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

[jonstrong]

Hmmm...certainly sounds basic. I'm curious - how far apart are the 3 nodes? What kind of obstacles in between (if any)? Ductwork in the walls? Metal studs vs. wood? Not sure what factors are having such a big impact since the firmware updates.

I just checked, and as bad as my setup had become after the firmware update(s), since I dropped from six (base router + 5) to four units, and strung them in a well differentiated path, my setup has still worked. But as I reported earlier, mine had been fine, even expanding to 6 units, until the firmware updates -- after which it had been awful. Reducing the configuration was the only thing that worked after that. But it seems that those of you with a basic configuration ought to be working if that's all there is to it.

FWIW, as of today, my router, plugged into my FiOS gateway with 1 Gbps nominal service, is seeing about 830 Mbps up and down, I've got about 300 Mbps over WiFi to my phone and chromebook, and at my desk in the basement office, where a router functioning as a wireless point in the mesh - connected to my laptop via ethernet - is still delivering better than 600 Mbps to the laptop. Latest here:

https://www.speedtest.net/my-result/d/e6ce0828-b8f9-4115-9004-5327471ea434

If it's any help:

base Router - Model H2D, software version 14150.376.32

2 Routers functioning at points: same model and software as the base router above

1 point: Model H2E, software version 1.56.315675

Frustrated as I had been for a few weeks, I'm one of the lucky ones it seems who've managed to get this working - so I know it's possible. But the difference between working and being dysfunctional is still a mystery, and a lot of people are clearly still having an unacceptable experience. It would really be nice if Google could share some insight into what's going on here.

[usama4]

I have a 3 Floor home. Have 3 Google routers, one on each floor. All connected through a gigabit swith from Cisco which has no issues. These are all barely 35 feet apart from each other with no walls between them. The Foyer from basement to first floor has clear view or each other. I have the 2 Wifi repeaters of each router within 20 -30 feet of the router with one 6" wall between one and second one has a glass panel between it and the router. Similar setup on all 3 floors. Same placement worked flawlessly on the original firmware. Then google sent the upgrade and all went down the hill.

14150.376.32 is the installed version at this time.

Main router is connected to the ISP. It's output goes to a switch base 1000 and the other 2 routers are connected to that. Had them all connected witelessly before. This is the latest configuration I am trying to use to get some improvement.

[usama4]

 Same issue for me. Have 3 Router Sets with 2 WiFi Repeaters each making it 9 units Mesh in a 5000 sq Foot House. Worked well for a few months but after the last update I have all showing poor mesh network. Very slow WiFi and keeps dropping connections. Don't know what Google did to screw up something that worked great. If there will be a fix or we should ditch Google and look elsewhere with the 1200$ down the drain in 2 months. 

[Cej]

Funny story explaining to my ISP why my speed tests were 120mb down when they say I should be getting 1GB. I referenced this thread to show it was Googles flawed hardware. 😂 can anyone chime in on other mesh systems they’ve had good experience with? I’m ready to change asap. TIA

[Robert1480]

Obviously, do your own research, but I gave up last December. Tried all of "Jeff"'s fixes to no avail. Filled out "Melvin"'s form and they sent an email suggesting I try something that I'd tried months earlier, but tried it again with no change, so the Google devices are once again in a box in my basement.

I switched last December to Netgear Orbi - got it on sale at Costco. I plugged it in straight out of the box. It has worked ever since with ZERO issues in the last 11 months. The only downside is that I don't get to play network engineer to use my network, which I was doing for months with Google!

[jonstrong]

If I hadn't been able to get my system working Netgear Orbi was the next choice to try. What kind of speeds are you getting? Is your Orbi router plugged into an ISP gateway or is it acting as the gateway directly?

[Robert1480]

Just checked, and I'm in my office about 70 feet and through more than half a dozen walls (including a bathroom shower that is slate). 756 MB down, 219 MB up. I've seen somewhat better, somewhat worse, but the speed is awesome and I have not lost a SINGLE Zoom/Teams/Google Meet etc. call since the switch. Was losing multiple calls daily with Google.

[jonstrong]

That's fantastic. I don't have as many barriers, and my whole mesh is only about 60 feet long. The best I've seen is about 650 down and up, with about 850 directly off the router connected to the gateway. What kind of speed is your ISP delivering to your place?

[Robert1480]

Speed varies, but about the same as you, about 900 down/500 up once recently when connected directly via ethernet to the router.

Had to download a bunch of data for work.

[jonstrong]

Well...after having a good luck run of a few weeks, something must have changed in the last few days - and I DO recall reading that Google was pushing out new firmware updates (this past week?). My WiFi went to hell over the last couple of days. This morning it was up and down half a dozen times. Nodes would just go offline until I power-cycled them. My entire mesh went down and up several times without me touching it. I walked through the house and manually unplugged and reconnected all four mesh nodes (the router and 3 points). Now, about 15 minutes later, I'm getting some usable signal at my desk (basement office), but the best speed I can get is less than half what I had for the last several weeks. What an incredible disappointment.

