Installing Google Wi-Fi

Kintarō Hattori

Hi Folks,

Has anyone installed one of these successfully? Reading online I thought it was as simple as the below:

You can use the same network name and password as your last system to eliminate the need to go around the house, re-entering network credentials on all of your devices.

I set my Virgin Media Hub 3.0 to modem only mode, connected the Google Wi-Fi unit and ran the setup from the app. The phone with the app on it connected successfully but no other devices. I looked for the network on a second phone but couldn't find it, nor could other devices such as a NowTV box.

Anyone have any ideas?

bk

Did you set the Google Home wifi name and password to the same as what you were using on the Virgin router?

It won't happen automatically, you need to set these in the Google Wifi app.

* Note I don't have Google Wifi, the above just based on experience of how this normally works.

Kintarō Hattori

bk wrote: »

Did you set the Google Home wifi name and password to the same as what you were using on the Virgin router?

It won't happen automatically, you need to set these in the Google Wifi app.

* Note I don't have Google Wifi, the above just based on experience of how this normally works.

I did indeed, which is why I'm stumped as to it not working as people say it should.

The high horse brigade

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

I did indeed, which is why I'm stumped as to it not working as people say it should.

Name it slightly differently and try. If you are using the same name and a slightly different type of encryption your devices may not connect as they think they have the wrong key.

Kintarō Hattori

The high horse brigade wrote: »

Name it slightly differently and try. If you are using the same name and a slightly different type of encryption your devices may not connect as they think they have the wrong key.

I did that too- I called it something completely different, went onto my work phone looking for the connection and it wasn't there.

I did all this quite late last night so will try it again when I'm a little fresher but I don't think I'll be doing anything different.

bk

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

I did that too- I called it something completely different, went onto my work phone looking for the connection and it wasn't there.

I did all this quite late last night so will try it again when I'm a little fresher but I don't think I'll be doing anything different.

Check that the Google Wifi wifi access point isn't set to hidden.

Also check that both 2.4GHz and 5GHz are turned on, on it.

Kintarō Hattori

I've no idea what was different tonight than the other night but it's been installed successfully. The only downside is my Vstarcam IP cameras don't work now as they only support a 2.4Ghz network. We use one to monitor our 15 month old at night.
Any thoughts on whether it's possible to force them onto this or do I need to give up on them and get an indoor nest?

The high horse brigade

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

I've no idea what was different tonight than the other night but it's been installed successfully. The only downside is my Vstarcam IP cameras don't work now as they only support a 2.4Ghz network. We use one to monitor our 15 month old at night.
Any thoughts on whether it's possible to force them onto this or do I need to give up on them and get an indoor nest?

The Google WiFi is dual band. Your cameras should work they should see the 2.4ghz band, it won't see the other one the 5ghz. Do a reset and add from scratch

Kintarō Hattori

The high horse brigade wrote: »

The Google WiFi is dual band. Your cameras should work they should see the 2.4ghz band, it won't see the other one the 5ghz. Do a reset and add from scratch

I don't think that's the case where cheap Chinese electronics are concerned. Doing a quick Google on it shows other people having an issue with it as well.

The high horse brigade

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

I don't think that's the case where cheap Chinese electronics are concerned. Doing a quick Google on it shows other people having an issue with it as well.

If they connected to your old WiFi they should connect to Google WiFi, there is no difference. Try manually setting the channel on the Google WiFi

Kintarō Hattori

The high horse brigade wrote: »

If they connected to your old WiFi they should connect to Google WiFi, there is no difference. Try manually setting the channel on the Google WiFi

Hands up.... I'm unsure how to do that. Would you have a link?

The high horse brigade

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

Hands up.... I'm unsure how to do that. Would you have a link?

Had a Google and it tells me it's not possible to manually select a channel. That is a crazy limitation.

Kintarō Hattori

The high horse brigade wrote: »

Had a Google and it tells me it's not possible to manually select a channel. That is a crazy limitation.

Feck. Looks like I'll have to buy a €200 Nest indoor camera to do the job a €30 IP camera was doing.

bk

The high horse brigade wrote: »

Had a Google and it tells me it's not possible to manually select a channel. That is a crazy limitation.

Definitely a downside of making things easy for people. They try to make things simple to use, but sounds like they might have gone too far and dropped important power features.

