Wifi Mesh Problems - My Connections Drop When I Move Around.
(Written: 04/09/2026, Updated: 04/09/2026)
What would you do if I sang out of tune? Would you get up and walk out on me?
Wifi is a wonderful technology. Where would we be without it in this modern world?
Under the surface it's also a complicated technology.
Wifi mesh systems are also generally great - they automatically solve many dead spot issues that would previously have required an engineer to diagnose.
Sadly not today, though.
Today my customer was getting dropped phone calls when moving around his house.
He lives in a remote area with no cell phone signal so he has his mobile phone set to make phone calls over wifi instead, ie: "Wifi Calling".
I ran all the usual tests:
* Mapped Wifi signal strength around the house.
* Ran broadband speed tests.
* Continuous internet ping test.
* Line of sight issues between mesh nodes.
Because his house has half-metre (18 inch) thick walls we repositioned one of the mesh nodes and used the tether app to optimise the mesh topology again.
This gives the mesh a chance to decide which nodes can hear which other nodes most clearly and helps to pass data across the mesh as fast as possible.
The tether app does this automatically by tapping a control.
Optimisation improved the mesh wifi coverage, but phone calls continued to drop.
Eventually I realised that the broadband router and the mesh were both using the same Wifi credentials, ie: Network name (SSID) and password.
That's usually a great idea.
The wifi protocol is designed to work this way so that client devices can transparently switch to the strongest wifi signal.
This works fine as long as all the Wifi base stations ("Access Points") are on the same physical network.
The problem today was that the broadband router and the mesh were configured as separate physical networks.
The mesh only talks to the broadband router as a way to get to the internet.
Neither the mesh nor the broadband router tell each other which devices are connected to them.
So if a mobile phone starts a phone call when it is connected to the broadband router wifi but then moves to a location where the mesh wifi is stronger, the phone will automatically swap it's wifi connection to the mesh since both the broadband router and the mesh use the same wifi credentials.
The user sees no wifi disconnection happen and so is surprised when their phone call stops.
The problem is that the new wifi base station has no way to know that this mobile phone is the same device that was just connected to the mesh. It cannot therefore reroute any existing internet connections through the new wifi connection.
Rerouting would be possible if both wifi base stations were on the same network, ie: Either both part of the mesh network, or both part of the broadband router network, but today they were not and so the call got dropped.
The party, as it were, was suddenly over.
And nobody wants that.
This behaviour also applies to any kind of streaming service. Rerouting wifi while Watching an online video, for example.
Usually a wifi mesh will configure itself to a unique wifi name (SSID) at installation.
This would prevent today's problem from happening.
I'm not sure why this mesh thought it was a good idea to allow the user to configure it to the same SSID as another wifi network. It did though.
In the end the solution was simple.
We turned off the wifi from the broadband router.
The only wifi network in the house was then the mesh.
No more dropped phone calls.
No more endless pauses on Sky tv.
I hope this overview was helpful.
If you find this useful or interesting, please feel free to get in touch.
All the best, from Julian Neeves.
(Written: 04/09/2026, Updated: 04/09/2026)
Wifi is a wonderful technology. Where would we be without it in this modern world?
Under the surface it's also a complicated technology.
Wifi mesh systems are also generally great - they automatically solve many dead spot issues that would previously have required an engineer to diagnose.
Sadly not today, though.
Today my customer was getting dropped phone calls when moving around his house.
He lives in a remote area with no cell phone signal so he has his mobile phone set to make phone calls over wifi instead, ie: "Wifi Calling".
I ran all the usual tests:
* Mapped Wifi signal strength around the house.
* Ran broadband speed tests.
* Continuous internet ping test.
* Line of sight issues between mesh nodes.
Because his house has half-metre (18 inch) thick walls we repositioned one of the mesh nodes and used the tether app to optimise the mesh topology again.
This gives the mesh a chance to decide which nodes can hear which other nodes most clearly and helps to pass data across the mesh as fast as possible.
The tether app does this automatically by tapping a control.
Optimisation improved the mesh wifi coverage, but phone calls continued to drop.
Eventually I realised that the broadband router and the mesh were both using the same Wifi credentials, ie: Network name (SSID) and password.
That's usually a great idea.
The wifi protocol is designed to work this way so that client devices can transparently switch to the strongest wifi signal.
This works fine as long as all the Wifi base stations ("Access Points") are on the same physical network.
The problem today was that the broadband router and the mesh were configured as separate physical networks.
The mesh only talks to the broadband router as a way to get to the internet.
Neither the mesh nor the broadband router tell each other which devices are connected to them.
So if a mobile phone starts a phone call when it is connected to the broadband router wifi but then moves to a location where the mesh wifi is stronger, the phone will automatically swap it's wifi connection to the mesh since both the broadband router and the mesh use the same wifi credentials.
The user sees no wifi disconnection happen and so is surprised when their phone call stops.
The problem is that the new wifi base station has no way to know that this mobile phone is the same device that was just connected to the mesh. It cannot therefore reroute any existing internet connections through the new wifi connection.
Rerouting would be possible if both wifi base stations were on the same network, ie: Either both part of the mesh network, or both part of the broadband router network, but today they were not and so the call got dropped.
The party, as it were, was suddenly over.
And nobody wants that.
This behaviour also applies to any kind of streaming service. Rerouting wifi while Watching an online video, for example.
Usually a wifi mesh will configure itself to a unique wifi name (SSID) at installation.
This would prevent today's problem from happening.
I'm not sure why this mesh thought it was a good idea to allow the user to configure it to the same SSID as another wifi network. It did though.
In the end the solution was simple.
We turned off the wifi from the broadband router.
The only wifi network in the house was then the mesh.
No more dropped phone calls.
No more endless pauses on Sky tv.
I hope this overview was helpful.
If you find this useful or interesting, please feel free to get in touch.
All the best, from Julian Neeves.