Which Orbi model do you have, and is it still doing well for you? I can't run my household and manage my remote office job from home with this mess.

[angusmc90]

Nooooo jon I was rooting for you! I’m having the same issue now and its been driving me crazy.

[ybanezm]

I came here because I have the exact problem described. I've only owned these for four months. I wish I'd done better research 😞

This was such an investment for me and I feel really let down.

[Robert1480]

Is it too late to return them?

On the bright side, you'll now have the opportunity to spend several hours as amateur network engineer. Just don't get your hopes up...

[Dimmer]

Was this fixed? Im still experiencing this issue.

[Davnet999]

Google has not fixed the slowness problem with my Google Mesh and Pod... You tell me the quality of a 95 meg up and down Google Mesh router and Nodes.... Source is 1 Gigabyte Isp service. Very disapooint to see a multibillion company treat their customer so badly... The NEW Google Mesh PRO replaces my old Google Mesh... Basically admitting the Google Mesh is not fixable and the pro version is the new fix..Remediation to the slowness...

[NicC]

With the number of people complaining about issues with the new Pro (see post elsewhere in this thread), I'm not that sure Google "fixed" anything...

[NicC]

A couple of people said they had "fixed" the slow/dropped points issues, but at least one said that it had come back again. Sorry that you joined this #$@!^% club.

[Dimmer]

**bleep**.. I only got the nest mesh like 8 weeks ago via isp bundle. First week or so it worked great then bamn, capped at what appears 100mb and like u im on 1gb + at times I get extreme slow downs to less than 1mb on wireless devices to the point i need to do restarts just to open web pages.. I feel pretty duped to be honest if this is a known and persistent issue. Shoulda done my research 😕 whats the point of having a google smart home if the wifi not decent.... Was so excited to..

[Tonycdh]

On 11/22 I tested my connection and it was 250 on a 1gig fiber. I purchased a different wifi, looking to return the nest Wi-Fi pro. I went to disconnect the Wi-Fi pro on 11/23 and thought i would do one more test and got 750! I tested it quite a few times and the same thing! I'm glad this is fixed for me (knock on wood) and hope its fixed for others as well! I wont return the new one for a couple more days just to be sure. Hopefully these speeds stay true!

[Cej]

😂omg. Are they paying you? Or are you in early stage denial? Let us know your speeds in 2 days honey. I’m out!

[Coday]

Hey tired of scrolling any solution or just replace?

[CreekFreak]

Replace and move on... Google doesn't care.

[Coday]

Thanks, I appreciate the quick reply and saw a lot of your posts from a year ago very thorough. A real shame as some Google products are great but some are played with unresolved issues.

[CreekFreak]

Yeah I really did love the nest wifi! But once the firmware ruined it and you can't go back it was all over. I've had good luck with Asus routers over the years so I went back to them. Been running rock solid for over 10 months without issues on the Asus.

[Robert1480]

I concur with CreekFreak. I still own the Google equipment but it is no longer what I use. I diligently tried all of the solutions "Jeff" and then "Melvin" offered, filled out the forms, tested all of the changes. No dice. Regular and frequent drops. Not an option when you work from home and need to use Zoom/Team/etc multiple times per day.

I went with Netgear Orbi, but just buy anything else (except Google Pro!). I plugged it in. It worked. No need to play network engineer.

[Cej]

Only a few more days until our year anniversary. Do we get a cookie? 🍪 

[mayneframe]

Getting the same; speed test through google = slow, then I do a speed test through Nest Wifi app which goes fast, then do another speed test through google and its fast again.... for like 5 minutes or so...

@Jeff this issue has obviously been going on for quite some time - can we please get a status on it, and if you have no new information - I would easily be able to show it to an engineer over a zoom call if they are free?...

If internally this isnt going to be fixed, it would be nice to know - and I can just get a refund and buy a different nest system

[Davnet999]

Feel the pain... Some of us have gone though a serious of different test... No Google will not upgrade us to Google Mesh Pro... No they will not solve the problem...  Instead Google took every bad thing with the Google Mesh and came out with a new product called Google Mesh Pro... My downloads are 95 meg and uploads are 105 megs..  This with the Google Mesh router connected directly to a Fiber 1 Gig ISP... Google could NEVER fix this issue...After  year, no help... 

[NicC]

Don't hold your breath for Jeff or Mel to give any answers...  they're trolls trying to give us hope when there is none. 

Bail on Google and move to another platform.

[Davnet999]

Good bye "Hey Google"..... Hello Alexis... 

