topic Re: Nest Wifi performance degradation in Nest Wifi

Nest Wifi performance degradation

Eraser — Wed, 08 Dec 2021 07:34:14 GMT

I have 2 Nest Wifi routers linked via hardwire. I have just over 50 devices connected at all times via Wifi. After a reboot of the network (both routers) I my speed test results are between 250-300+ Mbps via WiFi (wired 800+ Mbps), uploads are 11 Mbps on both. Every 24-36 hours my wireless network has significant degradation. My down speed test will drop to 10 Mbps or less , uploads 0.5 Mbps on WiFi. My wired network works perfectly fine getting the same speed test results. The only temporary fix is reboot the network.

So far I have done the following:

Factory reset both routers
Relocated the 2nd router/point
Ran the network with only a single router
Tested WiFi using multiple devices phones, laptops, desktops
Split about 20 devices on to the guest network

This issue has been getting progressively worse over the last few months to the point where I'm highly considering getting rid of both routers. Has anyone else had this issue as I have described, and if so have you found a fix for it?

My guess is the issue is related to the number of devices I have on the wireless network and or bufferbloat.

Re: Nest Wifi performance degradation

nickp001 — Thu, 09 Dec 2021 02:34:32 GMT

Yep! I'm having the same types of problems. There's a few posts on here about related issues. At first I was suspecting that the wire/plaster in the walls was causing interference. But the more I think about it, the less I think that's the problem. I've tried all of the same things you have. I'm starting the think there's a bug in the software.

Re: Nest Wifi performance degradation

Eraser — Thu, 09 Dec 2021 03:52:15 GMT

How many devices do you have on your wireless network? I wonder if there is some correlation with device count on wifi.

Either way my network has been the same for nearly 2 years and this has only been an issue this year. I agree the issue is probably software related. Who knows if/when this issue will get fixed.

Re: Nest Wifi performance degradation

nickp001 — Thu, 09 Dec 2021 04:06:42 GMT

I have 74 devices. At first I thought that might be the problem, but I read that Nest can handle 200 devices. I can run a mesh test and get a "Great Connection" on all access points and then run the test an hour later and they'll all say "Weak Connection". It's frustrating.

Re: Nest Wifi performance degradation

Eraser — Thu, 09 Dec 2021 04:21:57 GMT

Good to know there is at least one consistent element for both of us, 50+ devices.

This weekend I'm going to test to find out exactly how long before my wifi speed drops off. Once I do I'm going to cut off about half of my wifi devices by changing the guest wifi password. After that I can see if the issue returns and if so how quickly.

Stay tuned.

Re: Nest Wifi performance degradation

nickp001 — Thu, 09 Dec 2021 04:30:17 GMT

Keep us posted.

Re: Nest Wifi performance degradation

nickp001 — Thu, 09 Dec 2021 22:13:55 GMT

Latest Test

I live in a 3000 sqft, 4 bedroom, single story home with plaster walls, built in the early 70's. My most recent configuration had 1 main Nest router centrally located in the dining room, 1 Nest router acting as an access point in the kitchen, 1 Nest router acting as an access point in the master bedroom, 1 Nest router acting as an access point in my middle bedroom and 1 Nest access point in the garage. With this configuration, all access points experience performance degradation, sometimes, within minutes, to the point of either the access point going offline or providing only a weak signal. After restarting the network and waiting several minutes, everything comes back online with either a great connection or a good connection, until the next time it happens.

It happened today, so I decided to cut everything back to its bare bones. I removed all access points and left only my main router. I'm not ready to factory reset the router again just yet. I started up the network and as expected, I had a shoddy connection throughout the house. Next I factory reset one of the routers and configured it as an access point, placing it in my family room with a direct line of sight to the router, about 20-25 feet away and nothing in the way to interfere with the signal. I gave everything a few minutes to start up and the mesh test showed a great connection. Next, I came here to type this up and before posting it, I went back to check my connection again, this time it was back to weak.

How is this possible? 25 feet away and a direct line of sight, and a weak connection? The problem has to be on Google's end.

Re: Nest Wifi performance degradation

Eraser — Thu, 09 Dec 2021 22:28:26 GMT

So your issue sounds like it is with the mesh connection between the router and the other access points. In my case I had my 2nd router hard wired into the network so my mesh connection was always rated as "great". Additionally, when my WiFi connection speed tanks, my mesh connection is unchanged (as expected).

Have you tried to hard wire your other access points to the main router? Since you have multiple AP's you would need a switch connected to the main router, but at a minimum you can hard wire one AP. On the AP, connect a patch cable to the WAN(internet) port, then connect to the open LAN port on the router. If your mesh test is ever anything but "great" while being hard wired it could be a hardware issue (or software I suppose).

Re: Nest Wifi performance degradation

nickp001 — Fri, 10 Dec 2021 22:00:55 GMT

I will give that a try this weekend.

Re: Nest Wifi performance degradation

Eraser — Mon, 13 Dec 2021 20:52:09 GMT

After turning off the guest network my device count dropped to about 25. I rebooted the network and my phone (Pixel 5) was getting the expected speeds. After about 2 hours up/down speeds tanked just as always, although it did so much faster than expected. The odd part was I tested with 3 other phones (Pixel 2XL and Galaxy S10e), and both of those phones were getting well over 300+ Mbps down and 11+ Mbps up. I also tested with my wife's Pixel 5 and I got the same results as with my Pixel 5.