To be honest I'm not particularly impressed with Google Wifi. Somewhat overpriced for what it is IMO.

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

Feck. Looks like I'll have to buy a €200 Nest indoor camera to do the job a €30 IP camera was doing.

I'd be very surprised if you can't get the cameras working with it. Try resetting them and setting them up from scratch.

One possibility is that the cameras only support a older less secure encryption and the Google Wifi is set not to support that.

To be honest, if you can't, I'd be more inclined to return the Google Wifi and get a decent router instead. It is the Google Wifi that sounds faulty, not your cameras.

Of course you could also get other cheaper cameras, £17 for Yi Cameras?

Giving Google even more money because one of their products doesn't do what pretty much every other router in the world does without issue wouldn't sit well with me.

Kintarō Hattori

bk wrote: »

Definitely a downside of making things easy for people. They try to make things simple to use, but sounds like they might have gone too far and dropped important power features.

To be honest I'm not particularly impressed with Google Wifi. Somewhat overpriced for what it is IMO.

You're not wrong there, it does seem overly simple in its operation but I guess that's to keep mass appeal.

bk wrote: »

I'd be very surprised if you can't get the cameras working with it. Try resetting them and setting them up from scratch.

One possibility is that the cameras only support a older less secure encryption and the Google Wifi is set not to support that.

To be honest, if you can't, I'd be more inclined to return the Google Wifi and get a decent router instead. It is the Google Wifi that sounds faulty, not your cameras.

Of course you could also get other cheaper cameras, £17 for Yi Cameras?

Giving Google even more money because one of their products doesn't do what pretty much every other router in the world does without issue wouldn't sit well with me.

I'll have a read of it today and see if it's possible but from what I read briefly last night it's as you mention, the cameras support basic encryption and don't like the options presented to them so do nothing. I had deleted one camera from the app and went about setting it up again but had no joy.

I don't think it's the unit being faulty, it would seem that you can't make a device that suits everyone and everything so they've built it to do specific functions. To be honest, despite the issue with the cameras I'm loving it. I've noticed a very significant increase in how quickly content loads and there have been less dropouts of the Nest cameras.

I might just try a Yi camera or similar and see how that works. Worst comes to worst, a Nest indoor camera it'll be.

Thanks for all the feedback chaps, I really appreciate it.

Dardania

Weird that you're having problems with IP camera. I have Google OnHub, and my ~4 year old Foscam connected no bother.

Regarding not being able to set the channel manually - they say that's a feature not a bug. You offload that thinking to the WiFi rather than trying to do it yourself

bk

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

I don't think it's the unit being faulty, it would seem that you can't make a device that suits everyone and everything so they've built it to do specific functions. To be honest, despite the issue with the cameras I'm loving it. I've noticed a very significant increase in how quickly content loads and there have been less dropouts of the Nest cameras.

Oh, it definitely isn't faulty, it is more of a case that the Google engineers have made a decision on what to implement.

It sounds like they have made the decision not to support, older, now unsecure wifi encryption standards. And that is fair enough, they are basically making your wifi more secure, which is obviously good.

But this results in various older wifi devices (I suspect a Nintendo DS won't work with it either) not working with it.

That is ok, but pretty much every other router I've ever looked at has an advanced or power user menu where you can normally change the settings and I think it is pretty poor Google don't do the same. They are basically treating you like a child.

As for performance, while yes it should be better then your old ISP supplied router, it's performance is nothing special for third party routers. In fact it ranks as one of the lowest performing amongst third party routers. You can get much better performance from other routers for less money.

Dardania wrote: »

Regarding not being able to set the channel manually - they say that's a feature not a bug. You offload that thinking to the WiFi rather than trying to do it yourself

Haha, I tell my boss that all the time

Really there is little thinking to be done with a decent router, IME they just work and you don't need to fiddle with them to get things to work for the most part. I recently upgraded from an TP-Link C7 to a Netgear R7800 (so nice) and all my extensive home automation devices all just worked, no issues.

I'm actually not sure if Google will continue to release Google Wifi devices. They have been very quiet about them and Google Wifi has now fallen WAY behind the rest of the market. It is still only dual band, while there are now loads of different, much better tri-band mesh systems on the market.

When Google Wifi first came out, the UI's for routers were pretty poor and it was one of the first mesh systems (not the first, but close). So these were the selling points. Those were what differentiated them from the rest of the market.

