Throwing in the towel - Random Wifi disconnection issue

[Robert1480]

Bought the router and three points this summer and it worked flawlessly. Until it didn't. Kept thinking it was something I'd done or an issue with my equipment until I found this and another forum where I discovered that the issue of random disconnection from the internet throughout the day is a known issue and has been for months.

I'm pretty sure my issues started in September, but it wasn't obvious until October, when devices throughout our home started losing connectivity at least once per week. It got worse in November, with multiple disconnections per week but came to a head for me earlier this month. 

I run a small business. I work from home. I communicate with my clients on Zoom. December is my biggest month for planning calls for the next year. I consult on technology related issues for my clients. Losing clients mid-call repeatedly every week during December was the final straw. If I can't keep my systems up and running, why should they pay me to help them do the same? 

I've seen the Google reps on here say, starting in early September, that a fix is in the works. That was four months ago and, if anything, the problem has gotten worse. They know these wifi devices for many of us are worthless pieces of defective electronics. I'm not sure how widespread the issue is, but I've already contacted an attorney in California where they have great consumer protection laws and friendly civil courts to see if we can initiate a class action against Google for knowingly selling and not properly acknowledging or supporting a failing consumer product.

Let me know if you might be interested in joining. I don't want anyone's personal info yet, just indicate your interest here and if I can get something going in January I'll let you know.

P.S. Switching to a Netgear Orbi system as soon as it arrives. Working on an 8 year old Linksys device until then. Not enough bandwidth for Zoom, but (!) it actually stays connected to the internet ALL DAY!!!

[Reddeviluk]

Afraid not Abi, I did all that last year when one of your colleagues wouldn't admit there was a fault with the hardware and had me changing DNS etc like that was at fault. A year later, I've changed ISP, I've replaced the Nest Point with another Router and the same disconnects keep happening even though there line of sight and no distance at all between the two routers, afraid it's just faulty, rubbish hardware and me filling in a form isn't going to change that, Google isn't going to replace the faulty hardware which leaves me as a loyal customer with nothing to do but regret my purchase and learn from my mistakes. A form isn't going to replace the several hundreds of pounds that I've spent or the regular disconnects that I suffer.

[Chicagoing]

Same. Filling out a form is just more of a run-around. You want to close the topic out cause you don't want it to keep getting traffic. It's beyond disappointing and I'm recommending to others they avoid the product as well as the new Nest Pro or else they will end up needing to fill out forms for a couple of years. 

[AbigailF]

Hey folks, 
 

We get where you’re coming from. Can you provide the case ID number from your previous interaction with Google support so I can take a look at your cases? We’ll wait for your update.

Best,

Abi

[Jhonleanmel]

Hi folks,

Chiming 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

[Jhonleanmel]

Hi everyone,

Just one quick final check in here since activity has slowed down. We haven't heard from you in a while so we'll be locking this thread if there is no update after 24 hours. If you have any new questions, updates or just a discussion topic, feel free to start a new thread in the Community.

Thanks,
Mel

[Reddeviluk]

Lock away Mel.....I think we all know where we stand and filling in a form isn't going to fix bad hardware.

[Jhonleanmel]

Hi Reddeviluk,

We deeply appreciate you sharing your thoughts and experiences, and we'll take it as feedback. We hope we can change your mind in the future.

Best,

Mel

[AbigailF]

Hey folks,

We’d like to check in again in case you have any further questions or concerns. Feel free to reply to this thread and we’ll help you out.

Regards, 
Abi

[Reddeviluk]

Just close it down please. None of our questions have been answered, none of our concerns addresses but it's starting to sound ridiculous when you keep saying the same thing.  For our benefit, as well as your own, close the thread down.

[AbigailF]

Hello Reddeviluk,

We’re sorry you feel that way. We’d like to make it up to you. If you still want to continue troubleshooting, please let us know so we can proceed with the next steps. We’re here to help out. If you decide not to continue, we’ll have to lock this thread in 24 hrs.

Thanks,
Abi

[Jeff]

I understand why many of you chose other solutions and I hope those work well for you. For anyone still looking for help on their Nest or Google WiFi setups, please let me know.

Thanks.

[Robert1480]

Kind of binary - the equipment either works or it doesn't.  Google equipment doesn't work, Netgear (for me) does.

I'm going to still monitor and occasionally jump in because I am one of the unlucky ones who is stuck with the equipment because it transitioned from great to useless after the one year period when I could return it. It is sitting in a box in my basement. Every time you say there is a fix/update, I try it and it fails. Someday, hoping that it works so I can gift it to my son.

[Jeff]

I understand that Robert1480. If they have different network conditions than you do, it's possible that after a factory reset that they wouldn't see the issues you have. It could be worth checking.

Thanks.

