Unable to connect some devices to the primary point of my mesh network

[Paul-Andre]

Hi All, I have tried calling Google support, but didn't get any valuable support/advice beside trying to restart my devices which obviously did not solve my problem. I share my issue here hoping some will have face the same.

My network design is the following Modem -> Google Router (living room) -> switch -> 2 x Google wifi (office & Master Bedroom). My modem provided by Virgin in the UK is setup as bridge mode. All these devices are hardwired. I am able to connect with my laptop / iphone in via the 2 mesh points (office or living room), however when I move these device to the living room, the connection keeps dropping. Other devices (Alexas, Firestick, etc..) do not have any connection issue in the living room.  The setup previously worked, however stopped working without any change from my side. What am I doing wrong? How can I fix this?

[SpottedQuoll]

There was a recent firmware update that introduced a range of new bugs. That might explain the change in behaviour you've noticed. You didn't do anything wrong.

[Jhonleanmel]

Hey folks,

Thanks for posting — let's see what's going on. 

How many devices are dropping from the network? Also, do you have any paused devices? 

Give these steps a try:
 

1. 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.
2. Remove any special characters in your network name and password.
3. Turn off IPv6.
4. Set a custom DNS at 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.
5. Unplug the power from your Google Wifi devices for 2 minutes.
6. If the issue persists, try factory resetting your network.

Let us know how it goes.

Best,

Mel

[SpottedQuoll]

This is nonsense.  Did you even read their post?

1. They are in the same room, where the main router is.

2. Their setup worked before, and they didn't change anything.  Therefore characters in their network name/password were perfectly fine before already.  Also, if that were the problem, their devices wouldn't be able to connect to the mesh points.

3. Same argument as point 2.

4. Same argument as point 2.

5. You say that to everyone, and sometimes it accidentally seems to fix something briefly, until it pops up again.  Customers shouldn't have to power cycle their devices every day just to keep things working.

6. Same argument as point 5, but somehow even worse.  A device that breaks down over time and should be frequently reset just to work on a basic level, is a broken device/service.

Stop gaslighting customers. Take your responsibility and urge the developer team to fix their product.

[Jhonleanmel]

Hi SpottedQuoll,

Thanks for the information. Keep monitoring your network after trying the steps above.

Regards,

Mel

[SpottedQuoll]

@Paul-Andre , don't even bother wasting your time on trying these points and possibly making your own situation worse (with the risk of support then saying you messed it up yourself!).  As you can see from this exchange with Mel, they are a copy-pasting robot of default responses.  And they're actually so bad at it, that they frequently paste an overtly inapplicable response, such as the one above.  It'd be hilarious if it wasn't so sad.

[MichaelP]

Hello @Paul-Andre 

Do you by any chance have something like a soundbar in your living room? Something that may have a wireless speaker or speakers (e.g., a wireless subwoofer and/or wireless surround speakers)? Those tend to use the same part of the 5GHz band that Google/Nest WiFi uses, and it can cause interference when close by. The reason this may only be impacting some devices is because Google/Nest WiFi supports 802.11k and 802.11v, which some (but not all) devices can use to try to make better decisions about when to hand off between access points and between bands. Since Apple devices (iPhones, iPads, computers, etc.) support these standards, I suspect the Google/Nest WiFi system may be telling them they can use 5GHz in the living room, but the interference in that area is making it not work properly. The other devices (Echo, Firestick, etc.) are fixed and likely don't support those standards. Instead, they just do their own signal quality measurements and end up connecting to the 2.4GHz band instead of 5GHz. You may be able to verify this by checking the details for those devices to see which band they are connected to. Anyway, that's my theory. If you don't have any sources of 5GHz interference in the living room, then I'm not sure what is going on.

[Jhonleanmel]

Hey folks,

@MichaelP, thanks for the helpful response.

@Paul-Andre, I wanted to follow up and see if you are still in need of any help. Have you had the chance to try the suggestion above? If yes, how is it?

Thanks,
Mel

[Paul-Andre]

Hi all, thanks for the reply on this thread.

@Jhonleanmel here are some response inline to your suggestion:

1. 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.
   1. [RESPONSE:] As pointed out in my initial message (and mentioned by @SpottedQuoll I am trying to connect from the same room. I am actually 2 meters again from the point with no obstruction.
2. Remove any special characters in your network name and password.
   1. [RESPONSE:] There are no special characters in my network name and password.
3. Turn off IPv6.
   1. [RESPONSE:] It was already off following the original troubleshooting when calling google support line.
4. Set a custom DNS at 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.
   1. [RESPONSE:] It was changed following the original troubleshooting when calling google support line.
5. Unplug the power from your Google Wifi devices for 2 minutes.
   1. [RESPONSE:] Tried this, with no results
6. If the issue persists, try factory resetting your network.
   1. [RESPONSE:] I haven't done this step yet due to the fear of the time required to reconfigured. Do you have specific steps to follow?

Over the last few days I have been able to occasionally re-connect to the primary points. The reliability of the equipment is not meeting my expectation. I have observed that I have more issues to connect to the primary point when I was previously connected to another point (example the garden office) just before. Could it be related. I am expecting that with a mesh system I should be able to go from one point to the other seamlessly.

@MichaelPI do have a Bose soundbar located ~30cm away from the primary access point. However the soundbar is hardwired to the tv with an optical audio cable. I don't expect interference, but I will continue monitor. The physical set up hasn't changed recently.

I had the system running for over 1 year without issues. Looking back, I think I started to have issue around September 8th, my fire tv stick, which is also very close to the primary point wouldn't connect anymore (the message was incorrect password, even if I hadn't change any configuration). I spent a few hours with Amazon support and eventually managed to reconnect the device to the primary point by doing a full reset of the fire stick. No connection issue from the fire stick since then.

Looking forward to get your reply and thanks for your patience with my replies (hard to find time to troubleshoot such issues when I have 2 young kids running around the flat.).

[Jhonleanmel]

Hi Paul-Andre,

Thanks for the added details and I'm sorry to hear that you're still having an issue with your Google Nest Wifi. We'd like to take a deeper look into this — could you fill out this form and let us know once you're done?

Thanks,
Mel

[Paul-Andre]

@Jhonleanmeljust filled the form. Thanks.

[Jhonleanmel]

Hi Paul-Andre,

We got your form — thanks for filling it out. Keep your lines open as our team will reach out to you via email anytime soon. 

Also, please continue the conversation there as this thread will be locked after 24 hours.

Cheers, 
Mel