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Hardwired Google WiFi with new Nest wifi pro

ArmyCore
Community Member

I currently have 4 Google WiFi points in the house. The router is centralized and two of the points are within mesh range. The final point is way out in the yard next to the RV and is hardwired back to the house.

This setup works fine, but I want to upgrade to the Nest WiFi pro. Does anyone know if I'll be able to keep the same Google WiFi point hardwired back to the new Nest wifi pro router? Everything I can find says their mesh connectivity is not compatible, but nothing mentions hardwiring, as I believe that would be a different communication protocol.

 

Thanks for your help!

1 Recommended Answer

MichaelP
Diamond Product Expert
Diamond Product Expert

Hello @ArmyCore 

I don't believe this will work. In order to be part of the same network, the access point needs to join a compatible system. Nest WiFi Pro and Google WiFi are not compatible.

View Recommended Answer in original post

25 REPLIES 25

MichaelP
Diamond Product Expert
Diamond Product Expert

Hello @ArmyCore 

I don't believe this will work. In order to be part of the same network, the access point needs to join a compatible system. Nest WiFi Pro and Google WiFi are not compatible.

I'm remembering now how I originally set them up. Thank you!

mdupser99
Community Member

In ArmyCore's scenario... if he replaces all the Google WiFi points with Google eNest WiFi Pros can he still have a hardwired point (next to his RV)?   Meaning does the Pro series support hardwired Points?

Asking because I have a similar hardwired scenario that I am trying to develop Nest WiFi Pros now.  

  • The primary building where ISP comes in has the Nest WiFi Pro Router
  • Second building - Cat6 hardwired  where I want to put  the first Nest WiFi Pro point
  • Third building - Cat6 hardwired  where I want to put  the second Nest WiFi Pro point
  • Forth building - Cat6 hardwired  where I want to put  the third Nest WiFi Pro point

Another thread indicated i must first set up the points to be in the wireless mesh before moving them to the hardwired connection.

Struggling with getting this to work.

I remember now, when setting up the Google WiFi, that I plugged them all in next to each other and got them connected, then dispersed them. When I added the RV one later on I set it up in the house, wirelessly, then brought it out and hardwired it. 

MichaelP
Diamond Product Expert
Diamond Product Expert

Hello @mdupser99 

Yes, the Nest WiFi Pro supports wired secondaries. All of the previous rules and advice apply:

  • all wired secondaries should be set up near the primary first, then tested via Ethernet before moving to the remote location
  • wired secondaries must connect to to a wired network rooted in the primary's LAN Ethernet port – they cannot be connected to the same "outer" network as the primary's WAN Ethernet port
  • stick to using inexpensive unmanaged Ethernet switches to avoid known issues with spanning tree protocol / loop detection

If you are having trouble, break the system down to the simplest possible configuration first (secondary that's already been added to the mesh connected directly to the primary's LAN Ethernet port via a known-good, short cable). Verify it works and shows as "wired" in the connection type. Then introduce the first switch and test again (using short cables). Then move to longer cables between buildings. I also like putting a small switch in each remote location at the end of the long cable run to improve electrical isolation and improve the chances of saving the more expensive access point in the event of a nearby lightning strike. By testing in between each of these steps, you can isolate the source of any issue and focus on solving it.

Do you recommend disabling spanning tree protocols on managed switches? Are there any other features I should disable to improve communication?

MichaelP
Diamond Product Expert
Diamond Product Expert

Hello @ArmyCore 

If you already have smart/managed switches, you will need to disable spanning tree protocol / loop detection in order to wire any secondaries. Unfortunately, on some switches this may not be sufficient. Some switches will also need to have STP BPDU flooding enabled in addition to disabling participation in STP. If you have Cisco switches... good luck. I've seen one person make those work, but it was... difficult.

I have an older 2960 that I've been using for several months. This might explain some of the connection issues I've been having. It works about 97% of the time. Streaming is fine, but video calls and some online gaming will get random lag or interruptions unless I tell the WiFi to prioritize a device.

 

I'll give this a try!

I disabled STP, but my 2960S didn't have an option for BPDU flooding. Is there anything else I should check? It still appears to be running. I'll know if network quality improves within a couple of days.

MichaelP
Diamond Product Expert
Diamond Product Expert

Hello @ArmyCore 

I am not familiar with 2960 details, but if you have disabled STP on it (something I believe some Cisco switches can't do), and you don't see any other options regarding STP BPDU flooding, I would see how it goes. Make sure your wired secondaries are showing as "wired" for their connection type and run a mesh test – they should all show "great" as the test result.

They showed great before disabling STP as well. Only one is currently wired and still showed great. 

 

Thank you so much for your help!

AbigailF
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hey folks, 

Thanks for lending a hand, @MichaelP.
To everyone having this issue, 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

I'm still having issues with a managed switch in my network at home. I turned off STP as recommended and it seemed to get worse. So I switched back to a small unmanaged switch until I can get a larger rack mount device.

I also believe that the Google WiFi is underpowered for routing the number of points and devices that are in use. I have considered upgrading the main point to a nest wifi point, but am unsure if that will gain the benefits I desire.

I think I need to get the Nest Wifi pro to get the results I want, but am weary in making the investment without more technical documentation on the device. 