But their competitors didn't sit still, they vastly improved their apps and usability and the market was flooded by similar mesh systems from every company and many even went far beyond Google in terms of performance.

Google Wifi now looks stale, dated and overpriced in the market. You can get dual band mesh systems for half the cost of it and you can get much better performing tri-band mesh systems for the same price.

The fact that there have been no rumours of a Tri-band Google Wifi mesh system, when everyone else has one, makes it feel like they aren't interested in this area anymore.

Kintarō Hattori

Ahhh damnit! Hmnnn I wonder whether I should go down the route of something like the Netgear so. They are a solid brand, I used to sell them back in the day when I knew more about these things and had the time to learn new things.

Just doing a bit of Googling and I'm so out of touch these days but could it be a port forwarding issue?

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/googlewifi/p9oBDfn6RvM

Dardania

maybe just try plugging in one google wifi, and see if the camera can find it first? then plug in the others?

Dardania

Just to mention - do you have the camera set for DHCP? Maybe it's failing to complete the wifi connection as it can't route out...because the IP address range & gateway is new

Kintarō Hattori

Dardania wrote: »

maybe just try plugging in one google wifi, and see if the camera can find it first? then plug in the others?

I just have the one.

I've tried posting in the 'Community'..... talk about frustrating. I'm getting multiple occasions of 'post violates community policy'..... without actually telling you how.

Kintarō Hattori

Dardania wrote: »

Just to mention - do you have the camera set for DHCP? Maybe it's failing to complete the wifi connection as it can't route out...because the IP address range & gateway is new

I'm not sure, how do I check that?

Dardania

Well, if you don't know how to check, it's a fair cop you didn't set any custom settings in the past, so chances are it's on DHCP.

Did you try resetting the IP camera? And also, is it up to date in terms of firmware - often times bugs like this are ironed out over time. It might be worthwhile to enable the old wifi just to try look at the IP camera's configuration webpage (or via it's mobile phone app?) to see what way it is setup at the moment.

Kintarō Hattori

Dardania wrote: »

Well, if you don't know how to check, it's a fair cop you didn't set any custom settings in the past, so chances are it's on DHCP.

Did you try resetting the IP camera? And also, is it up to date in terms of firmware - often times bugs like this are ironed out over time. It might be worthwhile to enable the old wifi just to try look at the IP camera's configuration webpage (or via it's mobile phone app?) to see what way it is setup at the moment.

I'll give this a whirl when I get home tonight. Many thanks.

Dardania

Just to mention, when I first set up my OnHub, for a while I couldn't see it's wifi either from any device, but the phone I was setting it up with did. And it then just started working about 30 mins later. I later learned it was doing a firmware update, and hadn't come back up yet. So similar-ish circumstances to when you first setup

bk

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

Ahhh damnit! Hmnnn I wonder whether I should go down the route of something like the Netgear so. They are a solid brand, I used to sell them back in the day when I knew more about these things and had the time to learn new things.

The Netgear R7800 is one of the fastest routers around and absolutely rock solid.

I'm getting 500mb/s on my Macbook Pro, that is some serious speed, not far off ethernet levels!

Though note most people wouldn't get that speed, Macbooks are dual stream wifi, so they can take advantage of that. Actually the top end Macs have three streams so would get 750mb/s!! However most laptops are only single stream so unlikely to see those speeds, 250mb/s is more like what most would get.

All over great performance, range and reliability, I'm very happy with it.

If you need wireless mesh, then Netgears Orbi gear are considered very good, tri-band system.

However I will say that I think wifi mesh is oversold and I don't think it is suited to most Irish homes.

Sure if you have some absolutely massive US style house, then it is handy. But for most people living in a typical 3 to 4 bed, I believe it is actually more trouble then it is worth IMO.

I think most people are actually better off with a single high quality router (like the R7800) placed in a decent location (if you can near the center of the home and high up on a shelf). That will give most people fantastic performance.

Only if that doesn't work would I consider wifi mesh and even then I'd start with wireless access points feed by ethernet rather then wifi mesh.

wifi mesh comes with a bunch of issues around interference and devices handing off between access points as you walk around or connecting to further away WAP's that are best avoided if a single good router will do the job.

Dardania

bk wrote: »

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

Ahhh damnit! Hmnnn I wonder whether I should go down the route of something like the Netgear so. They are a solid brand, I used to sell them back in the day when I knew more about these things and had the time to learn new things.

