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0 pointsflashback21992y ago0 comments

> If the SSID and password are the same, how would the phone tell the difference

MAC address, but devices don't care, by design they will connect if the SSID and encryption type are the same, actually, you can create a mesh wifi network at your house with regular routers or access points by doing so, connecting them with wired ethernet.

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10 comments · 4 top-level

eternityforest2y ago· 3 in thread

Which is a very good thing, otherwise you wouldn't be able to replace a router and have stuff just work.

pests2y ago

The last time I did we did a WiFi password change at my house there were near 100 devices that had to be updated. Such a hassle. Thankfully it's stayed the same over 4 routers and about 7 years.

dclowd99012y ago

Orrrrr the protocol would just be smart enough to say “hey, we are thinking of connecting to this network but the MAC address is different — did you recently switch base stations?”

eternityforest2y ago

As long as screenless devices and other unattended things like light bulbs didn't need manual intervention, and it was easy to turn off the checks on a Linux server, it would be cool.

But it would probably be an annoyance in large multi hotspot environments, and could become another thing to train people to mindlessly click through like cookie prompts.

nehal3m2y ago· 2 in thread

You can, but if the AP's aren't aware of their shared clients they can't hand them off to another AP when signal strength degrades. Let's say you connect a client to AP A, then walk out of range closer to AP B. Your signal strength will suck because you're now farther away from AP A (and close to AP B). AP A won't disconnect your client to allow it to connect to B for better signal strength (that is, until AP A's signal strength is too low to sustain a connection).

Networks that are meshed by design take this into account and communicate about signal strength per client, handing them over when they notice a neighbor would be able to serve the client better.

oynqr2y ago

While communication between APs (and forwarding of the data to clients) helps, it's not strictly needed because clients will do background scans, especially when reception is getting worse.

flashback2199OP2y ago

It apparently depends on the client device's implementation but yes in general client devices will switch to connect to the stronger one automatically on their own

namibj2y ago· 1 in thread

ESSID != BSSID. The former meant for UX, the latter to uniquely identify. Wpa_didn't allows fixing the latter, for example, as needed when you hang out at multiple locations where the wifi has the default ESSID, but of course with distinct passwords. Causes authentication timeout/lockout annoyance if left alone.

lxgr2y ago

That's a pretty annoying situation, yes.

Fortunately many default network names at least contain some randomness these days, e.g. three bytes of an access point's BSSID, to make this less likely.

That's also the proper fix – pinning a WPA password to an individual BSSID would go against the concept of encryption being scoped to an ESS/ESSID, not individual APs.

HPsquared2y ago

MAC address can of course be spoofed easily as well.

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