[Tonyholdgate]

I'm now up to date with the latest firmware and one issue has cropped up.  I had a power outage yesterday and when the internet came back up the Nest router did not pick up the restored connection just sitting there with the glowing yellow light. Restart network did not fix it. I had to pull the power plug to physically reset it. I've since tested it again and can re-create the issue. Whatever polling method is being used is not working. Note that the disconnection has to be long enough for that  yellow light to start pulsing- a good 10 minutes. It never recovers without cycling the power. This is an issue for when I'm travelling as I can't reset remotely

[Tonyholdgate]

and now I've lost two mesh units. restarting the router- no go. restarted each of the points no.  I'm over this Google- and you need to fix this in a much better fashion. I've just had to factory reset and its working again for now but my previous experience with this is the router is on the way out (My second one). Network restart does not work. You need to give us a proper web interface for this system and proper logs. I have stopped recommending these units to friends as they are totally unreliable. I am now researching the replacement for this system.

I do believe that there is an issue with DHCP and IP reservations that may be causing this. I'll avoid using this feature and set the IP's on the devices. But you've got to give us better control

[Tonyholdgate]

and the router just died again as predicted, This one is 4 months old

[Tonyholdgate]

Even with a new nest  router I can't reform the mesh. I completely removed the old network from the app and started again. No luck. I'm throwing these in the bin

[Tonyholdgate]

Ok it's not ip reservations causing this as I wasn't using them this time. Another user on the whirlpool forums experienced exactly the same initial issues as I saw at the same time yesterday. The new firmware appears to have made issues worse. My nest is now unusable. I'll have one more attempt to revive it today. I'm out of warranty by  5 months but I'm fairly sure I have a case seeing Google's automated updates broke a working system. The only changes I make to a standard installation is two port forward rules. 

[Tonyholdgate]

After spending a fair bit of time with  Google support I'm told its a bug and they are looking into it. they have declined to replace the kit as they say  that won;'t help. As I run a contracting business from home this doesn't work for me so I'm replacing it with  another brand and will be pursuing a refund- on the basis that the automated update that Google forced down my throat broke working kit.

What's wrong with this kit?

1.The single worst feature is the automatic updates without any facility to roll back firmware. It was a major feature picking the replacement kit. Google really shoot themselves in the foot here- all they needed to have was a rollback process.

2. Google Home- a  terrible jumble of  processes with zero troubleshooting  for the nest wifi. "Something went wrong" is lazy programming. This thing is an abomination - if it had more  logs etc available it would  make this easire. Bring back the dedicated wifi app.

3. A terrible support process- being asked the same questions over and over again and painfully slow. Expected to wait for Google to fix it

I've been a google customer for many years and this experience means I won;t be much longer. Couple to the terrible modem on the latest Pixel 6 Pro its shows just how poor google hardware choices and management is

[Tonyholdgate]

This thread is only slowing down because people have moved to other platforms. We've given up. I've had two routers replaced only after opening a small claim against Google and I'm back up and running for now. I have  zero confidence in this kit and will be moving to Orbi which whilst much more expensive is supposedly reliable.

The issue still exists. The mandatory firmware update that you are pushing means that for many people a factory reset will render their devices unusable. The only reason the new routers worked for me was that they had the older firmware and didn't update until after setup. Not that the old firmware was much chop either- but at least you could safely factory reset.

All in all I'll sell this  Google nest kit for whatever I can get and never make the mistake of  using Google wifi again. It needs a serious rethink-  logs, web interface, manageable QoS, self watchdog and move it out of the godawful Google Home App. So sure- close the thread  but know that the issue still remains

[Chicagoing]

Agreed with @Tonyholdgate the thread is dead because accountability and customer support for the product is dead.

It wouldn't be the first time Google just let something die on the vine. 

The problem with that is I'm invested in a whole house set-up (4 pucks, 3 dough balls, a dozen mini speakers, doorbell and a Nest Hub Max) and I'm so foolishly brand loyal but seven of these products are paperweights.

It's heartbreaking that there's no support. It's shocking that there isn't some type of trade-in or recall, but it's appalling that these lemon products are still being sold to people. 

Make it make sense.

[Robert1480]

Funny. Came here to say the same thing. For months, I played amateur network engineer trying all of the goofy solutions thrown out here. Nothing worked. Was told it was my ISP. Yet, upon replacing the Google fecal material with Orbi, 5 months ago, I've had zero issues. 

Less traffic here? Uhhhh yeah. Most of us gave up long ago. 

[Tonyholdgate]

Here's another reason not to choose this product. The 5ghz wifi does not scan for the best channel to use and is hard set to 149. My neighbours on both sides also have these units so all of us are on the same network channel. Really crap design

[Tonyholdgate]

So today with brand new routers replaced by Google  the internet dropped again- up for 6.5 days. First thing I did was to check the status page - 192.168.86.1/api/v1/status and the unit was blissfully unaware it had lost the internet. I then connected directly to the bridged  modem and the internet was up- the google router had frozen. Of course with Google Home- once the internet is dead you can't query the network - nor can you reset the network . pulled the power for the Google router and it all came back up on restart.

The fact that the units can't even tell that they've stopped  routing and reset themselves is yet another flaw in these units.

[buncotray]

I'm having the exact problem, started at the same time. Now I have the internet a few breif minutes a day if I'm lucky.

I'll join your group, I'm sick if this.