Nest Wifi Pro - Abysmally bad product

[cantak]

I have CenturyLink fiber, though I've not used a CenturyLink modem in the past. Instead I've been using an Asus router. I have around 70 devices in my home, with 20 of them LAN connected and the rest WiFi. It was overloading the Asus. Plus there were a few dead zones.

So I  purchased a three pack of these. I wanted the new Matter spec as more IOT devices are supported. I also wanted the 6E capability. I could not get the device to work. Entering in the PPPoE credentials just complained there was no Internet.

I called Google support and they just told me it was CenturyLink's problem. So, I had a CenturyLink technician come out. To their credit, they tried a few times to get it setup - even though it is not their device. Finally he pulled out a new CenturyLink modem, plugged it in, and I had Internet immediately. He pronounced the Google device the problem and left, giving me the modem in the process. Of course I still had my old Asus to fall back on.

I called Google support again, hoping that with this new information they'd work with me better to solve the problem. The woman I got didn't know what PPPoE was. She was unfamiliar with the setup screens, messages, orders, anything. She didn't even know what the blinking light statuses on the front of the device meant. Some problems cannot be diagnosed and I don't expect it would have been easy. But she was so inexperienced she should not have been allowed to take a phone call.

After hanging up, I put my CenturyLink modem into bridging mode and setup the first Google device that way. I was limited to 50mbps speed from all devices. After some Internet searching I see this is a known Google bug. This was the last straw so I am returning the devices.

Other issues:
 - No web page to setup things. I have 80 MAC addresses to enter for DHCP reservations. I have to do this on a phone?
- No advanced options for anything. I should be able to configure throttling on a guest network. It's meant for guests, not neighbors so throttling allows me to eliminate streaming and make it unusable as a permanent device.

- No network monitoring with any information about bandwidth, what devices are connected to what, total devices connected, anything.

Has anyone gotten this to work with CenturyLink fiber? I'm in the twin cities market as I know that can have an impact.

[olavrb]

I think your problem is the poor VLAN support of Nest Wifi. Combined with PPPoE makes it even worse.

• https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/9798157?hl=en

Solution, if you want to keep the Nest Wifi:

• https://superuser.com/questions/1148268/how-to-ditch-centurylink-fiber-modem

[cantak]

That would do it, but I only want one device. I don't want to deal with needing to manually assign an IP to connect to the bridging device every time I need to see a setting on it. Especially since to my knowledge it's out of the same subnet mask. Due to this and all the other limitations, this really wasn't viable. I bought the Netgear 960 3 pack and returned the Google devices. Too bad as it's a Google smart home with cameras, door lock, six hubs, chromecast's, etc.

[Jhonleanmel]

Hey folks,

@olavrb, thanks for the help.

We're sad to see you go, @cantak. We hope we can make it up to you in the future. Send us a message if you change your mind.

Best,

Mel

[Jhonleanmel]

Hi there,

Checking in to see if you still need assistance with this. Let us know if you have additional questions ― we'd love to help.

Best,
Mel

[cantak]

Thanks but no, I returned these.

[JenniferV]

Hello cantak,

Understood and we're sad to see you go — we hope we can make it up to you in the future.

Since you don't have any more questions, we'll go ahead and lock this thread now. Feel free to reach back and create a new thread should you need help in the future.

Thanks for the help here, olavrb and Mel.

Regards,

Jennifer