Nest Hub Max - Works from my House, not from Assisted Living Facility

[dch]

I purchased a Nest Hub Max for my father who is in an Assisted Living Facility to replace his iPad which he was having trouble navigating.  I set it up at my home first and had no problem making video calls using Duo.  After moving it to my father's facility I removed my home network and did a factory reset to reconfigure the device.  I was trying to connect using google home on my iPhone.  The hub Max appeared to connect (and actually got an IP address on the network, however it could never complete the setup.  It would tell me:

Something went wrong

XXXXX Display may be setup, but we could not communicate with it from your iPhone.  Make sure you have enabled local network access in your iPhone's Privacy Settings.  Then try again.

 I did have local network access setup and I tried numerous other options, including:

• connecting to the Hub Max WiFi , rather than local WiFi network
• turning off cellular
• putting in airplane mode, turning off Bluetooth

Between every attempt I would do factory resets to connect to the device.  The next day I came back with my iPad and tried setting up the Hub Max with google home on that device.  I still got the same error:

Something went wrong... XXXXX Display may be setup, but we could not communicate with it ....  Make sure you have enabled local network access ... try again.

At that point I brought the Hub Max back to my home where I did a factory reset and set it up without a problem the first time.  I emailed the Assisted Living facility to ask them how their network was setup and whether they had another network I could try.  They indicated that did not. 

So at this point I am at a loss for how to get this to work my Dad.  Unfortunately he no longer has a cell phone and this would be my main means of communicating with him during the week, as he is not close by.   Any help or ideas would be appreciated.

[GothamNY · Accepted solution]

Hey dch, the long and short is the Nest devices are designed to work on a secure personal Wifi network and not in a larger "public" type environment that may exist in an Assisted Living facility on a network not fully controlled by the user. I'd also take a look at this document.

If you want to use the device for your dad, you will need to invest in a travel router or some similar device that would enable you to create a secure personal network available in your dad's room. Keep in mind, the facility may also prevent the use of network equipment for security reasons. It's also possible the facility blocks ports needed for the device to work properly. Absent that, there are no solutions or support for this scenario.

[frances]

Hi All,

First, thank you GothamNY for the help on this post! I appreciate it.

Hello dch, thank you for reaching out. I just wanted to check in. Do you have any other questions or concerns? Please let us know, we'd be more than happy to help. Thanks! 

[dch]

This worked great.  Thanks.

[frances]

Hi dch,

Thanks for your response, I appreciate the update. As your issue has been resolved, I will go ahead and lock this thread. As always, if you have any new questions or concerns, please feel free to make a new post.