Nest Wifi - Devices Slow or Drop

[rbrowning]

I have had a mesh Nest WIFI for about a year and everything has been great until about two weeks ago.  I keep having issues with my WIFI points degrading in connection or dropping all together.  Location has not changed. 

Another issue - when I run a speed test on the router, I am seeing my full bandwidth; however, when i run a speed test on devise (phone, tablet, etc) I am seeing speeds sub 10M (I am on a fiber 500M connection).

I have to keep restarting my Nest WIFI Network (2 to 3 times per day) through app and that usually fixes the issue.  I have restated my fiber modem, powered off the Nest Router and WIFI points and the issue keeps coming back.

Model: H2D - Software Version 13729.57.27

[Timmynest]

Well, I finally had enough. I really wanted this system to work as well as it did when I first got it (pre firmware push) but there's been no resolution, Firmware update, or even the option to fall back the previous version that seemed to work well. I believe Google has had ample time to resolve this and release new FW or at least limited beta release but all I've heard are crickets for months and months. So I finally pulled the trigger and ordered the Asus ZenWiFi XD6 mesh system. I've been very happy with this system, especially with built-in switch ports and the option for a wire Ethernet back-haul. I also like the option of being able to access the advanced settings via your browser with administrative login.

To all of you who are still patiently waiting for a solution, I really hope that Google comes through for you. But for me, I couldn't wait any longer.

[Pascal_BH]

Hey just to update people with my experience - for the last couple of days my wireless speed when next to the router is better than ever - about 80% of native. I'm ok with that. However the nodes only produce about 20% of the speed. Not great but somewhat of an improvement. I suggest you test the speed next to the router to see if you have any improvement.

[Rollett]

That's not what you paid for... I switched my Google Nest  out to a Asus 86U and now I get 100% of my speed at almost any location in my house.. all the time.. 

[MungoBBQ]

So I've been having this problem for a while. Today, Google Support had me unplug both of the "access points" and stick with just the main router connected, and what do you know - instant full speed again! 

So it would seem that at least my problem has to do with the access points being too close to the router and somehow "clouding up" the air with radio waves or something. 

I'm going to stick with just the router connected for now, since my apartment is small enough that I can get decent connection from just the router in all my rooms, and see if the change is permanent.

[Sturhm]

My problem is the speed between mesh points to Router. Everything connected to the router is max speed more or less, through mesh points it is 1/5 at highest speed of max.....And Google is just failing more and more on almost all their products messingmore up than fixing them.

[Hatethemesh]

Google nest router sucks, goes offline 2 to 3 times a day, worked fine for about a year.  Boy am I pissed at myself for getting rid of my net gear router.  Thought google nest was supposed to be an upgrade?

[pickemtowin]

Everything has been working for 5 months until yesterday.  Throughout the day I had various WIFI points losing connection and then it all went down.  After 2 hours on the phone with Google (extremely helpful and nice) they were able to get it all back online but I had to do a factory reset.  Another hour and I had everything hooked back up.   Everything worked this morning and now at 3 pm, my Internet is unstable.  I work from home doing Zoom calls, so this is not going to work for me.  I am going to Best Buy to look for an alternative.  My Internet speed from Spectrum is running 550 MBPS when I connect directly to the modem.  This is just awful.  I have over $1000 invested in Google devices, points, and a router.   Any suggestions on a better solution for a 9500-square-foot house?  

[drnmalik]

Hi All, is the final solution to just dump my Google Nest wifi router and 2 Points? What a waste. I just started to get the network issue and initially I thought it must be my spectrum modem..changed it and then realized Google is at fault. I am disappointed to find in this thread that this issue is persisting for so long with no fix. Is Alexa Mesh Router a good replacement? Appreciate it if someone can give a suggestion here. 

[NicC]

Dump Google. 

After 18 months and counting, there's still no fix and it really doesn't look like Google cares.

Multiple other options are listed elsewhere in this thread...  Sorry you joined the club.

[Breneh22]

I did a factory reset. I got full download speed for 10mins, the dropped back to low levels.

[Jaswetz]

I have been having these issues for over a year. The crazy thing is that it seems to be the worst with other Google products like Google home and Stadia. 