The Netgear R7800 is one of the fastest routers around and absolutely rock solid.

I'm getting 500mb/s on my Macbook Pro, that is some serious speed, not far off ethernet levels!

Though note most people wouldn't get that speed, Macbooks are dual stream wifi, so they can take advantage of that. Actually the top end Macs have three streams so would get 750mb/s!! However most laptops are only single stream so unlikely to see those speeds, 250mb/s is more like what most would get.

All over great performance, range and reliability, I'm very happy with it.

If you need wireless mesh, then Netgears Orbi gear are considered very good, tri-band system.

However I will say that I think wifi mesh is oversold and I don't think it is suited to most Irish homes.

Sure if you have some absolutely massive US style house, then it is handy. But for most people living in a typical 3 to 4 bed, I believe it is actually more trouble then it is worth IMO.

I think most people are actually better off with a single high quality router (like the R7800) placed in a decent location (if you can near the center of the home and high up on a shelf). That will give most people fantastic performance.

Only if that doesn't work would I consider wifi mesh and even then I'd start with wireless access points feed by ethernet rather then wifi mesh.

wifi mesh comes with a bunch of issues around interference and devices handing off between access points as you walk around or connecting to further away WAP's that are best avoided if a single good router will do the job.

Just to mention, apparently the google wifi can do ethernet mesh too if you plug them in. But in general I agree with your concerns about hand-off - not every device can deal with it. I had high hopes for the recent standard that came out standardising how mesh networks should work, but so far none of the manufacturers really follow it, preferring a roll your own approach.

bk

Dardania wrote: »

Just to mention, apparently the google wifi can do ethernet mesh too if you plug them in. But in general I agree with your concerns about hand-off - not every device can deal with it. I had high hopes for the recent standard that came out standardising how mesh networks should work, but so far none of the manufacturers really follow it, preferring a roll your own approach.

Yes, if you use ethernet to feed each Google Wifi, they actually have very decent performance. It is when you use them wirelessly that they suffer compared to a tri-band mesh system.

But as you say, you still have issues with hand-off's, etc.

Wireless mesh systems is still a pretty new and immature technology IMO, which is why I recommend most people to keep away from it for now unless you have a very large home and badly need it. Most people will do better with just upgrading to a high quality router.

Kintarō Hattori

Didn't get a chance to mess about with the existing cameras last night as I was shattered (fell asleep on the sofa) so thought I'd take bk's advice and get a Yi camera. Others on Amazon specifically mention that they don't work on a 5Ghz network but there's no mention of that in the below one. It's probably an oversight but it's worth a shot:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/YI-Wireless-Security-Surveillance-Available/product-reviews/B07437XNQH/ref=cm_cr_getr_d_paging_btm_3?ie=UTF8&reviewerType=all_reviews&pageNumber=3

robinph

Very happy with the couple of Google WiFI points I've got setup, think I need some more though as we have very thick and un-Wifi friendly walls in the house. Had previously got a combination of multiple wifi repeaters and powerline repeaters through the house, but they were very unreliable with signal, caused problems when moving from one room to another or just wouldn't allow some devices to connect to certain combinations of the different signals. The Google Wifi is far simpler to setup and is causing far fewer complaints from the family for me to deal with.

The high horse brigade

With thick walls why would you not run cables and go with something like a Ubiquiti Unifi solution rather than struggling to get a mesh wireless system working through them. You can have an enterprise setup similar to what's used in hotels for a similar price point to Google WiFi.

https://www.ubnt.com/unifi/unifi-ap/
https://www.custompcreview.com/reviews/ubiquiti-unifi-ap-ac-pro-wifi-access-point-review/

Kintarō Hattori

Just cancelled the Yi camera as I found a seller on eBay selling the Nest indoor camera for €151 so with Parcel Motel, I couldn't really say no to that.

bk

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

Didn't get a chance to mess about with the existing cameras last night as I was shattered (fell asleep on the sofa) so thought I'd take bk's advice and get a Yi camera. Others on Amazon specifically mention that they don't work on a 5Ghz network but there's no mention of that in the below one. It's probably an oversight but it's worth a shot:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/YI-Wireless-Security-Surveillance-Available/product-reviews/B07437XNQH/ref=cm_cr_getr_d_paging_btm_3?ie=UTF8&reviewerType=all_reviews&pageNumber=3

Just FYI I'm sure it was 2.4GHz too. Though Google Wifi should have no problem with that. Google Wifi is a dual band router, which means it supports both 2.4GHz and 5GHz simultaneously.

