Once reliable Google Mesh often goes offline

[Jonp1]

My once reliable Google Nest has gone offline almost every day either once or twice a day for weeks. I have Spectrum internet and a technician did come out and make sure its connection was stable. I have disconnected/reconnected the mesh and also reset it. Nothing has improved.

[Dan_A]

Hi Jonp1,

That certainly isn’t the experience we want you to have, and we apologize for the delay. A few questions: are you using a modem/router combo from your Internet Service Provider (ISP)? Which Google/Nest router are we working with? What device are you using to set up your network (iOS or Android)? Do you have the Internet from your modem?
 

You can do a sequential reboot of your entire network and see if that helps.

or

Please perform a 2-minute power cycle on your entire network to re-establish the connection on your connected devices. Here's how: 
 

1. Disconnect the power from the modem.
2. Disconnect the Ethernet cable and power cord from the parent point.
3. Disconnect the power cord from the child points.
4. Leave everything unplugged for 2 minutes.
5. Connect the power cord to the modem then to your router and points.

Also, you can give these steps a try:

1. If you're using a modem/router combo, set that to bridge mode to avoid double NAT issues.
2. Make sure that there is minimal to no interference (concrete, bulletproof glass, metal, mirror, etc.) and the points are no more than two rooms apart.
3. Remove any special characters in your network name and password.
4. Turn off IPv6:
5. Open the Google Home app Google Home app.
6. Tap the Wi-Fi coin  and then Settings Settings.
7. Scroll down and tap Advanced networking.
8. Scroll down to IPv6.
9. Toggle the switch off Toggle button off.
10. Change your DNS server into 8.8.8.8 on the primary and 8.8.4.4 on the secondary server. Hit the save/ floppy disk icon on the upper right.
11. Unplug the power from your Google Wifi devices for 2 minutes.
12. If the issue persists, try factory resetting your network. Take note that this will delete all network data.

You may skip any step that you’ve done already.

Let us know how it goes.

Best,

Dan

[rosenqui]

Same thing here with the WiFi Pro 6E.

The last two nights it's gone offline in the middle of the night. Yesterday it was offline for 2 hours and then came back online on its own. Tonight it went offline and hasn't come back online since - hopefully a power cycle will fix it.

In both cases it went offline around 2AM EST. I suspect my ISP had a maintenance window around that time, but I checked with them and everything is fine, and they can see my cable modem (in bridged mode) alive & well on their network.

If it's updating its software or doing some other maintenance tasks in the middle of the night, those seem to be disrupting its ability to act as a router.

[Dan_A]

Hi rosenqui,

Thank you for that valuable information. Just so we’re on the same page, have you tried the steps above? If so, how was it?

Looking forward to your response.

Jonp1, could you confirm the status of your connection?

Best,

Dan

[rosenqui]

A power cycle of the main router node fixed it. We'll see how long it stays online this time. Devices in the home were connected to WiFi, the router just lost its connection to the Internet.

[rosenqui]

Another couple of outages.

It went offline on Oct 23rd at 13:40, then came back online on its own on the 24th at 02:11.

It went offline again this morning (Oct 27th) at 01:02 and is still offline.

Is there a way to see log data from these devices? I'm curious to see if the DHCP renewal with the ISP failed and the retry logic took almost 13h to get a new IP.

The power cycle to fix the first outage happened on the 19th at 15:40, so the next outage on the 23rd was exactly 2h shy of 4 days.

[rosenqui]

...and it's back online now, at exactly 10:02, so an outage of 9h pretty much on the button. No issues with the ISP, and the WAN IP is the same as it was before. Both wired and WiFi devices lose Internet when this happens.

[Dan_A]

Hi rosenqui,

Thank you for the update. Have you tried the steps above after the power cycle? About the mentioned outage, was it an internet outage or a power outage?

Keep us posted.

Kind regards,

Dan

[rosenqui]

I need IPv6 so I'm not switching it off, and I know it's not a DNS problem because I have no connectivity beyond the router when an outage occurs (I can't ping 8.8.8.8).

It happened again yesterday at 18:11 and a power cycle fixed it. Here's my outage log:

2023-10-19 01:48 offline
2023-10-19 15:40 online after power cycle

2023-10-23 13:40 offline
2023-10-24 02:11 online with IP A.B.C.D

2023-10-24 08:59 offline - neighbours were out too - cable trucks in the area
2023-10-24 15:15 online

2023-10-27 01:02 offline
2023-10-27 10:02 online with IP A.B.C.D

2023-10-30 10:18 offline
2023-10-30 10:22 online with IP A.B.C.D after I unplugged and plugged the Ethernet between the router and cable modem

2023-11-05 18:11 offline
2023-11-05 19:33 online with IP A.B.C.D after I power cycled the router

Only one of the above was due to ISP issues. I've been assigned the same public IP address each time, which is at least a hint that the outage isn't due to some ISP maintenance.

How do I go about requesting a return on these units? I'm past the 30 day window so the Google Store doesn't give me an option to return them, but surely there must be a way when problems are this prevalent. This is in the territory of "lemon laws" if Google is selling a router that can't keep an Internet connection alive for more than a few days at a time.

[Dan_A]

Hello there,

We appreciate all your efforts, and we're sorry for responding this late. We'd like to take a deeper look into this for you. Please fill out this form with all the needed information, and then let us know once you're done.

Kind regards,

Dan

[rosenqui]

Done.

[Dan_A]

Hello rosenqui,

Thanks for filling out the form, and upon checking, our higher tier of support sent you additional steps via email. Kindly respond to it, and from there on, you can continue the conversation there. For future concerns about your Google or Nest Wifi products, you know where to find us. We’re here to help.

Cheers.

Dan