topic Re: Several Questions in Nest Wifi

Several Questions

digitalhigh — Fri, 01 Oct 2021 18:44:26 GMT

First - how do I clear "old" devices that had been connected to my Nest Wifi setup without having to do a factory reset?? I have a few devices now that were connected, got abruptly rebooted, and now *refuse* to connect to my wifi. One of them is an ESP8266 running WLED software, the other is a raspberry pi using networkmanager.

Second - why can't the device list be sorted by NAME? The "sort by usage" thing wouldn't be so bad, except for it constantly updates mid-scroll, meaning half the time, the thing I'm looking for winds up popping up above the area I already scrolled to.

Third - WHY ONLY THE MOBILE APP? Seriously Google. Just put a flipping web UI on the thing already and tie it to MDNS. It's convenient at times...but more often than not, it's just annoying.

Four - Why is there no option to allow some other device to manage DHCP? I'd really like to use this with PFSense, but I don't feel like crippling half the functionality of my system because there isn't proper support for adding a separate DHCP server.

Five - and this is largely because of the glaring issues with #4...where can I get the latest recovery image for my wifi devices? Flat-out, I want to modify the image to enable SSH and other "stuff" so that I can, in fact, run my device behind PFSense, and just have a greater level of control over the device than "via a dumbed-down mobile app".

Four - Where can I get the latest factory image for my wifi devices?

Re: Several Questions

Ashepherdson — Fri, 01 Oct 2021 18:55:29 GMT

Hi There,

I will try to answer some of your questions, but some of them are outside the scope of this community, and would be best served sent directly to Google support (https://support.google.com/googlenest/gethelp?hl=en) . Keep in mind we are only community members trying to help!

1 - Old devices remain in the list unless a factory reset is done, I have not yet seen a work around to this, luckily the factory reset is not too painful these days. My trick is I put the QR stickers on the tops of the points so that I can easily take photos of them as required.

2- This functionality may come in the future, but the reality is most users only have a handful of devices, where as a power user such as yourself has many times more.

3, 4, 5 - That is just the way the product has been designed, its supposed to "Just Work", again for most users the app works well, however for a power user looking to add tweaks or customizations, this product may simply not be right for. A power user may want to explore a more custom routing setup (such as DDWRT, Tomato, etc)

Sorry I could not be of more help, but I think at some point we have to admit that we are trying to fit a square peg in a round hole!

Re: Several Questions

Jeff — Fri, 08 Oct 2021 17:33:45 GMT

Hey, digitalhigh.

I just wanted to check in and follow up real fast to see if you saw Ashepherdson's reply. If you need anything, please let me know and I'll be happy to help.

Thanks.

Re: Several Questions

digitalhigh — Sun, 10 Oct 2021 14:38:45 GMT

Hi Jeff, Ashepherdson,

Thanks for the replies, although I wish something more helpful were to have come from this conversation...

Regarding #1 - I was able to solve my problem myself by restarting all of my wifi points, but not having to factory-reset them. This must erase some stored "secrets" somewhere, which makes the handshaking process start over again. I'd definitely recommend someone at Google buy a few Wemos D1 minis, slap WLED on it, and look into why this happens.

Regarding the other advanced features...please consider this a feature request. Your wifi products would appeal to a lot more power users if you added these "advanced" features - even if you somehow buried them in the app settings...similar to how "developer options" are hidden in android unless you know how to get at them.

As far as factory images being unavailable...I feel compelled to point out that this is a fairly recent development. You *used* to have them available. Then, it seems as if something changed, and the public images stopped being updated, and the URLs used internally are now obfuscated/changed so they can't be easily worked out by people like me. This is just frustrating, and seems more of an intentional action on Google's part...versus "That's how the product is designed.".

So, @Jeff, yes, I do need something. I need the latest factory image for my wifi devices. Right-to-repair says I can legally modify my hardware if I want. And, if I somehow brick something and/or void my warranty...that is something I'm fully prepared to live with.

Re: Several Questions

Jeff — Mon, 11 Oct 2021 16:21:49 GMT

Hey, digitalhigh.

Sorry for the frustration on this. I've gone ahead and passed your message on to an internal team and I'll let you know when I hear more on the matter.

Thanks.

Re: Several Questions

Dean2706 — Tue, 12 Oct 2021 00:18:34 GMT

Just want to express my interest in this as well, I have the same concerns and am very disappointed in the lack of community support on this product. Google have always been supportive of devs, especially for android but this product seems to go in the opposite direction. Any doesn't take much searching to find others with the same disappointment, especially on Reddit and GitHub.

Re: Several Questions

Jeff — Tue, 12 Oct 2021 15:53:30 GMT

Hey, Dean2706.

Thanks for chiming in. I understand the frustrations you're feeling and I'm ensuring that our internal teams understand the pain points of our customers. It's a focus right now and we're really taking feedback seriously.

Re: Several Questions

Jeff — Fri, 15 Oct 2021 15:59:48 GMT

Hey, everyone.
Just as an update, we're still looking into this issue and as of yet we don't have a solution. I just wanted to touch base so you would know that you haven't been forgotten. In the meantime if anything else changes about your situation, please feel free to update us in the thread.
Thanks!

Re: Several Questions

Jeff — Thu, 21 Oct 2021 17:50:42 GMT

Hey, @digitalhigh.