It is the older encryption protocols WEP and WPA that they don't support:
https://support.google.com/wifi/answer/6309220?hl=en

Google Wifi doesn't support older protocols like WPA and WEP because they have been deemed unsecure by the Wi-Fi Alliance and industry experts. There are also known and documented attacks against WEP and WPA. WPS, a mechanism that lets a device join a wireless network without entering a password, is also not supported for security reasons.

This is what is likely stopping older and cheaper devices from not working.

robinph wrote: »

Very happy with the couple of Google WiFI points I've got setup, think I need some more though as we have very thick and un-Wifi friendly walls in the house. Had previously got a combination of multiple wifi repeaters and powerline repeaters through the house, but they were very unreliable with signal, caused problems when moving from one room to another or just wouldn't allow some devices to connect to certain combinations of the different signals. The Google Wifi is far simpler to setup and is causing far fewer complaints from the family for me to deal with.

Google Wifi would definitely be a big step up from powerline and repeaters.

But there are also plenty of other options that would give you even better results for the same or less money. As The high horse brigade mentions, Ubiquiti WAP's feed by ethernet would the the ultimate multi room solution.

If you can't do ethernet, then a tri-band wireless mesh system like Netgear Orbi would offer much better performance then a dual band only wireless mesh system like Google Wifi. Tri-band systems use a third, 5GHZ band completely dedicated to the backhaul between the routers. With dual band systems the 5GHz is shared between both the routers and the devices connected to them and that cuts performance in half.

BTW If you can run ethernet to your Google Wifi devices, you will get much better performance then using them as wireless mesh. Well worth looking into for both of you.

robinph

The high horse brigade wrote: »

With thick walls why would you not run cables and go with something like a Ubiquiti Unifi solution rather than struggling to get a mesh wireless system working through them. You can have an enterprise setup similar to what's used in hotels for a similar price point to Google WiFi.

https://www.ubnt.com/unifi/unifi-ap/
https://www.custompcreview.com/reviews/ubiquiti-unifi-ap-ac-pro-wifi-access-point-review/

Because then you have more cables around the place for kids to pull at.

During some recent building work I did get them to drill me a hole through one wall so that I could stick a cable through it, but I then decided it was actually far more hassle to patch the cable together and peg it up and down walls around a fireplace and also incurring the wrath of those who don't like cables upsetting the look of their wallpaper and went for the Google option.

A reason for not using the other system is that, well nobody has heard of them and home users would assume that a system like that would be too expensive so wouldn't bother searching for it. Everyones heard of Google, and their adverts obviously worked on me as did the algorithms that put the adverts in front of me after my searching for various solutions.

ablelocks

I'll be getting fibre broadband to the home within the next few months, and had assumed that I'd be getting a mesh network to make full use of it throughout the house - dormer bungalow, c3500 sq ft.

Current broadband is a wireless service, with an ASUS RT-N56u router in an office close to the centre of the house, but at the front. Wifi signal is ok all over, but at the outer rooms it does fall away.

I have ethernet points in some of the rooms upstairs and downstairs.

given what some of ye have said here, would I be better off with an Ubiquiti or ASUS AiMesh type system rather than the Netgear or Google type mesh network?

bk

robinph wrote: »

A reason for not using the other system is that, well nobody has heard of them and home users would assume that a system like that would be too expensive so wouldn't bother searching for it. Everyones heard of Google, and their adverts obviously worked on me as did the algorithms that put the adverts in front of me after my searching for various solutions.

No one has ever heard of Netgear Orbi!! The system that wins all the performance awards and gets rave reviews on all the various tech sites and blogs and has featured here on boards over on the bargain alerts forum.

Even a few minutes research would have brought this system up and the benefits of tri-band systems over dual band systems.

The high horse brigade

ablelocks wrote: »

I'll be getting fibre broadband to the home within the next few months, and had assumed that I'd be getting a mesh network to make full use of it throughout the house - dormer bungalow, c3500 sq ft.

Current broadband is a wireless service, with an ASUS RT-N56u router in an office close to the centre of the house, but at the front. Wifi signal is ok all over, but at the outer rooms it does fall away.

