04-27-2022 11:08 AM
This is the setup I'm trying to get to work. 2gig Google fiber modem-->8port switch. 1 port goes to the living room to a 5 port switch which has a tv, PS4 and the 1st Google wifi puck(which is working right now). 2nd port off the 8 port switch is ran to the basement bedroom. I tried adding the 2nd puck there and it got to the end of the setup but failed saying "can't add device" "it could be that you have 2 devices wired to the same modem". Is there away to solve this? I am wanting to add the 3rd puck to the movie room(also in basement) to improve wifi signal down there. Thanks in advance for any and all help.
04-27-2022 07:07 PM
Can't the Google WiFi puck be setup wirelessly? If so, you might have to set it up near the first puck in order to get it to work. After setting it up to your network you can then hardwire it to your switch located in the basement.
04-28-2022 08:16 AM
The 1st Google WiFi unit acts as a router & firewall. It must be connected in between the modem and the switch. Then, any secondary Google WiFi units can be connected to that switched network. You can't connect a mix of router-mode and bridge-mode Google WiFi units in parallel to the same outer network.
04-28-2022 10:02 AM
Ok right now it is modem to 8port which is exposed under basement stairs. From there I have one cat6 thru the floor joists and comes up to a wall outlet behind tv then to a 5port which has the tv, PS4 and 1st puck. A 2nd cat6 comes off of the 8port thru the joists to basement bedroom to a wall outlet. That is where I want a puck to be plugged in. The last puck will be in the movie room on the other side of the basement. Now that I say it out loud maybe the living room puck doesn't need to be first in line. So if one of the pucks is in line between the modem and the 8port can the other 2 pucks each come off of the 8port in their own individual ports or do they need to be daisy chained in series off of one of the ports in the 8port?
04-28-2022 10:37 AM
The 1st puck will be the "primary" – router & firewall. That's the only one that needs to be in between the modem and the 8-port switch. The other pucks can connect to that switch, or to other switches further away. They definitely don't need to daisy-chain off of each other.
04-28-2022 11:13 AM
Ok I'll try that and see how it goes. Thank you
04-29-2022 05:11 AM
Seems I left out a detail that may or may not make a difference. The modem this all starts with is Google's multi-gig modem/router(GFRG300).
04-29-2022 06:39 AM
I can't really provide much support for Google Fiber specifics, but based on a quick search, it looks like that is made by Technicolor (https://fcc.report/FCC-ID/RSE-FGA5330/4705137.pdf ) and is a full router and WiFi access point. This doesn't change how you can connect multiple Google WiFi units to each other (they still can't connect in parallel to the same outer network). But, it does mean you'll be living with double NAT, and if your fiber service is faster than 1Gbps, putting everything behind the primary Google WiFi unit will limit your network to 1Gbps, since those units only have 1Gbps Ethernet ports.
So, using this combination of devices may not be ideal. If you want your wired network to be able to use the 2Gbps aggregate speed without bottlenecking through the primary Google WiFi unit, there are a variety of options, but frankly none of them are perfect. The simplest would be to just use the wireless mesh interconnect between the Google WiFi units, connecting the first one to your wired network somewhere close to the center of your home and then placing the secondaries one or two rooms away from there. This isn't ideal, though, because it will still be a separate logical network behind a firewall. So, your wireless devices won't be able to "see" wired devices, and wired devices won't be able to connect to wireless devices at all without some extra work. If you can run more Ethernet cables, you can improve the performance of this approach by wiring those secondaries into the primary (1st Google WiFi), but you still can't connect them all in parallel to the same outer network.
...that is, unless you decide to use them in bridge mode. This is fairly painful to set up (each Google Home "instance" can only have one network, so you'd need to create multiple Google Home instances, and then add each Google WiFi unit in bridge mode to each one separately). They can have the same network name and password as each other. But – and this is the important issue – this approach will break the hand-off support between each Google WiFi unit. So, your WiFi clients will be more likely to get "stuck" talking to one access point they can still see, even when they've been moved to a spot closer to one of the other access points. It also means you lose a number of other Google WiFi features. So, we don't generally recommend this approach – you might as well invest in something like an Ubiquiti system at that point, since it can be deployed like this without losing the hand-off features.
I hope this makes sense – home networking is complicated, and moving up to faster than 1Gbps speeds makes things even more complex right now, since a lot of equipment isn't ready for that yet.
04-29-2022 01:00 PM
I wonder if I should just sell 2 of the pucks and get another one of the Tri-Band mesh extenders that came with the 2gig service. You would think that would work since they said that was an option when I asked about better wifi coverage.
04-29-2022 01:02 PM
Worth considering at least. It would make for a simpler system.
04-29-2022 04:17 PM
Ok thanks
05-05-2022 03:54 PM
Hi, Dadof2angels.
I just wanted to check in to see if you needed anything else on this or if you're all set. It looks like MichaelP was able to provide some solid info here, but if there's more you need, just let me know.
Thanks.
05-09-2022 10:48 AM
Hi again, Dadof2angels.
I just wanted to check once more before marking this as resolved to see if you needed anything else here.
Thanks.
05-12-2022 01:40 PM
Hi, everyone.
Just one quick final check in here since activity has slowed down. We'll be locking the thread in the next 24 hours, but if you still need help, I would be happy to keep it open. If there's more we can do, just let me know.
Thanks.
05-13-2022 02:06 PM
Hi, everyone.
As we haven't had any activity here recently I'm going to go ahead and close the thread. If you have more to add, feel free to start a new discussion.
Thanks