Unable to add a 2nd Wifi Router to an existing WiFi Mesh

[kkdev]

I followed every step in the post on this forum "Solved: Need help with setup? Troubleshoot common Nest Wifi and Google Wifi problems" as well as several other Reddit posts on this topic.My master Wifi point is connected from its WAN port to the modem. The LAN port of the 1st Wifi Point is wired directly to the WAN port of the 2nd Wifi Point I am trying to setup.  Eventually, I plan to use the 3 Wifi points in a mesh via wired backhaul Ethernet cables.

I tried 3 separate iOS devices 2 with iOS 18.2 and one with an old iOS 15.8.4 with a compatible Google Home app installed. 

The 2nd Wifi point was factory reset. The Google Home app successfully finds and connects to the setup_DDAA" Wifi network, scans the QR code, starts the process to "Add this point to my Wifi Mesh" which runs for over 5-6 mins and fails with "Request failed.. please try again later".  

I tried 5-6 times already but no luck. Any ideas?

[David_K]

Are the Wifi points already hardwired whilst you're attempting to set them up? If so, I'd recommend trying to set them up as Wifi only to begin with, only connecting the WAN cable from the modem to your primary Wifi point.

[kkdev]

Thank you David for your reply. I just tried this but unfortunately it did not work. The primary wifi point is hard wired to the modem. I tried with 2 different Wifi pucks that I reset and attempted to add to the mesh unsuccessfully. Both pucks were placed next to the primary point.  Is there a configuration on the Google backend that prevents this from happening?

One of the API endpoints on the Wifi point described here got me a large diagnostic dump with a lot of log entries and errors  such as "Exiting depthcharge with code 4 at timestamp: 15751190"  with a ton of binary data below it. Another error says "Could not set interface 'mesh-5000mhz' UP", "INFO shill: [shill_main.cc(233)] Process exiting." and a lot. of other messages related to downloading firmware, reboots and joining the mesh etc. etc and tons of errors and exiting messages. Way out of my league to make any sense of any of it but should be an easy task for Google engineers to debug.  I am happy to share the diagnostic file if it helps someone figure out where it is failing. 

[David_K]

Is there a configuration on the Google backend that prevents this from happening?

I don't work for Google so don't have any insight on that I'm afraid.

Do you have an iOS device running the latest version of iOS and the latest version of the Google Home app you can try with?

[kkdev]

I am using iOS 18.3.2 (which is the latest available for my iPhone 16). I removed and reinstalled Google Home app several times from the apps store.

[David_K]

That's strange as the latest iOS release for iPhone 16 is iOS 18.4.

Am I right in saying either puck will setup as the primary Wifi point? 

[kkdev]

Ack, just checked my settings and you are absolutely right, it is 18.4. I will certainly update iOS and Home app if applicable and try again but I am a bit unsure if this will fix it. 

Here is what I am trying to do. Hope this is clear.

Spectrum Modem==>

• Ethernet to WLAN port to Primary Wifi puck 1 in room1
• Ethernet to WLAN port to Satellite Wifi puck 2 in room2. 
• Ethernet wired to WLAN port to Satellite Wifi puck 3 in room3. This is the step I am stuck at. I have 2 different pucksI have laying around for this.  Tried with both with no luck. Located this point near the primary WiFi puck via WiFi (no cable to WLAN port) but no luck

[David_K]

Did you buy all of the devices from the same place at the same time? I'm wondering if the two that won't setup and join your mesh are designed for a different country than your other Wifi points.

[kkdev]

3 of them were bought as a 3 pack package, 1 of them was purchased separately. However all of them are of the same model NLS 1304-twenty five and FCC ID.  I compared the primary puck and one non-working puck and verified them to have the same model info. I might try doing a diagnostic dump of each and compare the metadata at the top that contains the region code and other rich info. 

Ps: this forum post editor throws a strange warning “message body contains…”  when I use the numerical model number