I then rebooted my network again and re-tested with all 4 devices. All 4 reported the expected speeds 300+ Mbps down and 11+ Mbps up. I periodically repeated this test over the weekend and the results were the same for 2 and a half days. When I re-tested on Sunday both Pixel devices went back to the slow speeds, and the other 2 devices were performing as expected.

Results are quite perplexing. I suppose the issue could be with the Pixel 5 devices, however rebooting the Pixel 5's doesn't make any difference. Only when the network is rebooted do the speeds return to normal on the Pixel 5's. At the point I think the only thing I can do it wait until the next firmware update for the routers to get pushed down and hope that fixes the issue. Either that or dump these routers for some other product 🤔.

Re: Nest Wifi performance degradation

Jeff — Wed, 15 Dec 2021 18:39:34 GMT

Hey, Eraser.

Thanks for doing some testing and letting us know the results there. I'm hoping for a solution soon, but it's always nice to see users working to find answers as well.

Re: Nest Wifi performance degradation

Jeff — Thu, 20 Jan 2022 22:40:50 GMT

Hey, everyone.

It's been a while since we had a check in, but I wanted to come back and see if anyone was still seeing the same issues here. If things are still not working for you, please let me know and we can look at additional troubleshooting steps to take.

Thanks.

Re: Nest Wifi performance degradation

Hong — Tue, 25 Jan 2022 01:34:00 GMT

Just found this thread and have been having the same issue, I have one router and one access point, 47 devices, pixel 3, 5 and 6 in the house. All experience the same degradation after 2 days-ish, Haven't done anything testing.

Re: Nest Wifi performance degradation

Tmg — Fri, 28 Jan 2022 03:34:41 GMT

Similar issues. I need to reboot the system daily. If I check mesh quality it is often poor but on reboot they all go back to great. I test a few times per day and it is great until suddenly it degrades again. I have 5 nodes thru out my house.

Re: Nest Wifi performance degradation

JerseyFrank — Sun, 06 Feb 2022 00:25:46 GMT

Yes, me.

2 Nest Wifi routers, 2 access points, ~25 devices. I've used wired and wireless connections to the router configured as an AP. I've tried without the 2nd router. I've moved points closer and farther. In all physical configurations the connection degrades every day.

Re: Nest Wifi performance degradation

Eraser — Sun, 06 Feb 2022 00:35:11 GMT

This is clearly still an issue for myself and others. Although some scenarios are slightly different the consistent issue is connectivity degrades or is completely lost over time. The only fix is rebooting the network. There is appears to be some software issue with the routers and access points. That's said, is there any ETA for a software update to fix this long running issue?

Re: Nest Wifi performance degradation

aectann — Wed, 16 Feb 2022 12:50:34 GMT

I experience the same issues.

Re: Nest Wifi performance degradation

Tmg — Thu, 17 Feb 2022 00:46:19 GMT

I am a technical person and so I know that this solution on its own can not explain why the problem appears to be solved now except to explain that there must be a memory leak is in the code that dynamically queries or resolves Name Servers.

Anyway here is my story. I contacted google over two weeks ago and that person had me hard code the DNS servers using the home app and since I have done that I have not had to reboot my mesh. I laughed at them and said that setting an external DNS server could not possibly explain an internal mesh connectivity problem.

Anyway, I humoured them and made the below changes and ... sure enough, the problem has not reoccurred after nearly three weeks. Previously, I couldn't even go a day.

Your mileage may vary but this is my experience.

*******

WARNING

*******

If you don't understand how to apply this, or you couldn't reverse it if you needed to, please don't mess around with your DNS server settings. It can "break" your ability to browse the internet if you do it incorrectly. Also, if you did it and it doesn't work, please don't contact me to solve your problem. I am just some guy on the internet.

Using Google Home app on your phone got Wifi, tap on the Gear icon, go to Advanced Networking, select DNS and set Custom and use your preferred DNS name server. I use 8.8.8.8 & 8.8.4.4. Include ip6 if you have that enabled (i do) and I used 2001:4860:4860::8888 and 2001:4860:4860::8844 which are the equivalent Google DNS servers.

******

As strange as it sounds, the problems went away after that.

If it does work for you, upvote this comment so others know that hard coding custom DNS seems to solve the degrading mesh connections. Maybe its coincidental and Google finally patched this around the same time. who knows??!

Tim

Re: Nest Wifi performance degradation

Eraser — Thu, 17 Feb 2022 06:26:02 GMT

Funny you should mention manually setting DNS. About a month ago I called Google Support (wasted about 2 hours of my life), but at one point that person also told me to manually set the DNS. I told him there was no need to do that as it was set to automatic, which uses Google's DNS by default. Unlike you I didn't humor the tech and left the setting as is on automatic.

Since I'm still having the same issue with no other options left to try, I figured, what the hell, I'll give it a try. After manually setting the DNS to Google's servers, I rebooted my network for good measure.

If the problem doesn't come back after 4 or 5 days I'll consider this the solution. Don't get me wrong, I'll be ecstatic if this is the fix. Part of me would be quite annoyed that something like this can bring your mesh network to its knees, yet Google hasn't bothered to fix it.

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll be sure to report back next week.

Re: Nest Wifi performance degradation

Eraser — Fri, 18 Feb 2022 03:44:40 GMT

After about 24 hours the issue has returned, as usual. Well it was worth a try😫