I have ethernet points in some of the rooms upstairs and downstairs.

given what some of ye have said here, would I be better off with an Ubiquiti or ASUS AiMesh type system rather than the Netgear or Google type mesh network?

If you have Ethernet definitely use that. Ethernet does full duplex where it can send and receive at the same time on different pairs of cable cores. Wireless shares a frequency and is half duplex meaning only one device at a time can either send or receive on that frequency you use for backhaul. Because of this Ethernet will always be better than any wireless no matter what band it's using

bk

ablelocks wrote: »

given what some of ye have said here, would I be better off with an Ubiquiti or ASUS AiMesh type system rather than the Netgear or Google type mesh network?

Yes, any ethernet backhauled system would be better.

Though note you can use ethernet with both Google Wifi and Netgear Orbi (double check this one).

Basically ethernet is always better then wireless where it is an option.

Ha Long Bay

I have a spare new unit if anyone needs to add one to an existing setup. I purchased a 3 pack originally but they were region locked to US so the 5Ghz channels would not work so had to purchase a single UK region unit to act as the primary.

ablelocks

The high horse brigade wrote: »

Ethernet will always be better than any wireless no matter what band it's using

bk wrote: »

Yes, any ethernet backhauled system would be better.

Though note you can use ethernet with both Google Wifi and Netgear Orbi (double check this one).

Basically ethernet is always better then wireless where it is an option.

yes, agreed and I have most of the "fixed" stuff (eg xbox, apple tv, av receiver) all connected to ethernet already.

I will still need to improve the wifi signal in the house though, so while I had done some ltd research on the mesh type network, I hadn't heard of the Ubiquiti. It sounds like it might be a better system for me than the mesh given I have ethernet points in a variety of locations?

bk

ablelocks wrote: »

I will still need to improve the wifi signal in the house though, so while I had done some ltd research on the mesh type network, I hadn't heard of the Ubiquiti. It sounds like it might be a better system for me than the mesh given I have ethernet points in a variety of locations?

Yes, if you have ethernet already in place, definitely best to use it.

Ubiquiti WAPs are fantastic, they are enterprise level gear and work extremely well. However they are complicated to set up being aimed at Enterprise instead of home users, so it depends on your skills.

There are plenty of other options to.

TP Link Deco Mesh system. A consumer focused mesh system, that supports ethernet as a backhaul option.

AiMesh looks like a very cool idea and using ethernet to connect two or three routers is an option for that.

Google Wifi is another option, but using ethernet for backhaul rather then wifi.

Netgear Orbi also supports ethernet backhaul.

The high horse brigade

ablelocks wrote: »

yes, agreed and I have most of the "fixed" stuff (eg xbox, apple tv, av receiver) all connected to ethernet already.

I will still need to improve the wifi signal in the house though, so while I had done some ltd research on the mesh type network, I hadn't heard of the Ubiquiti. It sounds like it might be a better system for me than the mesh given I have ethernet points in a variety of locations?

Ubiquiti is an affordable enterprise solution that is around much longer than any of these newer mesh systems. It's used lots in hotels, offices etc. I'm actually fitting some in a guest house tomorrow. You plug them in and then push the settings to the devices from the controller you run on a PC. It's dynamic so you can expand your network by adding devices and pushing settings to them. Once they are configured you do not need to have the controller software running but most do for the cool functionality and analytics it gives

robinph

bk wrote: »

robinph wrote: »

A reason for not using the other system is that, well nobody has heard of them and home users would assume that a system like that would be too expensive so wouldn't bother searching for it. Everyones heard of Google, and their adverts obviously worked on me as did the algorithms that put the adverts in front of me after my searching for various solutions.

No one has ever heard of Netgear Orbi!! The system that wins all the performance awards and gets rave reviews on all the various tech sites and blogs and has featured here on boards over on the bargain alerts forum.

Even a few minutes research would have brought this system up and the benefits of tri-band systems over dual band systems.

I meant the other system that was linked above. The Netgear system was what I was initially looking at. Saw all the good things about the Netgear, but the Google system won due to cost.

bk

robinph wrote: »

I meant the other system that was linked above. The Netgear system was what I was initially looking at. Saw all the good things about the Netgear, but the Google system won due to cost.

Fair enough, but unless you are using ethernet to backhaul Google Wifi, it is a poorer solution and I've often seen Orbi cheaper then Google Wifi during the usual sales.

