Google Wifi

Here’s the thing... they’re almost there. Everything works 95% of the time, it’s just a few features missing and occasional frustrations. If anyone on the Google WiFi product team reads these reviews... 1) Need much more robust rule setting for devices on the network. Example use case: User wants their work devices prioritized weekdays from 9 am to 5 pm, then from 5 pm to 10 pm Apple TVs should be prioritized and all day on weekends, at 10 pm kid’s devices are restricted everyday. 2) Need to be able to use this app even when you are not connected to the internet. When your network goes down if frustrating enough, but then to try to use the Google WiFi app to diagnose and fix the problem and it tells you it can’t connect to the network because there’s no internet connection, when you’re literally standing next to the device... is beyond frustrating and the kind of thing that makes people switch to Orbi, Linksys, Netgear, etc.

When I first tried to set up the Google Wi-Fi I downloaded inadvertently the wrong app. I thought it was the right one since the search brought it up first not realizing I needed to go through the rest of the apps to find the correct one. I’m pretty much a novice when it comes to something like this. The support person that I was able to get a hold of had no idea what I was trying to do since it was not the app for Google Wi-Fi. He was patient but was not able to help because I could not get the Google Wifi app to install. I reconnected my old router downloaded the correct app and installed it very easily. It was a breeze. The only problem I have is trying to watch Live stream which our church broadcasts their services through. I’m not sure what’s happening. It just keeps refreshing the first 15 to 20 seconds of the feed over and over again. I am able to watch it without any problem using the iPad. So far that is the only issue I’ve had. There are three Wi-Fi points with 11 devices connected. Cary was the support person and he did a great job and was very patient with me.

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I think Google WiFi is great: easy to setup, great performance, lots of features (there’s a lot I wish they would still add, but it’s already pretty great). But the app itself is terrible, so I’m only giving it one star. First off, the UI seems simple at first, but it turns out you have to click A LOT to get anything done. Want to delay a schedule after it’s already started? You have to switch to the third tab, then go into Family, then click on schedules, then.... Actually, most of my complaints are around schedules. Why can you only delay a schedule by 30 minutes? How come when you delay a schedule that repeats the following night it causes the schedule to automatically start 30 minutes later the next night? Instead of (or in addition to) just setting start & stop times, why can’t you also limit the total amount of time spent online per device per day (or per schedule)? There’s a lot of potential here, but I’ve had this long enough now and I can’t say I’ve seen any real momentum behind this app. Is this just another 20% time project that escaped the Googleplex only for ongoing development to be abandoned quickly thereafter?

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I have had google Wi-Fi for a couple of years. It worked well for a long time. I have On-hub as the main point, one wired Google wi-fi point and 3 other wireless google Wi-Fi points. In November of 2019 the kept showing offline on the app. And some would flash red. After countless network resets I deleted the entire network and started over. Some of the points were difficult to add and took multiple tries. Eventually I got them all working and the app showed excellent mesh coverage and speed. The next day and ever since it shows all the google Wi-Fi points offline. Even the wired one shows offline. The network seems to be working fine most of the time but the app is not. We still have certain Wi-Fi points that periodically turn red for a few minutes then go back to blue. I have had to turn off the Wi-Fi on my phone several times and use cell data because the Wi-Fi connection is wonky. Come on google - get these issues fixed. I’m a couple weeks away from getting rid of the whole set up and going to a Ubiquiti system.

I love how simple and easy this was to walk me through setting up the WiFi meshes. I doubted its ability to actually improve our internet but after running many tests it has undoubtedly improved our WiFi speed 7 times on a good day when compared to our old connection. Some rooms which were so shotty in the past now have amazing connection thanks to the meshes. As for the app. I love its ability to customize settings for the devices used, including prioritizing devices connection and testing individual speeds of all devices. One issue my MacBook always had was it kept telling me that another device kept occupying its IP. After painfully looking through Apple support and renewing the DHCP license constantly with no success I discovered I can give it a dedicated IP through the google WiFi device. Problem solved. Super helpful