I have a Ring Doorbell Pro on my front door which has always been problematic. At first I could get it to join the WiFi but then it would error — turns out it was trying to use an outside DNS server and I had blocked clients from using any DNS but mine.

When I replaced my temporary AmpliFi setup with UniFi, I couldn’t get it to find my SSID at all. I literally held an AP directly in front of it and it would find several neighbors WiFi but not mine.

I read somewhere that sometimes a Ring will get confused seeing several APs broadcasting the same SSID, so I decided to give it its own AP and SSID on 2.4GHz-only. I put it in the attic slightly offset from being directly above the door. This has mostly worked ok, except that it takes a long time to re-connect after the AP reboots from firmware updates.

Today I had cause to look at my AP retry rates…

And the Ring’s AP retry rate is just ridiculously bad. I crawled into the attic and shoved the AP all the way into the soffit. Gained 6dBm but the retry rate didn’t budge. Changed from Channel 1 to Channel 11, no difference.

Then I had the thought that, since initially installing this stuff, I’ve put a great deal of effort into tuning the power levels and minRSSI values to get devices to use the right AP instead of clinging to a poor signal. Let’s try turning off an AP in the attic I don’t really need anymore, bring the one I’ve been using for the Ring back into broadcasting my normal SSID on 2.4GHz and 5GHz, and trying joining the Ring to it.

And it joined right up! On 5GHz. The signal is decent and the retry rates have dropped to a more reasonable level. Huzzah!