What would cause ALL my WifI points to have a weak connection?

[drrmjones]

I have one Nest WiFi Pro router and four Nest WiFi Pro points.

For weeks, the mesh test has reported three of the points with a "great" connection and one with a "good" connection.

However, starting a couple of days ago, the mesh test consistently reported that ALL FOUR points had a "weak" connection. I ran this test several times over the past couple of days.

So this morning as an experiment, I used the Google Home app to restart one of the points. Then I did a mesh test again and, sure enough, the restarted point reports a "great" connection again, but the other three still showed as "weak". 

So I individually restarted each of the other three points and did another mesh test  I am now back to normal, with three "great" connections and one "good" connection.

So I have apparently solved the problem for now, and we'll see if it happens again. But my question is this: What on earth would cause this to happen?

Isn't it suspicious that ALL the points turned "weak" at the same time, and that the problem was fixed by restarting them? This smells like a software bug to me. What is going on? What would cause this to happen? 

[MichaelP]

Hello @drrmjones 

That is very interesting. My gut (based on a few decades as a computer engineer) is that there is a memory leak, but likely not a slow drip – rather, a major leak triggered by some process that runs on all of the units at the same time. Since the mesh test results are based on measuring the performance between the secondary units and the primary, and running low on memory can significantly impact performance, this could result in the "weak" rating you saw. Restarting the nodes corrected this by freeing all used memory during the reboot. However, this is pure speculation on my part, so I'll also escalate this in hopes it can be sent on to the engineering team for consideration.

[drrmjones]

Thanks for your thoughts. This does sound plausible.  I'll see if it ever happens again.  If it does, my intention is to try an experiment by first restarting the main point instead of restarting all the satellite points.  If the memory issue is in the main point (which is suggested by the problem happening to all the points at the same time), then this might also "unclog" things.  We shall see! I'll post here again if it ever happens again.

[GrantN]

I have the same issue which started two days ago.  I have a Nest Wifi as my router and 3x older Wifi Puc's which are connected via ethernet cable.  This setup has worked for several years and now all three show weak connection despite each having "Connection type: Wired" in the device information on the app.  So theoretically the connection cant be weak if its connected via an ethernet cable.  I have done many resets and mesh tests but these have not made any difference until this morning when it resolved the problem. Definitely something on the google side.

[MichaelP]

Hello @GrantN 

Actually, a wired connection can cause a "weak" mesh test result if the connection is only managing to negotiate a 100Mbps link speed instead of the faster 1Gbps link speed. This can happen if one of the 4 twisted pairs of wires in a cable fails to connect properly. You might check your Ethernet infrastructure to ensure one of the connections hasn't been compromised.

[GrantN]

Hi @MichaelP

Thanks for the comment.  Understand that Ethermet infra can affect connection.  At the moment my Next wifi disconnects from the internet a few times a day.  There are no faults on my router (all green lights) and my ISP has not showed any outages.  My three wifi pucs change status regularly between good connection, weak or no connection despite being wired many times per day.  There is something SERIOUSLY wrong with the current firmware!  Restarting the network / power cycling each device sometimes rectifies the problem but sometimes only certain wifi pucs will be green and others red / amber at random.

[MichaelP]

Hello @GrantN 

It does sound like something is going on with your system. This still feels like an Ethernet issue to me, though. What kind of Ethernet switches do you use in your network? Anything that supports loop detection (spanning tree protocol) is a known issue that can cause behavior like this, for example.

[GrantN]

Thanks @MichaelP,

I have s a single Netgear 24 port unmanaged switch.   Secifications say it does not have loop detection or STP.

