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Nest Learning Thermostat connects to Wifi but with wrong IP so can't access

hij2001
Community Member

My original wifi infrastructure had two wireless routers, one configured as an AP connected by ethernet to the primary router.  This worked fine for years, but my primary router started to fail so I replaced that with another brand.  When I configured the new router, it assigned IP addresses starting with 10.x.x.x rather than 192.168.1.x as is customary.  When I had problems with that router and a second brand, I decided to switch to Google Nest mesh.  Sounds like everything should be great, right?

Unfortunately, for some reason, when new devices are added to the wifi, many of them connect to the network but with an out of range IP address corresponding to the prior router, so while they are connected to the radio, they have no internet access nor are they visible in the correct address range.  My two nest thermostats fall into this category.  For all of my other devices affected by this issue, I've gone in to manually set the IPV4 address, DNS servers and router addresses, and they were able to connect.  I've repeatedly "successfully" configured the thermostat wifi, but they remain invisible to the app, nest services, and my network, presumably because they have an out of range IP address asigned.

In troubleshooting this, I found that the thermostat wifi configuration can be manually set using the google home app, but unfortunately since they are on a "different" network, they can't be accessed.  How can this be resolved?  I'm posting the router IP address assignment issue outside of the network range to the mesh community, which is of course the root cause of the problem.

Thanks for any assistance you can provide!

Regards,

Howard

2 Recommended AnswerS

kiltguy2112
Silver Product Expert
Silver Product Expert

How many wifi networks are you currently running? If it is just the nest wifi is it your DHCP server or is your isp router handling that. Which everyone it is, login to it and reserve an IP address to your thermostat's Mac address. Now tell your thermostat to to get an IP address automatically. You shouldn't need to have static IP at all. Knowing what your current system from wire from ISP forward is, and what you want the end result to be (other than "I want the thermostat to work). 

View Recommended Answer in original post

hij2001
Community Member

I resolved the IP out of range assignment issue.  I use an Apple TimeCapsule as my local backup for both our PC and Mac systems.  I had always attached it via ethernet in my prior wireless system which had a total of 7 available ethernet ports, and it always appeared within the IP address range of my wireless network. Since there is one ethernet port available on the Nest router, I used that for my TimeCapsule.

I later noticed that it wasn't visible during my wireless network scans, even though it was accessible and functioning properly.  I used Airport Utility to check the IP configuration and found that its IP address was not in the 192.168.86.xxx range of my wireless network, but was 10.0.1.11 - in the range of the IP addresses that were assigned to new wireless devices around half the time.  I unplugged the ethernet cable from the router and reconfigured the Time Capsule to connect over Wifi, which put its IP address within my wireless network range and enabled me to add other wireless devices with the expected SSID and wireless password process.  I removed the three DHCP IP Reservations suggested by @kiltguy2112 and all IP addresses now resolve properly.

While my problem is resolved, this appears to be a design issue for the Nest router, and the ethernet port should apparently NOT be used if you want a normally functioning wifi network.  I had a support call with Nest yesterday but the first level support was of no help so I had him escalate the issue to second level support, and they will call me back in the next couple of days.  I will share this with them, see what they say, and post their response here.

View Recommended Answer in original post

4 REPLIES 4

kiltguy2112
Silver Product Expert
Silver Product Expert

How many wifi networks are you currently running? If it is just the nest wifi is it your DHCP server or is your isp router handling that. Which everyone it is, login to it and reserve an IP address to your thermostat's Mac address. Now tell your thermostat to to get an IP address automatically. You shouldn't need to have static IP at all. Knowing what your current system from wire from ISP forward is, and what you want the end result to be (other than "I want the thermostat to work). 

Kiltguy -

My apologies - I wrote a response shortly after you replied thanking you for the prompt response and useful suggestion, but it evidently didn't post.  Your suggestion of reserving IP addresses based on MAC addresses did the job of getting the "invisible" thermostats back online, so thank you!  I'm still going to see whether I get a response from the wifi community post as to why these out of range addresses are being assigned. If the DHCP server is doing its job, there should be no need to assign static IP addresses or to do MAC reservations - it should just work "automagically".  If the community response doesn't resolve this issue, I'll reach out to tech support.

In answer to your other questions, I have a standalone cable modem connected only to my Nest wifi which is my only network and router.  Only running that wifi system now, 

Have a great evening, a joyous holiday season, and a happy and healthy 2022!

Regards,

Howard

kiltguy2112
Silver Product Expert
Silver Product Expert

Glad to hear that you got it working.

hij2001
Community Member

I resolved the IP out of range assignment issue.  I use an Apple TimeCapsule as my local backup for both our PC and Mac systems.  I had always attached it via ethernet in my prior wireless system which had a total of 7 available ethernet ports, and it always appeared within the IP address range of my wireless network. Since there is one ethernet port available on the Nest router, I used that for my TimeCapsule.

I later noticed that it wasn't visible during my wireless network scans, even though it was accessible and functioning properly.  I used Airport Utility to check the IP configuration and found that its IP address was not in the 192.168.86.xxx range of my wireless network, but was 10.0.1.11 - in the range of the IP addresses that were assigned to new wireless devices around half the time.  I unplugged the ethernet cable from the router and reconfigured the Time Capsule to connect over Wifi, which put its IP address within my wireless network range and enabled me to add other wireless devices with the expected SSID and wireless password process.  I removed the three DHCP IP Reservations suggested by @kiltguy2112 and all IP addresses now resolve properly.

While my problem is resolved, this appears to be a design issue for the Nest router, and the ethernet port should apparently NOT be used if you want a normally functioning wifi network.  I had a support call with Nest yesterday but the first level support was of no help so I had him escalate the issue to second level support, and they will call me back in the next couple of days.  I will share this with them, see what they say, and post their response here.