In a wireless local area network, a system and method for association between access points and clients based upon measuring the response time of packets and selecting the access point with the least latency. The present invention also contemplates taking the average response time of several packets between an access point and client and selecting the access point for association with the least amount of latency based upon the average response time. The present invention is further directed to optimizing throughput by user selectable or dynamically allocable trigger events which causes the client of an associated access point to seek other access points meeting the threshold limits. Finally, since the present invention causes the a client to seek an access point based on measuring the response time of packets, an effective and efficient system and method is disclosed to overcome external radio frequency interference.