[MichaelP]

Ok, @GrantN 

I would focus on testing the Ethernet connections between each Google WiFi or Nest WiFi Router unit and that switch before ruling it out as an issue. You may also want to just check the detailed results of the mesh test. That's a little tedious in the current app, but if you look up one of the WiFi devices currently connected to each secondary Google WiFi unit, tap on it in the Google Home app, switch to the "info" tab, and then scroll down to the bottom, you should see three different speed numbers. The first one shows how fast your primary Nest WiFi Router unit can talk to the internet through your ISP. The second number will be how fast that secondary Google WiFi unit was able to talk to the primary Nest WiFi Router unit via Ethernet (in your case – or the wireless mesh in the normal case). If things are working properly, this should be a few hundred megabits per second. If the Ethernet wiring isn't working right, it will be just under 100Mbps. If all of the secondary Google WiFi units are showing just under 100Mbps here (or less), then I would focus on the connection between the primary Nest WiFi Router unit and your Ethernet switch. I hope this helps.

[drrmjones]

Huh. Just to change the subject a bit, I tried the steps above to check the speed of my Nest WiFi Pro points to my Nest WiFi Pro main router. For wired connections, it doesn't actually give a speed...it just says "wired". It is also telling me that a few devices are "wired" that are definitely NOT wired. It also tells me that the throughput from one of my points that has a "Great" connection is 80Mbps.  That seems awfully low. And this is all aside from the issue we already know about that the internet speed the Home app reports is wrong for connections of 500 Mbps or greater.  All in all, it seems like the Home app (and/or the Nest WiFi Pro units) is reporting tons of incorrect information.

[AbigailF]

Hey folks,
 

Thanks for lending a hand, @MichaelP.

@drrmjones, could you try to uninstall and reinstall your Google Home app and check if there will be any changes? Also, try using a different device so we can isolate the issue.
 

@GrantN, I wanted to follow up and see if you are still in need of any help. Please let me know if you are still having any concerns or questions from here, as I would be happy to take a closer look and assist you further.
 

@Kurelgyer, thanks for posting — let's see what's going on.
 

A few questions: are you using a modem/router combo from your Internet Service Provider (ISP)? How many devices are dropping from the network? Also, do you have any paused devices?
 

Give these steps a try:

• If you're using a modem/router combo, set that to bridge mode to avoid double NAT issues.
• Remove any special characters in your network name and password.
• Turn off IPv6. 
• If the issue persists, try factory resetting your network. Take note that this will delete all network data. 

Let us know how it goes.

Best,
Abi

[drrmjones]

I have only experienced this issue once so far.  I am waiting to see if it happens again. I don't think we will learn anything from any troubleshooting steps at this point, since I am not currently experiencing the problem.  Can you explain the reasoning behind reinstalling the Google Home app, though? Why would the app have anything to do with my WiFi points all reporting a "weak" connection? Are you suggesting there is a bug in the app that sometimes reports the wrong connection strength? If not, why would this be a worthwhile thing to try?

[GrantN]

Hi @MichaelP , thanks for the additional info. 

1. I tested network speeds as suggested.  My gigabit switch shows the connections to the wifi pucs are gigabit (green light) however when I look at the info test of a couple of devices it only shown 93Mbps, which according to your post indicates an ethernet problem.
2. I changed router to a spare netgear gigabit switch and it made no difference.
3. So for a period of about 5 days: my 3x wifi pucs were changing online / offline / slow connection at random, my nest hub kept on dropping connection to the internet despite the router showing all green and no ISP outages (rebooting the nest hub fixed this on a few occasions), I went away for the weekend and during that time the home app was showing I had no internet connectivity (red internet globe) but I was still able to access my security cameras (so I dont trust the info on the google home app either), I also factory reset all google nest hubs and wifi pucs and this didnt make a difference. 
4. Miraculously for the last 24 hours it has been working perfectly.  Hope I havent spoken too soon!

Any further suggestions?

[MichaelP]

Hello @GrantN 

It does still sound like an Ethernet issue to me. Since you've tried swapping out the switch, I would focus on the cabling at this point. The green light on the switch may indicate it's "flapping" between 1Gbps and 100Mbps speeds, which can happen with borderline cables (for example, it may negotiate 1Gbps successfully, but then fail when actual data transfers are happening). I would probably use a computer/laptop with an Ethernet port (or USB adapter) and start investigating from the Nest WiFi Router's LAN port and work my way out from there. For example, connect a laptop using a known-good Ethernet cable directly to the Nest WiFi Router's LAN port. Verify it is negotiating 1Gbps speed and run an internet speed test to check. Then use the cable you are currently using to connect the switch to the Nest WiFi Router's LAN port and check again. Then connect that cable to the switch and connect the laptop to the switch (using the short, known-good cable) and check again, etc. Final step is using the cables you have run to the Google WiFi access points to connect the laptop to the switch and check. Hopefully, this process will help isolate any issue.

