Nest WiFi Point Connection issues

[SMcLaughlin]

 

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Hey everyone. I recently installed a Nest Router and two points in my house. My house is roughly 2000 sq ft with three floors. I have since put the router in the living room on the main floor, and one point, one wall away, roughly 20 ft away, and the second one in the basement, one floor away also roughly 20 feet away. The reason I did this is because my security camera on the front of the house constantly loses connection. The upstairs point is probably 3 feet from the camera now, and it’s still dropping. When I test the mesh connection in the home app, it shows a great connection to both points. But when I look at all of my devices, every single one of them are connecting to the living room router, not the points. Even my laptop in the basement when I’m sitting 10 inches from the point. So my question is, am I able to assign the devices to specific points? Ideally the one the device is closest to. And if I have a mesh now, wouldn’t the device want to automatically connect to the point it’s closest to? Thanks everyone in advance

[MichaelP]

Hello @SMcLaughlin 

WiFi client devices decide which access point (and which band – 2.4GHz or 5GHz) to connect to, and they decide when to switch between access points and/or bands. Google/Nest WiFi does provide clients with some extra information that can help them make better decisions, but not all devices support the standards used for that (802.11k and 802.11v). Fixed devices (e.g., cameras) often do not, but even many mobile devices, including many Windows laptops don't either. These devices are on their own, and they can often end up "stuck" talking to a more distant access point instead of one that is closer.

In addition, if the WiFi network is restarted (e.g., after a power outage, an firmware update, or just manually after a configuration change), the primary access point will start offering connectivity slightly before the secondary access points do. This can result in many clients connecting to the primary and then (due to the behavior described above), sticking with it.

With that as context, you may find simply restarting the client devices (or, for a laptop, briefly disabling and reenabling the WiFi) is enough to get them to find a closer access point and connect to it. Unfortunately, some client devices remember which one they connected to most recently, and skip straight to that one again. For them, you may need to go through reconfiguring their WiFi connectivity in hopes they pick a better access point this time around.

Worst case, there are some (poorly designed, in my opinion) devices that pick the first access point they get a beacon from, leading to an essentially random selection each time they need to connect. I'm not sure what to do about those other than trying to restart them repeatedly until they find a better access point. Hopefully, devices like that are either getting updated or being replaced over time, since home WiFi mesh networks from Google and other manufacturers all have this same issue and are becoming increasingly popular.

I hope some of this helps!

[AbigailF]

Hey folks, 

Thanks for lending a hand, @MichaelP and @RachelGomez123.
@SMcLaughlin, 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

[AbigailF]

Hi SMcLaughlin,

It's me again. Just checking in to see if you still need assistance with this. Hope the previous post helped. Let us know if you have additional questions ― we'd love to help.

Best, 
Abi

[SMcLaughlin]

Thanks everyone! I was able to get my devices to swap over to the points, rather than the main router, but they still showed very poor connection, so I ended up just returning the devices. Maybe they’ll be enhance them in the future. 

[AbigailF]

Hi SMcLaughlin,

We're sad to see you go. If ever you change your mind, we're here to help.

Regards,
Abi

[AbigailF]

Hey SMcLaughlin,

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

Best, 
Abi

[AbigailF]

Hello SMcLaughlin,

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,
Abi