Google Nest WIFI Pro - maximum number of routers

[Popup]

I have a house built on three floors with very solid concrete walls. For now I have one Google Nest Wifi Pro router on each floor, fairly centrally placed. I get very good reception in the  center of the house, but in e.g. the wine cellar, I get barely one bar on my phone, and the same in the garden. And I have no connection at all in the garage, which is separate from the house.

I contemplate adding one more access-point in the basement, outside the wine cellar, one near the garden access, and potentially one halfway to the garage. 

However - that would bring me over the recommended limit of five devices per network. (as mentioned here )  What will the result be? I'm not extremely bothered by raw throughput, and I'm willing to trade it for robust connectivity.

[MichaelP]

Hello @Popup 

Getting coverage inside houses with concrete walls is extremely challenging without running Ethernet cabling. Nest WiFi Pro does support connecting mesh secondaries back to the primary via Ethernet, and I would recommend considering that to improve your interior coverage rather than trying to get the wireless mesh to work. The wireless mesh does run into issues with higher numbers of total units, but you can exceed this limit when the secondaries are wired. This also works for connecting outbuildings like a separate garage (though running Ethernet between buildings is more challenging). If you go this route, I would try to wire all of the secondaries, since mixed wired/wireless networks are more complex to deploy and understand since there are some additional constraints (in short, the wireless mesh protocol only runs over WiFi, not over Ethernet).

So, I would not buy more secondaries if you plan to connect them using the 6GHz wireless mesh. When wired, they can be placed further from the primary, though, so you may find that just wiring your existing secondaries gives you better performance, and you can then consider adding more wired secondaries to increase your coverage area.

Here's a help page with more details: https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/7215624?hl=en 

[Popup]

Thanks for the detailed, if slightly disappointing, answer. Running Ethernet cables through the thick concrete walls isn't exactly easy either... 

[olavrb]

Theres also the alternative of piggybacking existing wiring, like ethernet over coax (MoCA) or power line.

[AbigailF]

Hey folks, 

Thanks for lending a hand, @olavrb and @MichaelP.
@Popup, 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 any concerns or questions from here, as I would be happy to take a closer look and assist you further.

Thanks,
Abi

[Popup]

Thanks, 
I think I've got all the information I needed. I might try to move around the existing access points a bit, to see if I can optimize the coverage. It's a shame that there's no easy way to wall-mount the access points, as that would probably give a better reach.

[AbigailF]

Hi Popup,

As we got our resolution here, I'm going to mark this thread as resolved. I'll be locking this thread if we won't hear back from you in 24 hrs. Should that happen, feel free to create a new one if you have more questions or have other concerns in the future.

Cheers,
Abi