Will this mix of wired and wireless work and still act like a mesh?

[SubBomb78]

Original Google Wifi pucks. Would still like to have one SSID with dynamic access point and frequency switching.

[MichaelP]

Hello @SubBomb78 

That setup won't work in the way you'd probably like it to. The mesh protocol only runs over WiFi. So, when you connect a secondary via Ethernet, it has to ignore the mesh in favor of the wired connection. So those more distant mesh secondaries will not be able to take advantage of the wired secondaries being there in any meaningful way. In addition, the mesh protocol itself prefers fewer hops to each destination. So those distant mesh secondaries are likely to talk directly to the primary if they possibly can – even if that means they slow way down to do so. So, wire the secondaries you can, but place the primary as close to the center of your home as possible with the mesh secondaries close enough to get a strong 5GHz connection to it. You may not want to deploy all of those mesh secondaries, either – 5 is the recommended maximum. 

[ALs]

In the diagram above, would I be able to have the primary connected wirelessly to the cable modem and still have it mesh the network from the cable modem?

[MichaelP]

Hello @ALs 

No, the primary needs an Ethernet connection to the internet. It's not a "WiFi extender".

[ALs]

I thought so, but someone made me doubt myself so I came here to confirm. Thank you!

[Passerby42]

So if I install a point-to-point bridge from a puck to another puck (effectively a backhaul connection) to cover the interior of a building that is behaving like a faraday cage, that puck will function as a localized wifi access point?  And if I connect it to the primary puck it should perform well in that role?

[MichaelP]

Hello @Passerby42 

Connecting two secondary access points to each other by Ethernet or an equivalent (e.g., point-to-point wireless bridges) is not recommended unless one of them is also connected to the primary via Ethernet (or an equivalent).

[Passerby42]

So if the p2p connection is from the primary to the isolated secondary, it would be supported (albeit less than ideal) configuration?

Thanks in advance for your time; it is very much appreciated.

[MichaelP]

Hello @Passerby42 

Yes, a P2P bridge connection from the primary to a distant secondary should work fine, as long as the P2P connection is solid. However, that (effectively "wired") secondary will not be part of the wireless mesh connection at that point, so any other wireless secondaries will still need to be close enough to the primary to get a strong connection for themselves.

[Passerby42]

Understood, and acceptable for the situation.

Thank you Michael!

[AbigailF]

Hey folks, 

Thanks for lending a hand, @MichaelP.
@Passerby42, 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.

Thanks,
Abi

[AbigailF]

Hi Passerby42,

Checking back in should you still have some questions here. Let us know by replying to this thread. 

Best, 
Abi

[AbigailF]

Hello everyone,

We haven't heard from you in a while so we'll be locking this thread if there is no update within 24 hours. If you have any new issues, updates or just a discussion topic, feel free to start a new thread in the Community.

Regards, 
Abi

[SubBomb78]

I did not realize the wired secondaries were treated so differently from the mesh. You are correct, that is not the way we would like it to work. Thank you.

[bananaslug79]

I have a related question: two Nest WiFi routers are wired together in my network, the primary at the center of the house. The second router is wired to it so it acts as a "mesh" point since this old house has a lot of construction interference. It sounds to me if I tried add any more WiFi points (in this case Google WiFi points), those would only mesh to the primary and not the secondary even though they are wired together. I was hoping additional points would mesh to the secondary to "extend" the mesh network (in this case to the backyard) but it sounds like that is not how they act unfortunately.

[MichaelP]

Hello @bananaslug79 

Correct – a wired secondary doesn't really extend the WiFi mesh in any useful way. But, if you have an older home with solid interior walls, then adding more wired secondaries would be good advice. An inexpensive (unmanaged) Ethernet switch on the primary Nest WiFi Router's LAN port makes more ports available to connect all sorts of things, including Google WiFi units added as secondaries. Just set them up as mesh secondaries somewhere close enough first, then, once they're working properly there, move them to where you want them to be and connect their WAN Ethernet ports to Ethernet cables running into your wired network rooted in that Ethernet switch. They will all stop participating in the WiFi mesh, but will still provide connectivity for nearby devices and carry that traffic back to the primary via Ethernet.

[bananaslug79]

@MichaelP thanks for the insight, makes sense. I'm not sure what I'll do in this case; there's not really any good way to get wires to the other mesh points, I think I'll have to dig in and make do with the two routers just wired together.

[SubBomb78]

If every point is wired, do client devices automatically switch from point to point as they move through the building? 

If you add one wireless point to this setup, it will only talk to the primary, not any of the other wired points, correct?

[MichaelP]

Hello @SubBomb78 

Clients operate the same way regardless of how the points are connected to each other or to the primary. They decide which access point to connect to and when to switch between them (and which band – 2.4GHz or 5GHz – to connect to, and when to switch between them). Some clients do a better job of this than others. But, that's a whole different (and equally complex) topic.

If you add a single wireless point to a system that has all wired access points, it will technically talk to the wired points, but not in a way that's particularly useful under most conditions. So, yes, I usually recommend thinking about a mixed wired/mesh system like this as building a pure mesh system (following the recommended placement rules) as well as building a wired system (following the required connection rules). In short, make sure the one wireless mesh point is close enough to the primary (one or two rooms away, typically) to get a strong connection directly to it.