[GrantN]

Thanks @MichaelP 

A ran a series of tests as per your suggestions:

• using laptop ran internet speed test which gave 55Mbps down 18Mbps up on Wifi, ethernet connection to router and on each of 3x ethernet connection to Wifi Pucs - this is as per my ISP package
• using laptop ran Get-NetAdapter in powershell to determine connection link speed and got 780Mbps on Wifi and negotiating 1Gbps using ethernet connection to router and on each of 3x ethernet connection to Wifi Pucs
• ran network cabling connectivity check (using cheap connectivity tester) on all end to end ethernet connections between router and 3x wifi pucs and all pairs show connections

It doesn't seem like an ethernet / network switch problem, any other suggestions?

Fortunately, I haven't had any further issues but the unknown cause and extent of previous issues are a problem for me as I need a reliable connection given I work largely from home.

[MichaelP]

Hello @GrantN 

At this point, it sounds like things are working well, and you've certainly tested everything thoroughly. Sometimes these Ethernet issues can be corrected just by removing and reinserting the connector. If things are working well for you, I'd leave it be for now. If it has trouble again in the future, you'll know how to run through a thorough diagnostic process.

[Kurelgyer]

I am having very similar issues, except that my points are not wired to my router. I have almost 400 megabits at the router, I get less than 23 megabits at a point it is 20 feet away through clear air, no walls, and it might PC. I'm getting between 700 kilobits and 7 megabits. All other devices show the same kind of inconsistent but very low speed. This is been going on for a couple months. I have restarted the entire system many times, sometimes that fixes it for a short period. The result is devices regularly lose internet, or to so slow they won't function. I have moved points, I've restarted, I've changed DNS's per these threads, nothing is fixed it , permanently. Is anyone at Google looking at this? I see many similar different threads.

[drrmjones]

I am following up on this as the original poster, because the problem finally happened again, after about three weeks.  After weeks of having "good" or "great" connections reported for all four of my WiFi points, this morning ALL FOUR of my WiFi points were reporting "weak" connections.  I ran the "Test Mesh" three times from the Home app, to verify.

Unlike the last time this happened, restarting individual WiFi points had no effect this time.  After restarting, the WiFi points were still reported as having "Weak" connections.  So I instead restarted the network from the Main WiFi router. After restarting the network, I did another "Test Mesh", and all four points report "Good" connections. I waited half an hour and ran another "Test Mesh", and this time all four points report "Great" connections.

So what is going on?  Why are my point connections so inconsistent? None of them are more than two rooms away from the main router. My experience with the Next WiFi Pro overall has been pretty disappointing ever since I upgraded a couple of months ago.

[drrmjones]

So this problem appears to be continuing to happen periodically.  After showing that all four of my WiFi points have "great connections", after a couple of weeks, one or more of them start to report a "Weak" connection. Restarting the WiFi point has no effect.  But restarting the main Nest WiFi Pro router returns all the WiFi points to having "Great" connections.  This is pretty annoying. At the very least, if I am going to have to reboot my router ever two weeks, it would be great if Nest would allow me to schedule a regular reboot.  But of course that would be too convenient, so they don't provide any way to do that. Do I have anybody's attention here any longer?  is there any solution? Is this a known problem?

[AbigailF]

Hi drrmjones,

I’m sorry to hear that the issue persists. You mentioned that your points are not more than two rooms away from the main router. If possible, could you try to place the points in a different location but still in the same room. It would be great if they’re within line of sight. Make sure that they’re not covered by anything that could cause interference. You can also read this article for more details. Let us know how it goes. 
 

