How to force a total WiFi connection reset?

[Mike Marchywka]

I just got Beaver to run from a USB stick on an old e-machines and am quite happy with it so I am going
through trying to clean things up with the only GUI being openbox- I'm amazed how nice this
is with newer chromium even on fairly complex websites compared to older Debian and browser. 
The network is in the queue,
after latex , but curious what the tools are here if you wanted to write a script. I noted that ifconfig
is not included in the base iso file but iwconfig and IIRC iwlist are. ( thankfully lynx is still around not
sure anyone uses that any more ). 

I am usually just trying to connect to one or two fixed routers so it is not currently a big deal but
I guess with the default tools something like this could find the alternatives,

iwlist wlan0  scanning  | grep "SSID\|Quality"

And, I have noted a problem with dhclient taking forever to get a lease but not sure if
it is a quirk of the router or something dumb on my install.

I can problably look into it later but as long as the topic came up thought someone may
want to pontificate :)

Thanks. 



note new address
 Mike Marchywka 306 Charles Cox Drive Canton, GA 30115
 2295 Collinworth  Drive Marietta GA 30062.  formerly 487 Salem Woods Drive Marietta GA 30067 404-788-1216 (C)<- leave message 989-348-4796 (P)<- emergency


________________________________________
From: ubuntu-users <ubuntu-users-bounces at lists.ubuntu.com> on behalf of Chris Green <cl at isbd.net>
Sent: Friday, January 25, 2019 4:30 PM
To: ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com
Subject: Re: How to force a total WiFi connection reset?

On Fri, Jan 25, 2019 at 04:13:46PM -0500, Robert Heller wrote:
> At Fri, 25 Jan 2019 13:35:15 +0000 "Ubuntu user technical support, not
> for general discussions" <ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com> wrote:
>
> >
> > I have a large house and have a second (old) router working as a WiFi
> > access point to improve coverage.
> >
> > When moving my laptop (running xubuntu 18.04) around the house it
> > refuses to 'let go' of a weaker wifi signal in favour of a stronger one.
> >
> > Is there any way I can make Network Manager completely reset the WiFi
> > connection such that when reconnecting it finds the best signal rather
> > than using the last one it had?  Simply hitting disconnect and then
> > reconnecting doesn't work.
>
> When you left click (?) on the WiFi icon on the panel, does it give you a list
> of possible "networks"?  It *should*,  You just need to pick the right one.
>
No, that's where the problem starts! :-)

The 'right' way to configure two routers/access points to give more
coverage is to give both the same SSID but set them to use different
channels.  This is what I have done.  What *should* happen as one
moves from one coverage area to another is that the client will choose
the stronger WiFi signal.  Obviously there is some 'hysteresis' in the
selection mechanism so that in the border area the client doesn't go
crazy switching back and forth.

I've spent quite a while reading about this and the above set up
should work.

So, one can't "pick the right one" from the list because there is
only one name, they both have the same SSID.

My problem is that even if I'm not getting automatic changeover from
one WiFi source to the other I can't even *force* my laptop to change
over.  If I could just (for example) explicitly disconnect and then
reconnect to move to the the stronger signal then I'd be happy but it
doesn't happen.

It does *eventually* get to connect to the stronger signal, it seems
to be some sort of timeout is involved.  If I leave the laptop
disconnected for quite a long while (several minutes, not hours
though) then, when I reconnect, it uses the stronger WiFi signal
ratehr than the one it was connected to before.

--
Chris Green

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