Unable to connect to WiFi with duplicate SSIDs

[banksfinn]

Problem

Currently, I'm unable to connect to my wifi network due to having multiple access points with duplicate SSIDs. There is no method for explicitly stating the BSSID or otherwise filtering down the SSIDs to prevent this issue.

Error:
('No such ssid', b'SSID in Secrets')

Tested

This was tested on an Adafruit Matrix Portal, using the guide listed here: https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-matrixportal-m4/internet-connect

This was first tested by the direct esp.connect_AP, then subsequently tested out using WifiManager.

Solution

I'd love the ability to either explicitly state the BSSID, or default to connecting to the closest SSID.

I've made a branch for the WifiManager C++ code (here: https://github.com/banksfinn/WiFiManager), but realized this will need to be 2 part solution. This is the relevant thread I worked from: tzapu/WiFiManager#221

Does anyone have any guidance of next steps for this repo?

Hardware

Adafruit Matrix Portal
Wifi Mesh System

[anecdata]

Connecting by BSSID as you note isn't currently implemented in this library like it is for native wifi.

The NINA firmware will already try to connect to the best access point with the given SSID. This is done by the underlying Espressif esp-idf call. I'm not sure why it doesn't work in your environment, I have many APs with the same SSID, and ESP32SPI devices can connect without issue.

My reading for what would be needed for ESP32SPI to connect using the BSSID of a particular AP...

This library's connect (wifi_set_passphrase) function would need the bssid parameter added.

The NINA firmware would need to be updated with the bssid parameter added to the setPassPhrase function.

However, the Arduino function called by NINA, WiFi.begin (see also), doesn't appear to support bssid as a parameter, so it might have to be re-implemented. This could be a complex development task, but the bones for it seem to be present.