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Comment by not2b | Hacker News Reader

But if the laptop is currently connected to a WiFi network with a known location, what's the point of scanning for networks to locate it? You already know that you're within range of a known spot.

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Roaming. Although a desktop might not usually be moving while it's on, a laptop user might move around the house, conference room, or lecture hall, and switching APs could result in a stronger signal. It's better to switch before your signal gets weak/drops to minimize disruptions during BSS transitions.

On an unrelated note, in my experience Apple devices are consistently the most frustrating devices when it comes to wifi. They are insanely picky about what networks they will connect to, and they are never consistent.

„Within range of one network“ doesn‘t give you as much information as „all these networks are visible and here‘s how strong they look from where you are“

Not just within range, connected to. Meaning you're close enough to have a strong signal. If it isn't a strong signal this can be detected and the system could scan in that case, looking for a better one.

True, but is that precision worth the hit to latency... especially if you're trying to do a voice and/or video call? I doubt it's worth the tradeoff most of the time.

How often are folks in meetings, connected to WiFi, and opening up the WiFi connections list to hunt for other networks?

I'm frankly surprised that the author of these tweets encountered this at all, much less was so annoyed by it as to troubleshoot.

> opening up the WiFi connections list to hunt for other networks?

That's not the trigger. The trigger is location services scanning for networks in the background. So, if you have that enabled then it happens automatically while you're on a call.

All the time.

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