Can you provide technical details on the Nest Wifi and the Nest wifi pro?

 

Thank you!

MichaelP
Diamond Product Expert
Diamond Product Expert

hello @ArmyCore 

Sometimes disabling STP on a managed switch isn't enough – some switches implement that as "disallow STP entirely" which definitely won't work in this case (we need STP to be running, we just need the switch to pass it through and not try to be the root of the spanning tree). As I said earlier, I know people have had particular trouble making managed Cisco switches work. In any case, replacing it with an unmanaged switch should help significantly.

Google WiFi should be able to manage routing for 1Gbps internet service, which is the fastest its Ethernet ports can support anyway. The Nest WiFi Router is built on a newer processor, but it's hard to compare them since they are very different in terms of instructions per clock, clock frequency, and total core count. Still, the Nest WiFi Router should be able to handle 1Gbps routing duties as well. I doubt it would be a huge improvement over Google WiFi on this score, though. You would have to factory reset everything and create a new mesh network to replace the primary/router unit (though you can reuse the same SSID/network name and password so that all existing clients reconnect automatically).

The Nest WiFi Pro is similar from a software perspective and has a comparably powerful processor. It also has 1Gbps Ethernet ports. The big difference is that it supports three WiFi bands instead of only two: 2.4GHz, 5GHz and 6GHz. In the Google/Nest WiFi systems, the 5GHz radios are used to talk to 5GHz WiFi clients and to carry the 802.11s wireless mesh interconnect. In your case, since you have wired backhaul for your secondaries, this interconnect is essentially idle, so your 5GHz clients can get all of that channel capacity. In the Nest WiFi Pro system, the 802.11s mesh interconnect runs in the 6GHz band instead, leaving the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands available for client traffic, while 6GHz clients share that channel with the mesh interconnect. Again, though, if you are wiring up the secondaries, this 6GHz channel would be essentially 100% available to 6GHz clients (and there are some, but not a lot of those today). The most important thing to know about Nest WiFi Pro, though, is that it is not compatible with any of your existing Google/Nest WiFi units. You can't replace just the primary/router unit with a Nest WiFi Pro and keep using your existing Google/Nest WiFi hardware with it. You'd have to replace everything with Nest WiFi Pro units.

I guess my advice would be to focus on optimizing the system you have now, then run more detailed tests to help understand where any bottlenecks may be, and think about how to improve those if necessary (and it may not be necessary – there will always be a bottleneck somewhere – you just want that to be in the internet service rather than inside your network if possible).

That is some very valuable information. I currently only have one wired point. The remaining are wireless. If I were to have more devices on the 2.4 GHz band, then that would allow for more stable and reliable connections to the wireless points and connections. Is that correct?

MichaelP
Diamond Product Expert
Diamond Product Expert

Hello @ArmyCore 

It really depends on how much traffic devices are actually generating. Having a lot of idle devices on 5GHz isn't going to hurt anything. The biggest improvement is getting the bulk of your traffic off of WiFi entirely by connecting streaming video and gaming devices via Ethernet.

But, from a pure WiFi perspective, 2.4GHz has longer range, but also uses a more narrow bandwidth (so it has lower peak performance). 5GHz has shorter range, but wider bandwidth, so it can send data at a higher rate under some circumstances. Optimizing a system from a WiFi perspective means making sure every WiFi link can operate in the higher performance regime (meaning, the nodes are close enough to each other to negotiate a higher data rate). The more time any node spends transmitting at a lower data rate takes channel time away from all the other nodes trying to use that channel.

AbigailF
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hi everyone, 

@MichaelP, appreciate your helpful response. 
@ArmyCore, chiming in to ensure everything is good here. Feel free to reply to this thread if you have any additional questions and clarifications.

Best,
Abi

AbigailF
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hey ArmyCore,

Checking back in should you still have some questions here. Let us know by replying to this thread. 

Thanks, 
Abi

AbigailF
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hello ArmyCore,

We haven't heard from you in a while so we'll be locking this thread if there is no update within 24 hours. If you have any new issues, updates or just a discussion topic, feel free to start a new thread in the Community.

Regards, 
Abi

Thank you MichaelP.  I will follow your recommendations and check my switch.

ArmyCore...  silly question but what port do i plug the network cable into on the Secondary (point) when connecting it to the primary's LAN port?  Do i use the secondary's LAN port or the Secondary's WAN port?

I think I used the WAN. 

sjbauer001
Community Member

i am trying to improve mesh connections using wires. which point connection do i plug into? on the source end to i connect to the google wifi or the modem or the switch system?

thanks

steve

MichaelP
Diamond Product Expert
Diamond Product Expert

Hello @sjbauer001 

You might spend some time reading through this more detailed help article to get started on this: https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/7215624?hl=en 

But, the short version is, your "primary" is the only one connected directly to your internet service (modem) through its WAN (globe icon) Ethernet port. The other "LAN" Ethernet port should be connected to an unmanaged Ethernet switch. From there you can run cables to locations where your secondary access points are. Those can be connected to the switched network via either their WAN or LAN ports, but I would pick one and stick with it (so I use the WAN port on secondaries).

thank you Michael P

immense help and improved my understanding of how it should be done