[StrosBros]

Peace out Google. I'm switching ecosystems. This is ridiculous. 

[Pyronius]

I'm having the same issue, and have been searching high and low for any answers, but, alas I'm tired of restarting the primary puck every single day.  Between this and the update that murdered tons of peoples Pixel buds(including mine) , I think I'm going to have to get off the google ecosystem. 

[cjf]

Same issues here. Had ISP out yesterday and replaced modem. Worked fine for less than 24 hours. It used to only drop or slow to virtually non-existent speeds about once a month, but now needs resets multiple times a day. 

Maybe time for a class action lawsuit?? 

[sisichen]

I have the same issue. Wifi unbelievably slow (0.76 Mbps) until restart where it goes back up to 300 Mbps. We have to restart almost every day or else the internet does not work. This is ridiculous. 

[StefanBennett]

Same issue here. Just started about a week or so ago and it's been pretty frustrating. Things will be great for a day or so and then back to the ol' "dial up" speeds. I have to reboot the google wifi router at least once, sometimes more. I've also noticed that the additional point that I have no longer seems to connect to the router.

[Pascal_BH]

I've moved on. Too many issues. Though I do wonder how many people her have problem due to double NAT issue. The problem is that the Google nest WIFI cannot be placed in a mesh AP mode unlike some other routers (such as Orbi / ASUS). This was my issue and hence got ride of the nest. One way arround it it to see if your ISP router can be placed in a bridge mode. Mine is locked and could not be which is why I had to find another solution but this may solve your issue. Good luck

[Jaswetz]

I did this and it did not fix the issue. Connections  are a bit more stable but the speeds are all over the place and resetting the system is still needed often.

[Bobonogohoboho]

Same here. I restart the Nest, and I have DL speeds around 300. Slowly degrades over time. Gets down to like 5. I restart, and it’s back to 300. I need to do this multiple times a week. I work from home and it’s extremely disruptive. 

[adamreyn]

I've started experiencing the same.  Worked great until about a week or so ago.  Now it's crap.  I connect to the main router and it's fine.  did speedtest and it is fine.  reconnect to google wifi, bombs out intermittently and really slow when it's up

[Sturhm]

Well apparently Google has either become incompetent on their own products, or they just dont care at all to fix their products. No one should expect this to ever be solved. But they will happily sell it still and take the consumers money....

[Roy85]

Hi everyone,

I disabled "Nest Wi-Fi Cloud Services" in the privacy settings and got an immediate 10x speed increase.  My previous issue was that the points were all showing great speed, but the device itself showed crappy speed.  Not sure if it will hold up, but I thought I'd send that along in case it helped anyone else.

[Johnsonroda27]

I joined the club 3 weeks ago. After 5 years with zero issues, my Google wifi started being worthless.  I figured after 5 years it just went bad. Went out and spent 350 on a 4 point new nest wifi mesh system. 

Let me preface this by stating, I am a business services cable technician, for one of, if not, the largest cable and ISP provider in the US. THIS IS WHAT I DO FOR A LIVING...

So I hook up the new nest wifi. Good for a day or two and the speeds start crapping the bed.. I have done waaaay more troubleshooting than I want to admit. 

I got new modems, all 1gb capable which is my speed. Tried both stand alone modems and gateways. I have 2 of the points hardwired to the main router. Doesn't matter. They slowly crap out after about 2 days and need to be reset. The kicker is. If I run an internal speed test from the home app (which is the hardwired router from the modem) it's always, for the most part, above 900 and 30 (my down and upload speeds) but a speed test connected wirelessly to the same router, is 10-20 tops. 

The other thing  I've noticed is the points(until I hardwired them) would show weak signal (weak mesh) even though one was less than 20 feet away on the same floor on a wide open floor plan. 

Hardwired shows excellent connection but speeds still crap out slowly but surely. 

Again, this is what i do for a living.. my speeds from my modem hardwired to my laptop or Xbox  I get over 1gb down. 40 up. 

To conclude. There is 100% something wrong with the Google product. 100%. I have singled out everything in every which way. Moved the modem, swapped the modem. Nothing matters. All I know is I am getting my speeds direct from my modem every single time I check. I have about 50-60 devices between Google homes, cameras and smart home items. I used a good amount of bandwidth but a 1gb connection can absolutely handle it. The most traffic is 30kbps from the cameras. 

