locked on "link account", no device on google home

[lahist]

hi everyone,

My dorm started a new wifi system, common to the whole dorm and removed our solo-rooters. Result: my google nest hub refuses to connect to google home. My app tells me to remove the AP, which I can't since I don't pilot the wifi system. 

The Nest hub is now stuck on "Link account" screen, and there is no device linked on my app... Can I even do something about it?? I can't even connect to it via the bluetooth, so I can't even use it as a speaker! 

[David_K]

Chromecast, Google Home, and Google Nest devices don't support these kind of Wi-Fi systems, known as captive portals, that require you to login first or register devices to be able to access the internet. There are a couple of possible solutions for this:

1. Check with whoever manages your Wi-Fi if they have a process to whitelist your device. They do this by allowing the unique MAC address of the device. Not all providers will be setup do this however. In addition, even this may not work on some Wifi networks, as the administrator may have enabled a security feature called client isolation, which prevents different devices from communicating with each other (i.e. your phone communicating with your device).
   
   
2. Although unsupported by Google, you can try to use a phone or tablet as a Wifi hotspot. However, this will then use your mobile data plan, which could be expensive for you depending on the data plan you have with your carrier. Note you will need 2 devices to set this up.
• Turn on the Wifi hotspot feature on a phone or tablet. If you're not sure how to do this, refer to the manufacturer's support website.
• Connect a second phone or tablet to that Wifi hotspot.
• You can then use that second phone or tablet to setup your device and connect it to the Wifi hotspot on the first phone or tablet.
  
  
3. If you're able to use  a wired network connection instead, you could invest in your own cheap Wi-Fi router, connect that router to the wired network provided and connect your devices to that router instead.