XB8 resides. Apparently new pods are coming down the pipe that are capable of much faster speeds. In the mean time I would like to figure out why my iPad doesn’t re-connect to the fastest antennae. I wonder if my house is over saturated with pod signals. 

I do like the fact I get full download and upload speeds when connected to the XB8.

[rickatk]

@mdk  your responses are alway interesting 🤨😉

[mdk]

@rickatk -- why my iPad doesn’t re-connect to the fastest antennae ...

Is it an advertised feature of the Shaw Pods to "hand-off" your connection, as you physically move your iPad?

Is it an advertised feature of Apple IOS to routinely "poll" the various Access Points, and to switch to a "better" one?

Doing so may change the public IP-address (of the Shaw/Telus modem) that is presented to a web-site. Example: while connected via my own WiFi, if I move outside my residence, and come into the range of a "ShawOpen" Access Point, should my device switch its connection? If I were browsing on BestBuy, my own public IP-address will be sent to BestBuy, until my device connects to ShawOpen, and Shaw presents a different public IP-address to BestBuy. Will I lose my "shopping cart", because BestBuy would see a different IP-address?

[rickatk]

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@mdk wrote:

@rickatk -- why my iPad doesn’t re-connect to the fastest antennae ...

Is it an advertised feature of the Shaw Pods to "hand-off" your connection, as you physically move your iPad?

Is it an advertised feature of Apple IOS to routinely "poll" the various Access Points, and to switch to a "better" one?

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I have noticed that while the download speeds can be slower as reported, my iPad is still connected to the XB8. So the problem isn’t as simple as the AI picking a slower pod v using the faster XB8. The workaround seems to be is to forget the network and let the ipad re- poll the wifi connection. Honestly overall performance doesn’t  seem to be affected, just Speed Test results. 

[mdk]

@rickatk -- Just SpeedTest results.

That noted difference in performance reminded me of this video: https://youtu.be/B2g_TCYuIAM

where there is a difference in "transmit" and "receive" speeds.   🙂 

[rstra]

@rickatk I had the same problem when I had the pods, but mostly with fixed position wireless devices. I had one high bandwidth device, that was a few feet from the XB6, jump over it and connect to a pod one floor up and across. The reason I had the pod was for connectivity in the backyard, and so many other devices were connecting. I ended up sending the pods back, mostly because I didn’t really want to pay a monthly fee. I ended up with a Netgear range extender , which allowed me to block all devices except those that needed a connection outside. Too bad that pods didn’t have that ability.

The speeds were slower, due to the wireless overhead, having having to simultaneously send and receive to two devices, but it was still good enough for our 4K streaming.

[rickatk]

I too see pods making strange choices. I find myself wondering if perhaps my network is over saturated. Then I start testing. If I turn off some of the pods in the nether region of the house, the wifi signal drop off resulting in slower connection speeds to those devices. I was hoping the XB8 was strong enough to reach all the outlier devices but unfortunately no big improvement. I would like to not have to use the pods, fortunately I get a break on the rent. 

I have another situation with my solar setup. The hardware requires wifi connection. There is an antenna module/card you can put inside the main device but it costs $600.00. Alternatively a wifi extender can be used as a receiver which is connected to the solar device using ethernet. This pod connects to my solar, irrigation and some outside lights. That all works fine but sometimes my iPad connects to the pod in the garage on the other side of the wall shared by my home office. 🙄

[rickatk]

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@rstra wrote:

I ended up with a Netgear range extender , which allowed me to block all devices except those that needed a connection outside. Too bad that pods didn’t have that ability.

Yes this would be a handy feature.