Regards,
Abi

[drrmjones]

It's not really possible to put the points in line of sight from each other, because my house has walls in it. But to reiterate, the connect to all the points is reported as "great" most of the time, so moving the points around doesn't appear to be the issue.  After a couple of weeks, the mesh test results degrade, but then they instantly improve again when I reboot the main router. So the standard instructions to move the points around do not seem to apply to this particular issue.

[AbigailF]

Hey again drrmjones,

Apologies for the late reply. I'd like to isolate further. The next time your points show a weak connection, could you try to connect a computer directly to your modem and remove the main Nest Wifi Pro? Do a speed test from the computer and let us know the results. We'll wait for your update.

Thanks,
Abi

[drrmjones]

It's inconvenient to do that, because the modem only accepts one MAC address at a time, so I have to reboot it every time I connect something new to it, which could also mess up the experiment.  But I can try.

Can you tell me the theory behind this test? Why would the speed of my modem's connection to the internet have anything to do with my mesh reporting weak wifi connections between the router and the points?

[AbigailF]

Hi drrmjones,

I wanted to isolate the modem since you mentioned that the Nest Wifi Pro point goes back to normal after restarting your main Nest Wifi Pro router. Let us know if you change your mind and you decide to try the step. We'll wait for your update.

Cheers,
Abi

[drrmjones]

I am waiting for my points to show a weak connection again.  When/if they do, I will try.

[AbigailF]

Hello drrmjones,

I'll keep this thread open for a few days to give you time to update us. Monitor the issue for now and let us know if anything changes.

Best,
Abi 

[drrmjones]

Okay, the problem has happened again, so I have done a bunch of tests and collected various information.  Below are the steps and information I went through.  To reiterate, my setup is that I have one main Nest WiFi Pro router and four Nest WiFi Pro points. My problem is that, every 2-3 weeks, the connection to ALL the points shows as "weak" and my connection to the internet through the points becomes extremely poor. The only way I have found to fix the problem is to restart the main router. Once I do that, usually all the points go back to having a "great" connection, and my internet connectivity becomes good again (although today's experience was a little different...see below).

Here's what happened today:

* My Home app was still showing 3 "great" and 1 "good" connection (I didn't run my own mesh test, because it usually does it periodically itself).  However, for 2-4 days my internet connectivty was HORRIBLE.  I could barely particpate in any Teams meetings.  So I ran a manual mesh test and, sure enough, I discovered that all the points were reporting "weak" connections.
* I did a speed test from the Home app, and it reported 317Mbps (it always reports around 300Mbps, even though this number is clearly wrong)
* I did a speed test from my phone, connected by WiFi to one of the points: 14Mbps
* I did a speed test from my phone, connected by WiFi to the main router: 500Mbps

* I did a speed test from my laptop, connected by WiFi to the main router: 210Mbps

* I did a speed test from my laptop, connected by WiFi to one of the points: the first test failed and said I wasn't connected to internet, the second test reported 13Mbps

* I did a speed test from my laptop, connected by ethernet to the router: 441 Mbps

* I did a speed test from my laptop, connected by ethernet to my switch, which is connected by ethernet to the router: 412Mbps

* I did a speed test from my laptop, connected by ethernet directly to my cable modem: 446Mbps
* I tried restarting one of the points, then ran the mesh test. The test still showed ALL four points as "weak"

* I did a speed test from my laptop, connected by WiFi to the restarted point: 212Mbps
* I restarted the main router and did a mesh test. The test still showed ALL four points as "weak"

* I did another mesh test a few minutes later. The test still showed ALL four points as "weak"

* I did a speed test from my phone, connected by WiFi to one of the points: 273Mbps

* I did another mesh test a few minutes later. The test showed one point as "great", one point as "good", and two points as "weak"

* I did a speed test from my phone, connected by WiFi to the "great" point: 563Mbps

* I did a speed test from my phone, connected by WiFi to the main router: 486Mbps

* I did a speed test from the Google Home app: 317Mbps (the app is always wrong)
* A few minutes later I ran another mesh test. This time 3 points show as "great" and one as "good".  My network connectivity seems to be good for now (presumably for another 2 weeks)


I think there are a few lessons from these results:

* My mesh network is definitely getting into a degraded state every 2-3 weeks.

