Can’t see chrome cast from guest network

[TahoeJim]

I’ve got my ChromeCast set up on my home net work, which is a Google Wi-Fi mesh. 
I can Edit settings of the chromecast from my guest Wi-Fi network via the Home app (iOS 16). 
However, I cannot cast to the chromecast from YouTube or anything else… the chromecast doesn’t show up as a device to cast to. 
How do I make the chromecast visible from my guest network so guests can connect to it? 

[Byteguy]

You would have to talk to your internet service provider.  But, I will be that you can't do that.

The point of a Guest Network is that it is walled off from your main network so that guests can't access your devices (like printers or shared drives).  That also walls off your Chromecast.

You may be able to get around this by setting your Chromecast to login to your Guest Network instead.   It may be that anyone on your main network can see devices on your Guest Network.

Unfortunately, Google no longer supports Guest Mode on Chromecast; that was a way to let people that were not on your network still cast to your Chromecast device.

The Google Home app gets around this because it often goes through Google to talk to your device; it's not a direct device-to-device communication like casting.

[Kimy]

Hi folks,

Thanks for your help here, @Byteguy.

@TahoeJim, I hope you've found the answer you're looking for. If you're still in need of assistance, please let us know, as we would be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Thanks,
Kimy

[TahoeJim]

Thanks Kimy.
I'm still stuck.
I don't understand what my ISP (Spectrum) has to do with this. Spectrum is my WAN connection into my Google WiFi.
I now at least understand why I'm still able to see the chromecast via the home app, but I'm still not able to connect to it from my guest network.
I did try to connect Chromecast to my Guest Network, but I'd always get an error at the final setup step that it can't complete the setup. I'm not sure if there is something special I need to do to have Chromecast on the guest network? During setup my iphone and chromecast were both connected to GuestWiFiNetwork (via Google WiFi).

[Kimy]

Hi TahoeJim,

Thanks for the reply. There’s no need to contact Spectrum about this. Just move your Chromecast device and your casting source (iPhone or iPad) to the main network (not the guest network) in order for these devices to communicate. Yes, you can do something on the devices in the Google Home App since it has controls for the mesh system where all of these devices are connected, but in the guest WiFi, these devices themselves won’t see each other, hence the communication loss. I hope this gives clarity to the situation. Let us know if you still have questions.

Cheers,

Kimy

[TahoeJim]

Hi Kimy.
I often AirBnB my house and have guests on the guest network.

I want to make my Chromecast available on the guest network, so that when guests stay, they can use the Chromecast and cast to it from their devices.  Is that possible? How?

[Kimy · Accepted solution]

Hello there,

Thanks for the details. As long as the devices are on the guest WiFi, that wouldn’t be possible. In the guest WiFi, all the devices (smartphones, laptops, Chromecasts, etc.) won’t see each other and won’t talk to each other, as if they were all quarantined. But in order to cast on a Chromecast device, another device should be able to talk to it. This can be done on the main network, where all devices are free to see and talk with each other. But of course, this is your network setup for your own privacy (main network for the family, guest network for the renters). It’s not the Chromecast device because it is working as intended. It’s the network that's the challenge right now. I suggest you connect a router to one of the access points, which will serve as a separate network intended for the renters. You can then have the Chromecast device connected to that network. I hope this finally makes things clear. Let us know if you still have questions.

Cheers,

Kimy

[TahoeJim]

Okay, yes, very clear now what is going on and why I haven’t been able to get this working. 
Also quite unfortunate that the guest/pin feature as I understand it was deprecated. 

[Kimy]

Hi TahoeJim,

That’s right! I’m glad that this has been sorted out. As for the deprecated guest mode feature, I suggest you send feedback via the Google Home app requesting for it to be restored. It’s not guaranteed to happen, though, but Google values customer feedback, and most of the features implemented come from that.

I will keep this thread open for one more day. Feel free to create a new one if you have questions in the future.

Thanks,

Kimy

[TahoeJim]

Ok I submitted. Thanks again for your help 

[Alex_S]

Hello TahoeJim,
 

We appreciate you sending feedback. Let us know if there’s anything else on Chromecast we can help you with.

Best,
Alex