Adding wired access point to mesh

[Eog747]

Hi. I have a nest wifi router in the ground floor with a nest wifi access point on the second floor of a (small) 3 storey house. All works perfectly now, with about 350Mbps download speed all over the house, including the 3rd floor which is currently used as as an office. 

We are building a room at the end of the (small) garden, about 15-20m from the router. It will be used as an office so high bandwidth is important. Its largely built now and I get about 20Mbps connecting to the existing mesh. Good but not good enough. 

In anticipation I have laid a cat6 armoured cable in a trench which can if necessary connect to the ISP router (in router only mode) or the switch which connects to the nest and sonos / hue bridge / NAS etc. There will be an ethernet socket in the new garden room.

Ideally I'd like to keep the same SSID throughout the whole house plus the new garden room to keep things simple. 

Is my best option for max bandwidth in the new garden room to get an connnect an additional nest router to the new ethernet socket and set it up as as an access point (I think that's possible)? 

Any advice or guidance most welcome! 🙏 

Thanks

[MichaelP · Accepted solution]

Hello @Eog747 

You can connect a wired Nest WiFi Router or the less expensive Google WiFi unit to the switched network that is connected to your primary Nest WiFi Router's LAN Ethernet port (it sounds like you already have a switch on that port). Do not connect it to the "outer" network provided by your ISP router – the primary Nest WiFi Router's WAN Ethernet port should be the only thing directly connected to that.

Setting up a new Nest WiFi Router unit as if it was a "point", or adding a new Google WiFi unit as a "point" inside the house first, and giving it a chance to do any required firmware updates, etc. is a good first step. Then, once you have tested the Ethernet connection to the new room, I would also consider putting a small 5 or 8 port Ethernet switch out there and you can move the new Google/Nest WiFi unit out there and plug it in to that edge switch before powering it up. Having that edge switch will provide some electrical isolation as well as providing some more ports to connect office equipment directly instead of relying on WiFi.

I would caution against using smart/managed Ethernet switches. If the one you have now includes a feature called "loop detection", it could be a problem when wiring secondary Google/Nest WiFi units.

For more details, here's a help article: https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/7215624?hl=en 

[Eog747]

Thanks MichaelP for your response. I shall follow your instructions!

[LovelyM]

Hello everyone,

@MichaelP, thanks for being a great help.

@Eog747, I wanted to follow up and see if you are still in need of any help. Please let me know if you are still having trouble from here, as I would be happy to take a closer look and assist you further.

Best,
Lovely

[LovelyM]

Hi Eog747,

Checking in should you have any concerns or questions you need help with. Let us know by replying to this thread. 

Cheers,
Lovely

[LovelyM]

Hey Eog747,

It's me again. Due to inactivity, I'll go ahead and lock this thread in the next 24 hours. I'd be glad to help you further, so if you still need assistance, feel free to start a new thread.

Thanks,
Lovely

[Eog747]

Hi - actually i am waiting for the wired connection to be completed and will implement the recommended solution then - hopefully in the next week or so. Happy for you to close this down now. But if you can wait a little I can update on the success or otherwise of the solution which may benefit others. Thanks

[LovelyM]

Hi Eog747,

I appreciate the update. I'll keep this thread open and you can update me here once you've implemented the suggested steps. In that way, you can let me know if you encounter any issues.

Kind regards,
Lovely

[LovelyM]

Hey Eog747, 

I know it has been a while, but I want to ensure that everything is covered on your end. Please inform me if you still need a helping hand.

Cheers,
Lovely

[Eog747]

Hello. I can confirm that @MichaelP 's advice was followed (minus the extra switch) and the wired nest router operating as a point works brilliantly. Thanks so much for your help! Case closed 

[LovelyM]

Hello again Eog747,

No biggie! Thanks for sharing this wonderful news. I'm glad to know that everything is working as it should. Let me know if you still have questions or concerns; otherwise, I'll be locking this thread after 24 hours.

Best,
Lovely