I have well over 40 Google ecosystem items in my household and had to switch my wifi over to eeros. Very disappointing from Google, yet I'm hardly surprised given their track record of releasing half baked products. 

[BobaTFett]

Just joined the club today. Reset whole network twice, no improvement. Reset Nest Router twice, no improvement. Wired directly into my AT&T modem got +500Mbps download and +500Mbps upload. Used same cable to router to make sure physical cable wasn't an issue, same problem. Directly wired into router, getting top speeds; wireless absolute **bleep**e. 

[Jeff]

Hi everyone,

Sorry about all the issues you're having with network performance. With all these reports coming in, I'm going to consult with an internal team and get more attention to the matter. For now, I would suggest you keep sharing your situations so we can gather as much info as possible, and I'll return soon with more information on how to troubleshoot this and what we're doing on our end to resolve this. I appreciate all the input so far and I'll be checking in regularly going forward.

Thanks,

Jeff

[Robert1480]

😂

Do you realize that next week is the one year anniversary of your monthly "Google is aware of this issue and a fix is coming" posts? 

I don't think anyone seriously believes that anymore. 

[NicC]

Jeff... you're a joke to anyone that has been on this thread for more than a couple of months.  We've seen your BS posts for almost 2 years now.  Just go away.

[SpottedQuoll]

Dude, if only now you're "going to consult with an internal team and get more attention to the matter" and only now you'll "be checking in regularly going forward"... then can I just kindly ask what has been happening up to now?  Are these "internal teams" locked away in a castle tower in another universe?  Don't they even, dare I say, use some of these products themselves and run into the issues that literally everyone else is having?

[Pepperjack1]

Jeff.... you are a scam.... not even a Google employee!!!  

Stop trolling on this thread!!!!!

[SpottedQuoll]

If only.  If I remember well, someone mentioned that the "Community Specialists" are in fact paid by Google to run this thing here.  I've at times seriously wondered what their job description would be though.  It really feels like they're just acting as a barrier to keep customer issues at bay.

[Robert1480]

If you just bought it, can you return it? I switched 9 months ago to Netgear. Plugged it in and 10 seconds later it worked. No need for a systems engineering/network engineering course to try and configure it...

[Johnsonroda27]

I pieced a 4 piece kit together from ebay. So i just resold it. 

[Jeff]

Hey everyone,

As a heads up, there's a new firmware release rolling out for Nest WiFi and Google WiFi devices. It will roll out in waves, so some of you might see it before others. If you get the update and find that it's improved your situation, please report back and let us know. On the other hand, if you see the update and nothing changes, that's good info to know as well. Sorry it's been such a lengthy process, but I'm hoping the firmware release brings some added stability to your networks.

Thanks,

Jeff

[sisichen]

Thanks! Is there any action required to install the firmware upgrade or does it happen automatically? How do we know if the firmware upgrade has occurred? 

[Johnsonroda27]

Too late. I sold it on ebay and moved onto to eeros. I moved on..

[Jeff]

Hi Jessen02,

The version number you shared is the latest one before the new update, so it still hasn't arrived to your device yet. The updates roll out in waves, starting with just a few users early and then picking up week by week. By the end of the month all users will have it.

Thanks,

Jeff

[Jeff]

Hi AvaofSwe,

The update is rolling out now. It goes out in waves to devices and everyone will have it within the next 2-3 weeks. It really could land any day, however. You won't need to do anything to receive the update, it will download and install automatically for you. If you have other questions, let me know.

Thanks,

Jeff

[jonstrong]

Hi all - I've been a Google WiFi user for several years. I started with a 3-pack, and as I added WiFi garage door openers / cameras (Wyze) in the garage, and then a Euphy Cam over the driveway, I expanded the mesh. I also wanted better speed in my basement office (where I'm on several Zoom or Teams calls every day). I now have a Nest router plugged into my Verizion gigabit gateway, 2 more Nest wifi points, a Nest router used as a point, and the original 2 Google wifi points. The original configuration was fine for years. The expanded configuration was fine many weeks. BTW: the house has a full finished basement, where I have my office. The house is wood frame, with a total of about 3100 sq ft between the 1st and 2nd floor above the basement.

