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Disappointed with New WiFi Pro

GSHAW67
Community Member

I recently pre-ordered a 3 pack of the new WiFi Pro and the results have been less than stellar.   I suspect it's a really bad case of releasing the product too soon.  My 1GB connection now only gets about 450-600 down from 800-875 with the previous generation.  The wired access points routinely change from good, to great, too weak signals.  When I do a device speed test from the device it can sometimes have a faster download speed than the router?   I suspect that the router is incorrectly calculating the speed test numbers, but not 100% sure about that.

 

General question:  Shouldn't the Apple Macbook M1Pro with 802.11ax Wi-Fi 6 support be able to connect to the WiFi 6 part of the router or is 6e not backward compatible with Wi-Fi 6 devices?  I can't get any devices to connect at 6 and this is with "WiFi Protected Access 3" turned on.

 

Sadly, the return policy is so short that I have to return it instead of seeing if they'll fix these issues.  Unless you are one of the ones that got the discount or whatever it's just too expensive for what it delivers.  Finally, my two biggest issues with google wifi system still haven't been addressed:

1)  Why can't I see what is connected to a given access point? Without selecting every darn device.

2)  Why can't I select which access point some devices connect too?  My Nest Hello has a bad habit of connecting to the furthest access point and of course its always got weak signal. 

 

Anyway sorry about the rant, just a little disappointed with the execution of this product.

 

5 REPLIES 5

MichaelP
Diamond Product Expert
Diamond Product Expert

Hello @GSHAW67 

WiFi 6 is a new version of standards for 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. WiFi 6E is WiFi 6 running on the 6GHz band. So, WiFi 6 devices will not connect at 6GHz, but will still benefit from the improvements to the other bands. 

Regarding your two biggest issues, I would suggest sending feedback in the Google Home app regarding issue #1. I would like to see something like that as well. The old Google WiFi app could do something similar, but only by running a complete benchmark of all device speeds, which took a long time.

But, when it comes to issue #2, the reason is because that's how WiFi works – client devices are responsible for choosing which access point and which band to connect to, and when / whether to switch. Google/Nest WiFi does provide some extra information to devices that can help them make better decisions, but not all devices support the specifications used to do that (802.11k and 802.11v), so they are on their own. Some do a better job than others. I suspect your Nest Hello is connecting to the primary access point since that's the first one that becomes available after a network restart. Restarting a client (or just briefly disabling and re-enabling its WiFi interface) can often get it to connect to a stronger access point when something like that happens, but that's not super-convenient for Nest Hello. I have one as well, and I don't see an easy way to do that, unfortunately.

GSHAW67
Community Member

Michael,  I wasn't sure about the WiFi6 vs 6E and I appreciate your explanation.  I finally get it.  Thanks for your time!

Jeff
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hey GSHAW67,

 

It looks like MichaelP was able to answer a lot of what you were asking about (thanks, MichaelP!), but I wanted to jump in and see if you had any other questions. As far as your comments for things you would like to see, I can pass those along to our teams as a feature request and I'll do that now. If you have any other questions or needs, let me know.


Thanks,
Jeff

Jhonleanmel
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hi folks,

Chiming in to see if you still need assistance with this. Let us know if you have additional questions ― we'd love to help.

Best,
Mel

Hi everyone,

I'm just checking in to make sure that you've seen our response. Please let us know if you have any other questions or concerns as I will be locking this in 24 hours.

Thanks,
Mel