Google WiFi Pro mesh problems

[chferreir]

I have 5 WiFi Pros in my house. One is connected to the Xfinity Router and the others are all mesh. The problem I have is that the one who is farthest from the router connection seems to be trying to mesh into the router connected Pro instead of connecting to a mesh node that is way closer to it. This makes the one that is far away unusable since it is far from the router. When I test the mesh via the app the farthest one is normally a WEAK connection whereas the point that it should be connecting to has a strong connection. To be more clear lets call the router connected node R, the node close to it 1 and the farthest one 2. To achieve the best signal the mesh should be R -> 1 -> 2. Instead what seems to be happening is R -> 1 and R -> 2 and R -> 2 is far AND is the reason I bought node 1 so that it could be a bridge to node 2. How do I get node 2 to connect to the strong signal of node 1 instead of the weak signal from the router connected Pro??

[David_K]

The short answer is you cannot because that's not how the system is designed to work. If one of your Wi-Fi points can mesh directly with your primary Wi-Fi point, it will do that instead of going through an intermediate point, even if that means using a much slower connection speed. This is why trying to build a multi-hop setup/layout where you expect one point to mesh with the next closest point to get back to your primary point just doesn't really work. It's also why Google's advice on where to place your Wi-Fi points is to have your primary point as close as possible to the centre of your home.

Where to place your Wifi devices - Google Nest Help

[chferreir]

Yea but that defeats the mesh purpose which is to distribute the wifi coverage. If I could rewire my house to put an access point in the center and then re-architect it so that there were no walls in the wrong place then I would not need a mesh system, I could just put an access point in the center and cover everything.

[David_K]

Nest Wifi improves coverage if it's deployed as it's designed to be deployed. It doesn't work like Wifi extenders do which just repeat signal no matter where you place the extender.

Having your primary point as close to the centre of your home as possible is fundamental to good performance of the Nest Wifi system, and that's true of pretty much all mesh Wifi systems. Even if that means using a longer ethernet cable and even if that means you can only move it slightly, that will help.

[chferreir]

So this is NOT a MESH system. It is a hub and spoke STAR configuration. A MESH requires nodes to connect to other nodes in a mesh. Google claims this as a mesh. Are you confirming to me that it is NOT a mesh but a STAR system where every node has to connect to the router node? Please confirm.

[chferreir]

from https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/7182746?ref_topic=7216602&visit_id=637958492181790488-1...

I quote:

1. Direct path: Since all of the points are connected to each other, data can take several paths toward its destination⁠ and it’ll always choose the best route from Point A to Point B.

This is NOT what is happening at my house.

[chferreir · Accepted solution]

Problem seems to be solved. Got a Netgear AX8 Nighthawk Mesh Extender and placed it at the same spot as the Google WiFi Pro node (the one I got to extend the "mesh") and voila! 120 mbps download speed where I had nothing! Seems like Google could implement this functionality in software instead of forcing me to buy 200 dollars worth of additional hw. How do I submit an enhancement request?

[LovelyM]

Hello everyone,

I appreciate your input here, @David_K.

@chferreir, I'm glad that everything worked out for you. You can also share feedback with our product team using this link. Please let me know if you need anything else since I'm going to lock this thread within 24 hours. If you have further concerns, please feel free to create a new post.

Kind regards,
Lovely