Speed is most important to me at my desk. With the second Nest router set up in the basement as a point, near my desk, I've got the LAN port connected to my desktop hub via ethernet cable (faster than talking to the point via WiFi). 

Until 3 or 4 days ago, I was averaging about 450 Mbps at my desk and about 250 to 300 Mbps over WiFi across the rest of the house. But I *had* noticed that speed had started fluctuating a few days earlier. About 3 days ago it started to swing wildly: I noticed this first as I started getting horrible slowdowns in Zoom and Teams calls -- unstable connections, freezing up, finally calls getting dropped. When this happened I'd check bandwidth and see that it had dropped to a few Kbps from 400 Mbps. I fired up the WiFi Analyzer app on my Pixel 6 Pro and could verify that there was no local WiFi interference at all. There's also virtually no other activity going on with the WLAN in my house. 

I checked, and all the units - Nest and Google - have the latest version of firmware. Both the WiFi tab in the Google Home app and the old Google WiFi app show the quality of the mesh connection for each node: the node connections now vary throughout the day from "great" to "good" to "weak". 

My whole mesh has become so unstable for a week now. I've restarted each node, I've power-cycled each node and the Verizon FiOS gigabit gateway. I restarted the mesh - and find that it can reach 500+ Mbps at my desk after this, but degrades after a few hours to the exact same unstable state that I've seen for the last week.

I've searched online - extensively over the past few days - and I see threads in this forum on virtually the identical topic spanning the entire last year with no fix offered or discovered. There are numerous other threads over the last week describing new experiences with exactly this same issue starting right as the September firmware updates started rolling out to Google and Nest routers and points.

It seems that there was some variation on this problem for at least the last year, although I didnt experience that. With the new firmware update, it's apparent that many more people are running into the issue that ruined my WiFi experience.

Jeff - I've seen you commenting in at least one such thread for the entire past year, indicating that you'd bring this back to the internal team, but it seems no answer was forthcoming. Mel - I see you trying to troubleshoot with some users, but frankly the thought of "trying" a fix (like changing SSID) that would require reconnecting 50 or 60 smart devices or more, without any indication that this is even a likely solution, is a dreadful scenario to contemplate. It would be bad enough if we KNEW this would fix the problem; but asking people to try this with no suggestion that it's even a likely solution is unreasonable: it's a huge inconvenience and time sink without a likely benefit.

I've been a huge Google fan for years. Chromebooks, Google speakers (OG, minis, max), displays, chromecast audio, chromecast with Google TV, Nest thermostats, Nest doorbell cam. Pixel phones across the whole family for years, etc. I've talked up Google /Nest WiFi for years to friends and family, even touting it in numerous online forums. But now....(smh)....

My doorbell is no longer reliable. My TV reception is no longer reliable. Dozens of WiFi outlets and wall switches are no longer reliable. My garage door openers, security cameras, "smart speakers", etc. -- all only work sporadically now. I'm CTO at a major well-known institution, and can no longer count on being able to actually do my job from my remote location.

This situation is pretty dreadful. It appears that some subset of Google / Nest wifi users have been running into these same problems over the last year, with a new crop of users running into this over the last week. But all we hear from Google is that they're "aware of the issue" and working on it -- for an entire year. If that's truly the case and after a year, a major firmware update only adds new people to the problem list, this appears to be a pretty dreadful issue.

I'd like to be confident that this will be fixed, but frankly I'm very skeptical. Jeff, Mel - is there any serious reason to think this will be addressed and resolved? I hate to give up and spend money on a competing mesh product, but I also can't afford to have my WiFi be unusable: it paralyzes my home and threatens my livelihood.

Can we please get some serious info about this set of problems from Google? I don't want to give up on Google / Nest WiFi, but I'm about 24 hours away from having to do so.

- Jon

[Jhonleanmel]

Hey everyone,

I totally understand that troubleshooting can be frustrating, but these are the most helpful steps to figure out what's going on with your device. Let's give them a try!

Regards,

Mel

[Jhonleanmel]

Hey folks,

We understand that this step is a little out of the way, but it's a great start to check if your devices are communicating with each other.

Best regards,

Mel