* It appears the only way to restore the quality of my network is to restart the main router

* It totally sucks that I have to do this every 2-3 weeks

* It sucks even more that Google refuses to give us an option to automatically restart the main router periodically, on a schedule

* I still have no idea why you wanted me to test the network speed from my modem, when the problem is clearly between the main router and the points, but now you have the information
* The Google Home app reports all sorts of inaccurate and inconsistent information

* I upgraded from Nest WiFi to Nest WiFi Pro just a few months ago, and it has so far been mostly a waste of money

[AbigailF]

Hello again drrmjones,

Appreciate you taking the time to write down everything you've monitored. I'd like to try something first. 

Please try the steps below:

• Open the Google Home app.
  Tap Wi-Fi and then Settings  and then Preferred activities.
• Uncheck 'Video Conferencing' and anything else that's checked
• After that, restart your entire network.

To restart your network:

Tap Wi-Fi > Settings > Restart network.

Let me know if that helps. I'll wait for your update.

Regards,
Abi

[drrmjones]

The only activity listed was "Video Conferencing", and it was already unchecked.

[AbigailF]

Hey drrmjones,

Thanks for trying. Are there any materials in your home like concrete, bulletproof glass, metal, mirror, etc. that could possibly be causing interference with the points? I'll wait for your reply.

Thanks,
Abi

[drrmjones]

There are no concrete walls between the points. No bulletproof glass or metal or mirrors.  I think you might be missing part of the point.  The WiFi connections work fine most of the time.  It is just that after 2 or 3 weeks the connection degrades, and apparently the only way to fix it is to reboot the router.  This has happened regularly, almost like clockwork, ever since I upgraded to the Nest WiFi Pro units around December or January.

[AbigailF]

Hello there drrmjones,

Apologies for the late reply. 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?

Regards,
Abi

[AbigailF]

Hi drrmjones, 

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, 
Abi

[drrmjones]

Haven't heard anything back since submitting my form, yet.

[AbigailF]

Hello again folks,

@GrantN, just checking in if you were able to fill out the form. Let us know if you still need help.

@drrmjones, I checked on your case and saw that the senior support handling your case received your email. You should get a reply from them shortly. I'll keep this thread open for a few more days.

Regards,
Abi

[drrmjones]

I have been contacted with a new case number and no history, so I think this is the case they are responding to, but I'm not 100% sure.

They want me to reset and redo my entire network, using a different unit as the main router, and see if that improves anything. Which sounds curious and will take precious time from my day, but okay.

In the meantime, my network started misbehaving again, like clockwork, so I tested the mesh and this time only 2 points showed a weak connection. So, like usual, I restarted the network, which has always worked before. However this time instead the result was that ALL my points are weak now.

I'll try switching things around, but I'm seriously considering cutting my losses and switching to Netgear. 

[Kurelgyer]

Why close the thread?  There are many of us that have had issues for many many months.  How 'bout posting a solution?

My solution was to replace Nest a Wi-Fi with a Deco AXE5400 pro system.  Nest wifi: 0.05 to 20 Mb/s TPLink Deco: 70 Mb/s to 250 Mb/s everything else is equal.

[AbigailF]

Hi kurelgyer,

We understand where you’re coming from. I checked your case and saw that the senior specialist working with you was asking for more details. Should you decide to continue, please reply to the email sent to you and our senior specialist will be there to help you out.
 

Best,
Abi

[Kurelgyer]

Yes, they did.  By that point I had been having issues for many months and tried many possible solutions.  By the time the specialist reached out I had just purchased another brand that works exceedingly well.  I've followed these forums for months and not seen a resolution.  When people started saying the latest Nest Pro is suffering the same issues I decided I had already invested too much time trying to attain a stable nest system.

[AbigailF]

Hey folks,
 

@Kurelgyer, we respect your decision about choosing a different brand. In case you change your mind, we’ll always be here to help you troubleshoot.

@GrantN, 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,
Abi