Weird issue with Vista and wireless connections

[EightySix Four]

My house has two AP's so I generally get great wifi coverage throughout my house, but for reasons I can't figure out, my Dell laptop refuses to connect to the secondary AP, just the first one. One is on channel 1 and one is on 7, I can use the utility that comes with the laptop and see that I have a great connection to the secondary AP, and terrible to the first, yet it still chooses the first.

Suggestions?

 

[spidey07]

First of there is no such thing as wireless N, just prestandards stuff that has a big likelyhood of being incompatible when the standard is passed.

Ok, the choice of the client to move to another access point is based on the driver and any settings it may have. Lots of clients will "stick" to a single access point even if a better one is available to roam to; it won't connect to the other APs until it at the end of very edge of the first it associated with. You can try downloading the latest drivers and seeing if that setting is in there, or try the client utility which is leaps and bounds above native windows wireless support.

-edit-
I see you're using the utility, look for settings or other advanced settings for AP persistence or something along those lines. I assume the SSID is being broadcast on both access points, it should be, and the SSID and all security are the same.

 

[EightySix Four]

Originally posted by: spidey07
First of there is no such thing as wireless N, just prestandards stuff that has a big likelyhood of being incompatible when the standard is passed.

Ok, the choice of the client to move to another access point is based on the driver and any settings it may have. Lots of clients will "stick" to a single access point even if a better one is available to roam to. You can try downloading the latest drivers and seeing if that setting is in there, or try the client utility which is leaps and bounds above native windows wireless support.

I figured it was understood whenever someone said N that it was always Pre-N by this point.

I've went through each setting, and actually done everything I could to "force" it to the other AP by going somewhere there was no reception to AP 1, and then it just stopped trying.

How would I go about finding the Dell utility for connecting? I looked on the their site and I have the program that shows information from the card, but no options for a connection manager.