Cannot connect 3 comercial WiFi devices to Nest WiFi

[bgroppo]

I have a Orbit b-Hyve irrigation controller and Starfish (Satco) LED strips and neither will connect to my Nest WiFi network!  Both of them will connect to the Xfinity WiFi router I have in my house.  I have tried many times and can never connect these two devices.  I tried powering on an off the Nest WiFi, the two devices and nothing seems to work.  This is ridiculous since the reason I have the Nest network (3-nodes) is to be close to the devices that now will not connect.  

[Jeff]

Hi, bgroppo.

Sorry for the troubles you're having getting your devices connected to the network. That sounds like a frustrating issue to be dealing with. Let's take a look at things and get this figured out for you. To get us started, I do have a few questions.

• Are these the only devices that won't connect or are there others as well?
• Can your network see the devices to try and connect, or are they totally invisible to the WiFi network?
• Are you seeing any sorts of errors, or does it just fail?
• Are you still running the Xfinity WiFI network alongside your Nest WiFi?

If you can give me a few more details, I'm sure we can figure out the fix here. I look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks.

[bgroppo]

I have had problems connecting with only these two devices on the Nest WiFi network.  If I move them close to my Xfinity WiFi router they can connect to that with no problem.  Both devices are installed in my garage and connected to a Nest WiFi access point located in the garage ~20 feet away from them.  My iphone, ipad and MacBook all connect fine to the Nest WiFi in the garage so not sure what the problem is.  

However, yesterday I stumbled on a solution.  I created a Guest Nest WiFi network I called Nest 2.4G and I could connect these devices to the Nest WiFi.  I really am not sure how this could have fixed the problem unless the "Guest" account has some other encryption scheme.  The Orbit Bhyve supports WEP, WPA and WPA2 as well as Open networks when setting it up.  I first set it to "Automatic" which didn't work so then I tried all 4 settings trying to connect to the standard Nest WiFi SSID but none worked and it wouldn't connect.  However, when I now connect the BHyve to the Nest "Guest" SSID with the B-Hyve set in "Automatic" mode.  Like I said, I have no idea why this worked but at least it is resolved.

Is there a way in the Google Home app to see more details on the Guest network?  The app is pretty lame for trying to troubleshoot -- thankfully Orbit has a utility that lets me see what's happening and to measure network connection.  I really think there should be better tools for the Nest WiFi than the lame Google Home app for troubleshooting problems like this.

[Jeff]

Hi, bgroppo.

Thanks for letting me know what you did to get things connected. That's a smart workaround, for sure. Unfortunately the guest network settings are a bit more limited in the Home app than your main network. What exactly are you looking to see as far as options or measurements for the devices on the guest network?

Thanks.

[bgroppo]

My suspicion is it is a security setting that is preventing the connection.  The B-Hyve controller allows you to manually select between Open, WEP, WPA or WPA2 when you set up the WiFi.  I tried all the settings trying to connect to the Nest access point near it (Normal SSID.). None of the settings would connect.  It is not clear to me how the Nest WiFi defaults to a specific security mode -- either the main SSID or the Guest SSD.   Does Google/Nest have a iOS WiFi debug tool or is there a 3rd party one that might help?

[Jeff]

Hey, bgroppo.

The Nest WiFi security protocols are WPA2 and WPA3. There's a bit more info about that here: https://bit.ly/3zw2VFg.

As far as a debug tool goes, we don't have one. There may be 3rd party apps available, but I don't have insight on that. It's possible another community member may be able to suggest something in that regard.

Thanks.

[Jeff · Accepted solution]

Hi, bgroppo.
I just wanted to check in real fast to see if you saw my reply and to find out if you still needed any help on this. If you're still needing assistance, please just let me know and I'll be happy to continue helping.
Thanks.

[bgroppo]

I’m OK with using the guest network and the controller has been successfully connected to it for the last 30 days so am declaring it reliable enough.  Thanks for your help

[Jeff]

Thanks for following up, bgroppo.

I'll go ahead and mark this as resolved, but if you have any more questions or needs going forward, please feel free to start up a new discussion.

Thanks.