If it works for you, that is great, fire away. More an FYI for others reading this and perhaps thinking of going down this route.

The high horse brigade

robinph wrote: »

I meant the other system that was linked above. The Netgear system was what I was initially looking at. Saw all the good things about the Netgear, but the Google system won due to cost.

Your Google search is broken

crafty fcukers Google

ablelocks

bk wrote: »

Yes, if you have ethernet already in place, definitely best to use it.

Ubiquiti WAPs are fantastic, they are enterprise level gear and work extremely well. However they are complicated to set up being aimed at Enterprise instead of home users, so it depends on your skills.

you know the phrase "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing?" that's me.
I'd lean towards this just for the setting up process...

The AIMesh looks good alright and means the current ASUS router i have wouldn't end up in the attic with the 2 or 3 other redundant yokes already up there.

Kintarō Hattori

[QUOTE=ablelocks;108019913]you know the phrase "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing?" that's me.
I'd lean towards this just for the setting up process...

The AIMesh looks good alright and means the current ASUS router i have wouldn't end up in the attic with the 2 or 3 other redundant yokes already up there.[/QUOTE]

And that's certainly not me when it comes to networking. While I've ordered a Nest camera I wouldn't mind getting the Vstarcam cameras back up and running if possible. Below is the one we use as a baby monitor (along with a traditional audio monitor):

https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/Original-VStarcam-Wifi-IP-Camera-720P-Night-Vision-2-Way-Audio-Wireless-Motion-Alarm-Mini-Smart/1267661_32813276193.html

I also have this one:

https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/VStacam-C29S-1080P-Full-HD-Wireless-IP-Camera-CCTV-WiFi-Home-Security-Camera-System-with-iOS/1267661_32758226837.html

I read of someone who was having the same issue and another poster suggested that they install the app on a phone that only supported a 2.4Ghz network or at least let you select which frequency you wanted to be on, as Android used to do in the past.

Does that sound feasible? Or as suggested, is it more likely that IP cameras support a lax security standard which the Google WiFi doesn't support.

Dardania

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

[QUOTE=ablelocks;108019913]you know the phrase "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing?" that's me.
I'd lean towards this just for the setting up process...

The AIMesh looks good alright and means the current ASUS router i have wouldn't end up in the attic with the 2 or 3 other redundant yokes already up there.

And that's certainly not me when it comes to networking. While I've ordered a Nest camera I wouldn't mind getting the Vstarcam cameras back up and running if possible. Below is the one we use as a baby monitor (along with a traditional audio monitor):

https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/Original-VStarcam-Wifi-IP-Camera-720P-Night-Vision-2-Way-Audio-Wireless-Motion-Alarm-Mini-Smart/1267661_32813276193.html

I also have this one:

https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/VStacam-C29S-1080P-Full-HD-Wireless-IP-Camera-CCTV-WiFi-Home-Security-Camera-System-with-iOS/1267661_32758226837.html

I read of someone who was having the same issue and another poster suggested that they install the app on a phone that only supported a 2.4Ghz network or at least let you select which frequency you wanted to be on, as Android used to do in the past.

Does that sound feasible? Or as suggested, is it more likely that IP cameras support a lax security standard which the Google WiFi doesn't support.[/quote]
For the camera to only support a weak security standard that google wifi doesn't would be unlikely. WPA2 (the current encryption for WiFi access points) came out in 2004 - not much has changed in the intervening years. It's only this year that WPA3 was finalised, and google wifi doesn't support it. Your older cameras should work. And with enough twiddling, I don't see why they couldn't.

Kintarō Hattori

Any suggestions on what to twiddle and where? I can't see a lot of options available to mess with. Setting it up is quite an automated process and once setup there's not many network options to tweak.

Dardania

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

Any suggestions on what to twiddle and where? I can't see a lot of options available to mess with. Setting it up is quite an automated process and once setup there's not many network options to tweak.

Can you access the control panel of the camera?

Dardania

There's some instructions here: http://www.eye4.so/FAQ/eye4-5.0-en.pdf - I'd suggest getting the app, and resetting it and trying to start again from scratch to add it to the wifi network.

There's something there about waiting 10 seconds while pushing the reset button

do you have an app for it?
Edit: there's something in the manual about having a wifi security code less than 16 characters?