Google Nest Router location

LT1978 — Wed, 29 Sep 2021 03:41:10 GMT

Hi everyone. Hoping for some advice in relation to location of router compared to the points.

My current set up has my modem and nest router in garage. This is front right corner of my house. Points are then located in middle of house and two at rear of house on each side where office and main bedroom is located.

My question relates to how the router connects with each point in the house. Say router is A and points are B,C and D. Does A connect to B and then B to C and so on? Or does A connect to B, C and D and therefore router should be in middle of house?

Re: Google Nest Router location

MichaelP — Wed, 29 Sep 2021 11:24:14 GMT

Hello @LT1978

The mesh path selection algorithm will use the fewest hops possible to reach a destination. So, they will go through intermediate points, but only if a direct connection doesn't work at all. Since WiFi will slow way down to get through, it's much more likely a distant point will be talking directly (albeit slowly) to the router. Since there's a single 5GHz radio channel being shared by all of the points for the mesh interconnect (and for talking to 5GHz WiFi clients), this "fewest hops" policy is usually a better option, since every "hop" just means sending the same data back out on the same channel again, which reduces the available capacity of that channel (slowing the end-to-end performance down).

All of this is why the optimal placement is to have the router as close to the center of your home as possible with points arranged around it, close enough that they can all get "great" mesh test results (typically one or two rooms away, since 5GHz doesn't carry far). From there, they will provide coverage to more distant 2.4GHz and 5GHz WiFi clients.

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Google Nest Router location

Re: Google Nest Router location