A county fleet garage reports tablets show strong dBm near the AP y…

Question

A county fleet garage reports tablets show strong dBm near the AP yet apps stall and voice cuts out. A quick check shows received signal around −55 dBm while SNR is poor. Where should the technician focus first?

Accepted Answer

Treat the problem as noise or interference degrading SNR, not as weak coverage or path loss. — Strong dBm with bad SNR is a noisy neighborhood problem, not a "can't hear the AP" problem. Fix interference and noise floor issues before you chase coverage. Weak dBm would have pointed you at path loss and coverage instead.

Answer

Raise every AP to maximum transmit power because low dBm is the only cause of poor WLAN performance.

Answer

Replace the Ethernet cable to the AP first because SNR problems always mean a PoE wiring fault.

Answer

Delete all client wireless profiles and force open authentication so signal strength no longer matters.

A county fleet garage reports tablets show strong dBm near the AP yet apps stall and voice cuts out. A quick check shows received signal around −55 dBm while SNR is poor. Where should the technician focus first?

Short Explanation

Full Explanation