Wifi Points Show Disconected But Aren't

[GaryLewis]

We've installed a Google Nest wifi network at our church.  It has two wired points, with one being the master and the other slaved off it, and two wifi points off of each wired point.  That is providing us good wifi coverage throughout our buildings.

However, the Google Home app frequently shows one or more of the wifi points off-line, even though they don't seem to be.  In fact, once the slaved wired point was shown as off-line, even though the two wifi points it serves were online, which obviously can't be true.  And when one or more points show to be down the app still says "Your mesh connection is working well".

For instance, yesterday two of the wifi points showed to be off but we still had excellent wifi coverage in the rooms they serve, and when I asked a question about the temperature they responded with the correct answer.

If we cycle the power on one of the points the app will show it online, but it won't be long until that point or another point shows to be down.  But, the wifi coverage will still be complete.

What are we doing wrong?

[GaryLewis]

Well, it has been 4 days an no one has an answer.  In the interim I've opened a Google Support case, which hasn't gotten us very far either.  In fact, I'm coming to the conclusion that there is a serious flaw in either the Nest routers or at the very least the Google Home app.  Let me explain why I say that.

To help the Google Support people get their heads around this I ran several mesh tests and took screenshots of the results, shown below.  One time it was the Old Fellowship Hall that was down, another time the Crows Nest, another time the Youth Room, and still another time the whole network.  But in all cases the app said "Your mesh connection is working well.  Everything looks good."  🤣  And yet, in every case I walked from room to room and proved that the network was up and that the wifi point that was said to be down was actually up as it told me what the temperature was when I asked.

And to prove that it isn't just my iPhone and the Google Home iOS app we ran the test on an Android phone and got similar results.  So either the Google Home app is the problem or the Nest routers.  I hope Google Support can fix the problem as our return-by date is rapidly approaching.

[LovelyM]

Hello GaryLewis,

Thanks for reaching out and we're sorry that we're unable to get back to you sooner.

I've checked on your ongoing cases here with our Google Nest Wifi team. It seems like they've suggested changing your DNS servers and enabling bridge mode. Please let me know if that resolves your issue or not. You may also check out these links below:

• Change your DNS server
• Bridge mode

Keep me posted.

Best,
Lovely

[GaryLewis]

On the 11th, more than 24 hours from when we responded to the first email that we'd done what was asked of us and still had problems, we still hadn't gotten a response on what to do next.  So I called back and spent about an hour and a half on the phone with a tech. 

During that call he used a different application than iOS or Android and saw basically what we were seeing - nodes being shown as down but they were up because we could ask them a question and get the correct response.  And yet they were providing wifi.

After a lot of testing he recommended changing the DNS settings, which we did with him on the line and that made no difference.  Finally he recommended "bridge mode" on the AT&T modem/router, saying that the AT&T router being enabled was interfering with the Google routers' mesh.  And before connecting me to AT&T he said that once we disabled the router to wait one to two hours and then run the mesh test.

But AT&T didn't understand "bridge mode".  Instead they wanted to turn off the firewall in the modem.  But that's not what the Google tech was asking for.  I finally got them to just turn off the modem.  And then, 1 1/2 hours later, the mesh test started showing all of our nodes online.  There was one glitch a few hours later, but after letting it set overnight it has started working properly.

So now, after considerable time and effort we appear to have a working network.  But it has been very frustrating and not something I'd recommend others go through.  The two of us that have been working on this are both IT professionals and understand fairly well what we are doing.  We followed the instructions on how to set up the network and saw nothing about DNS settings nor that you cannot have another router in the building.  And the lack of response on here and via email to the techs has made it worse.

[LovelyM]

Hi GaryLewis,

This certainly hasn't been easy on you. Kindly bear with us as our team is already rolling out firmware updates to your Google Nest Wifi devices for bug fixes and performance improvements. This may take several weeks to complete. See the new firmware:

• Nest Wifi router: 14150.882.9
• Nest Wifi point: 1.56.368671

Cheers,

Lovely

[GaryLewis]

Thank you for your reply, although over a month after my last post.

I'm glad that there is new firmware for the devices, although I couldn't find anything online about the wifi points and what I found about the router upgrade discussed an "authentication bypass vulnerability".  So do any of the upgrades fix the fact that the system can say everything looks good and that several points are down - in the same message?  Repeatedly?

If anyone is reading this, at this time I cannot recommend the Nest routers.  While they have now been working well, it was a HUGE struggle to get them to that point and the support was very minimal.  And the reports from the system itself are laughable.

[LovelyM]

Hey GaryLewis,

I understand your point on this. We'll take your experience into account. If possible, file feedback about the mesh test issue that you are having in the Google Home app. In that way, our product team will be able to look into it closer. Please share with me your Google Home app version and phone model as well. 

Regards,
Lovely

[GaryLewis]

I have an iPhone 14 Pro Max running the latest OS, which is currently iOS 16.6 but it might have been an earlier version when the testing was done as my phone updates automatically.  And my Google Home app is 3.5.102.

But another guy was getting the same wonky results and he has an Android phone.  I don't know his phone, OS, nor app info but can get it if needed.

I will leave feedback on the app.

[Dan_A]

Hello there GaryLewis,

Thanks for the update. If you have other questions or concerns, don’t hesitate to reply or create a new thread — we’re here to help.

Kind regards,

Dan