I'm just following up as it's been a few days. Have you had any success with the issue or has anything changed in your situation? I know the internal teams are aware of your situation and should have reached out. If you have yet to hear anything, let me know.

Thanks.

Re: Several Questions

digitalhigh — Fri, 22 Oct 2021 14:07:05 GMT

Hey Jeff,

No, nothing has changed on my end. Still hoping "engineers" win in the battle I'm imagining in my mind between "Excecutives vs. Engineers", where some poor SW Googler is arguing how legally, we (the users) should have access to software images if desired and how it promotes community development and power-user adoption, whereas some nugget in a really expensive suit's counter-point is "Yeah, but MONEY.". 😛

And no, I have not heard anything from anybody internally.

Re: Several Questions

Jeff — Fri, 22 Oct 2021 15:57:04 GMT

Ok, digitalhigh, thanks for the update. I'll circle back with our teams and find out where we are with this and see if there's something holding up a response.

Thanks.

Re: Several Questions

Jeff — Fri, 29 Oct 2021 19:15:42 GMT

Hey, digitalhigh.

It's been a few more days. Have you had any luck connecting with support? If not, let me know. I want to make sure you're not falling through the cracks here.

Thanks.

Re: Several Questions

digitalhigh — Mon, 01 Nov 2021 15:31:26 GMT

Hi Jeff,

Nope nobody's reached out to me yet.

Re: Several Questions

myros1av — Tue, 02 Nov 2021 23:51:31 GMT

Hi everyone
Lately one of my GW units got ot a bootloop after connecting to google home app on Android
Recovery USB created with the onhub utility is not resolving an issue
Please upload an original image as 9334.41.3 is not the one to fix this

Re: Several Questions

Jeff — Tue, 16 Nov 2021 17:52:48 GMT

Hey, digitalhigh.

Sorry you haven't been contacted by support. I'll follow up to see what might have happened there.

myros1av, we're not able to share factory images of old firmware here. Most of those updates brought a lot of security updates included and rolling those back can open up your network to vulnerabilities.

Thanks.

Re: Several Questions

Jeff — Wed, 01 Dec 2021 17:12:26 GMT

Hey, everyone.
It's been a while and unfortunately I don't have any new updates, but I wanted to check in and see if anyone has seen any changes in their situation, either for the better or worse. If so, please let me know.

Thanks.

Re: Several Questions

digitalhigh — Wed, 01 Dec 2021 17:57:41 GMT

Not trying to shoot the messenger here...but what exactly is the problem? These are factory images for hardware we paid money for, which are already hosted *somewhere* on the internet.

The fact somebody can't just give us a URL - let alone even reach out to me to tell me "fat effing chance" is pretty frustrating.

As such, the only thing that's changed in my "situation" is that I'm strongly considering selling my Google Wifi system and buying something that is less restricted and dumbed-down than most Apple products...

Re: Several Questions

Jeff — Wed, 01 Dec 2021 19:30:43 GMT

Hey, digitalhigh.

The factory images are embedded in the hardware, as you can always roll back to a factory reset. As far as having access to the files themselves, Google does not make that available for product security reasons. You're always free to reset your devices to a factory new state, but we don't have any way to offer the actual files in a downloadable file form.

Re: Several Questions

digitalhigh — Thu, 02 Dec 2021 17:47:12 GMT

LOL, what? For "security reasons"? I can literally go to your website right now and download factory images for any Pixel device, as well as a number of other Google products...which arguably presents a much greater "security risk" than a factory image for a wifi router/access point.

Also, "we don't have any way to offer the actual files"? What? You are freaking GOOGLE. You literally have a monopoly on most things "internet". Are you seriously trying to tell me that there is not one single human being in the entirety of your organization that doesn't have the ability to upload a firmware file to the internet?

Because you were literally doing it like a year or two ago...or whenever everything got rebranded from "Nest" to "Google".

Last but not least...this has been what I've been asking for for two months now. I thought I was pretty clear in that when I posted in the first place. Why has it taken until now for me to get these excuses?

Regardless, I'm calling BS on this whole thing. The images have been released in the past, you do it for plenty of other products that are much more powerful than Google Wifi, and so there's no legitimate reason why the firmware shouldn't be made available.

Honestly, it's crap like this that really makes me hate Google products sometimes. This "where'd the firmware go?" game sure seems like another instance of executive decisions overriding what the users care about or want. And if you were to have just told me that instead, versus insulting my intelligence and feeding me some canned "we can't because security" response, at least I'd feel a little better about this exchange.

And the kicker is you actually had my hopes up for a while there, pretending like someone at Google might *actually* give a crap what a user wants...

Re: Several Questions

Jeff — Thu, 02 Dec 2021 19:04:25 GMT

Hey, digitalhigh.

I don't make the policies or control what is made available, but there's a big difference between and open-source software like Android, an open platform, and something like the firmware/software that controls the Nest line of products. There will always be more access to things on the Android side than with the hardware products.

As far as what I can provide, it boils down to information or helping you navigate support channels. I can pass along you suggestions and comments, and I do, but I don't have access to the sorts of things you're asking for, and we really don't have anyone that does. I'll be happy to continue to work within available support channels with you, but I simply don't have the ability to provide access to factory images or firmware.

Thanks.