My Google speakers (Home, Mini) only connect to the *Internet* after 3 attempts

[rubale]

Hi,

I have a Google Home (1st Gen) and a Google Mini (1st Gen) for sometime on my home network (WiFi), and all was working fine for some time now (more than 2 years).

In the past, I would sometime have connectivity issues where the speaker would "lose" connection to the Internet - and then, to fix the problem - I would have to either reboot the speaker (disconnect and connect electricity) or reboot the router (disconnect and connect electricity) - either would solve the problem.

In the past month - I have a new problem... I speak to speaker, with the most simple request (e.g. "Ok Google, What is the time?"), and it "thinks" for some time - 10-20 seconds, then it answers with "Hmmm, there seems to be a problem". I repeat the same request again - and after 10-20 seconds it answers with "Hmmm, there seems to be a glitch". I repeat the request once or twice more - and all of a sudden - it answers...

Now - it will work for a while, doing everything, including playing music, managing curtains, lights etc.

Then - after a couple of hours - we're back to stage one... "Hmmm, there seems to be a problem".

FWIW - rebooting the speaker or router doesn't really impact this vicious cycle.

Any idea/thoughts?

Thanks!

[Alex_S]

Hi rubale,
 

I know how it feels when something isn’t working the way it should. Let’s further look into it. Just to check, are you using a dual-band router? If yes, on which band are your Google Home speakers connected? 
 

Try doing these steps:

• Channel interference (channel congestion from too many devices, optimal channels for 2.4GHz is 1,6, or 11)
• Change DNS addresses: 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4
• If IPv6 is enabled, try disabling it for the meantime
• Reboot the router and Google Home speakers
   

Monitor their behavior and let us know how it goes.

Kind regards,
Alex

[rubale]

Hi Alex, and thank you for helping.

=========

Re your inquiries.

You asked "are you using a dual-band router? If yes, on which band are your Google Home speakers connected?"

I assume by "dual-band router" you mean 2.4GHz and 5GHz?

If so, the answer is "Yes".

As for the next question, on which band are your Google Home speakers connected?

From checking in my Router, it seems they are connected to the 5GHz band.

All connections appear stable, whether the Google Assistant works or not.

=========

Re your proposals, to verify I understand before trying.

You recommend I try changing my Router setting to your proposed values?

Specifically:

1. To change Channel interference (channel congestion from too many devices, optimal channels for 2.4GHz is 1,6, or 11) ==> to verify my 2.4GHz channels are either 1, 6, or 11?

2. To change my DNS from the one auto-set by my ISP to either 8.8.8.8 or 4.4.4.4?

3. Finally, if IPv6 is enabled (it is!), to disable it?

==========

Is that correct?

Thank you again,

 Reuven

[Muddi]

Hello rubale,

Chiming in, sorry for the confusion. Alex_S wants to know if the channel on your router is set to the 2.4 GHz connection. If yes, you can change the channel settings to 1, 6, or 11 (whichever you prefer). However, since you're using 5.0 GHz, you can disregard that. For DNS servers, you can try using the IP addresses 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4, which are Google's public IP addresses. It's worth noting that IPv6 addresses are also supported.

If the above troubleshooting steps don't resolve the issue, you can try disabling IPv6 on your network to see if that helps. Don't forget to reboot both your speakers and router to ensure that your devices are properly connected to the network.

Keep us posted.

Cheers,

Muddi

[rubale]

[UPDATE]

Thank you Muddi (and Alex).

Unbelievably, all my speakers simply started working - without me doing anything.

After almost two months where the Google Speakers behaved erratically as describing above, leading me to post the plea-for-help, but before I had a chance to try any of the propose solutions -  the speakers started working again... flawlessly.

I've just tested all 5, a number of times, and they simply seem to work fine (well... as expected. As they've been working for the 2 years before my post...).

So I'll file away your helpful proposals, hoping I'll never need to refer to them again.

Thank you for your support,

 Reuven

[Muddi]

Hey rubale,

Perfect! I'm glad to know that the issue is now resolved. Let's continue monitoring your devices. Feel free to update the thread in case you experience the same issue again.

Cheers,

Muddi