[jonstrong]

So...I finally gave in and filled out "the form". Even that was disappointing -- anyone in support here could easily have gleaned more info simply by copying a handful of any of our posts in this forum. Many of us have gone into detail right here -- more than would be captured on a form.  I'm sitting in my family room as I type this. A single wall, comprised of wood studs and sheetrock - with no wires or ductwork in the this area, is all that stands between me and my Nest base router about 6 ft away. The Nest router is plugged into my Verizon FiOS gigabit router which is delivering about 850Mbps to the Nest router. I just loaded up the Android Ookla Speedtest app on my Pixel 7 Pro. I turned WiFi on the P7P off, waited a bit and then turned it on again, making sure it connected to the nearest mesh node - which is the Nest base router itself. I ran the Ookla speed test app a couple of times, and the speeds were bizarrely inconsistent: 180Mbps down / 450Mbps up, then a minute later 105Mbps down and 125Mbps up...then a few runs somewhere in the middle. This...six feet away from the Nest router plugged into an 850 to 900 Mbps (up and down) line. DNS isn't the problem (tried Google's as well as others - no difference). No concrete, no metal barriers, no great distance, no interfering RF. No other people even in the house with me right now, so no competition for bandwidth. I check WiFi Analyzer -- no competing / interfering signals from any nearby neighbors. Firmware is up to date. All devices in the mesh have been recently rebooted.

BTW: one new observation of a change in recent weeks: with all the speed instability and limits, upload is now consistently faster than download -- sometimes 2 to 3 times faster. This was NEVER the case until maybe 3 weeks ago. For years, even through all the variations, up and down were always very close, and I've verified time and again that the speeds directly from the Verizon router are balanced and generally in the 850 to 900 Mbps range. 

So sad - this feels like we're being used as unsuspecting and unwilling beta test subjects...

[Rodeotex]

Yea, I have dealt with this for as long as I can. I have made the switch to Orbi and it works. 
wish you all the best in finding a replacement system. 

[jonstrong]

I've been reading up on Orbi. Trying to decide between models. The 960 6E series looks great -- but at $1500 for a 3 pack is pretty steep, especially with WiFi 7 starting to arrive in a year. Thinking maybe the current WiFi 6 model (AX6000?) makes sense. Curious re: model, physical configuration, speeds?

[Davnet999]

Someone help me understand the logic of a $1.26 TRILLION DOLLAR COMPANY (As of dec 14, 2022) NOT caring at all about taking lesson learn led from an old useless product ( Google Mesh and Pod) and creating a new product (Google Mesh Pro) while at the same time leaving thousand of loyal great smart customer with a worthless 95 meg unrepairable Google Mesh Product .  No even an apology.. I requested an no cost upgrade to Google Mesh Pro... Never heard from Google.. Never will trust another Google product ever... I should have bought this at Costco... They have the honor to replace my defective equipment.. Costco has my business for life... Closing down my Google product shopping link..

[93ufos83]

Restarting my modem every single day to get this to work.  Returned my Pixel 7 recently too.  Apparently Google makes crappy everything.

[Davnet999]

Maybe we should examine with greater detail the Google Cloud Contract for corporate Enterprise services...hmmm

[Davnet999]

What options do we have against this 2.14 trillion dollar company???  Absolute admission of guilt with a new correct Google Mesh Pro..  The Google Tech support blame the problem on interference with my ISP router... Spoiler alert... I do not use my ISP router... The Google Mesh is connected directlybto my 1 gig Fiber ISP... The Google Mesh router even shows 989 meg up and down... All my devices connected one at a time (Ipad, computer 3 different laptops, iPhone, android phones) all show between 75 and 115 meg down and up... I EVEN HAD the neighbors turn off their routers for an hour while I test the Google Mesh system.... Same slow WIFI speed... Horrible and embarrassing to recommend or show my friends (personal and business use)... If I had the money, I would refund their money for my stupid recommendation... What a shame.....

[Davnet999]

Ok... It's Outragous Dave online with some comments about the New Google Mesh Pro... So again.. Google.. A 2.25 Trillion dollar company and the New Google Mesh Pro (GMP) is just adequeate... barely... Google is so advance a d the word PRO is so misleading.. Where is the VPN upload option to the GMP router for complete protection...Duh.. Yes, I am very curious and take so many risks believing Google could be so amazing with the latest incredible technology... INSTEAD... I tried for a year to get my old Google Meah to work with absolute no helpful help or progress from Google only to find out Google came out with GMP with fixes from the Old Google Mesh (OGM)..   And yes my curiosity got the best of me... I bought the new Google Mesh Pro.. Install easy.. setup easy.  NOnew interesting feature... NO MESH internet speed check... STILL.  GETTING horrible unacceptable upload and download speeds... To be fair the response is fast... Bandwidth on different devices are all over the speed spectrum.. I still have my ISP 1 gig fiber router / modem to compare WIFI bandwidth... Sad but hear are the number... Desktop..135 meg down.. 155 meg up on the GMP... ISP router 446Meg up 430 down... On a IPAD. GMP , 400 meg down. 38 meg up.  IPAD o. Isp router 504 meg down, 375 up....   .Android Samsung phone... 56 meg udown, 15 meg up..  Isp WIFI ROUTER 250 UP. And 335 meg down...   Absolutely incredible... What is the link for technical support?? Form??

[Davnet999]

New Google Mesh Pro.... 50 meg up and 60 meg down... What is happening... My TV is pixelating like crazy.  

[NicC]

Did you really think they fixed their mesh probs with a new system?