Instantly switch Wi-Fi networks on the iPhone/iPad

4 November 2015, 01:02


In my house I’ve a number of Wi-Fi base stations. This is because it seems our walls are made out of lead and signals can’t penetrate them, so a single base station won’t cut it.

The end result is that when I move from the office to the living room, my iPhone should switch to the Wi-Fi in the living room, and abandon the one in the office because it’s now out of range.

What actually happens is that I have a useless one-bar signal for the Wi-Fi in the office.

One solution is to open the System app and delve into the Wi-Fi settings to choose the living room Wi-Fi, but a FAR quicker solution is to open Control Center (swipe up from the bottom of the screen), and then turn Wi-Fi off and then back on again.

Tap-tap. It takes seconds. Once the Wi-Fi is reactivated it’ll automatically associate with the strongest Wi-Fi signal — which for me is the one near me in the living room.

Here’s hoping that Apple figure out a better solution to this issue!

EDIT: As Giu points out in the comments below, you can ensure perfect handoff between Wi-Fi base stations within your house or workplace by ensuring they have the same SSID (i.e. name) AND the same password. I just tried this and it worked for me, so many thanks to Giu. However, knowing how stubborn Wi-Fi configuration can be at times, YMMV…

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If you set the same SSID and password for all your base stations the iPhone (or any other Wi-Fi product) switch seamlessy between them. Work great for me.

— Giu · Nov 4, 01:35 AM · #

Wow! Thanks Giu! I’ll give that a try and update the article!

— Keir · Nov 4, 02:31 AM · #

 
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