[SOLVED] Internet on Wifi not working on some devices sporadically

Nov 15, 2020
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I've got a problem with my girlfriend's wifi devices. For some time now, they will randomly lose internet connectivity on my mesh wifi while all of my other devices are still getting internet. Both devices (Android Tablet and Pixel 3a XL) will give an error saying "Network connected but no internet" or something similar to that. Both devices show strong connection to the network, but keep constantly losing internet. My Wifi network is made up of 3 Google Mesh Wifis (NLS-1304-25) which I've had since Oct of 2018. Out of the ~18 devices that are connected to my wifi network, just the two listed previously have the problem.

The only solution I've tried was from a Reddit post that said that it might have to do with me having re-used an old network name, so I tried changing that, but still had the same issue.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
Solution
This is kinda the problem when you use things that you expect to work like magic. Mesh can work well when it works but if you have issues everything is hidden away in the software. Very few of these systems have much in the way of diagnostics, the people that buy these systems are not interested in read manuals or looking at screens anyway.

My normal recommendations do not work when you have mesh systems. Normally you change the SSID so you can force your end device to connect to the radio you want it to. You can force it to say connect to a certain AP or the router and if the router has for example multiple 5g radios you can choose. It makes it much easier to find a defective radio chip in a router or maybe just on channels...
This is kinda the problem when you use things that you expect to work like magic. Mesh can work well when it works but if you have issues everything is hidden away in the software. Very few of these systems have much in the way of diagnostics, the people that buy these systems are not interested in read manuals or looking at screens anyway.

My normal recommendations do not work when you have mesh systems. Normally you change the SSID so you can force your end device to connect to the radio you want it to. You can force it to say connect to a certain AP or the router and if the router has for example multiple 5g radios you can choose. It makes it much easier to find a defective radio chip in a router or maybe just on channels that have a lot of interference from neighbors.


My guess is your device is connected to one of the slave nodes which is why you are getting strong signal but that node is having some issue either connecting to the main router or if you have them daisy chained multiple times it can be any poor connection between the device.

In your case you must somehow find out what exact unit you are connecting to and somehow determine if there is any problem with the communication between that unit and unit farther up the chain.



You really should not use mesh/repeater systems if you have any other option. You pay a large performance penalty and you get a lot of random strange issues similar to yours.
 
Solution
Nov 15, 2020
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I tried disconnecting the mesh node that the tablet connects to. It connected to another node and the problem still persisted.

My big problem is that I have to have my modem connected to one end of the house or the other, and unfortunately, I haven't seen a wifi router yet that gives enough range to make it across my whole house, hence the mesh. I suppose I could buy a long ethernet cable and put a single router closer to the middle of the house, but then I've got to deal with that ethernet cable.
 
What happens if you disconnect everything except the router and then move the tablet close enough to get signal. This is mostly to see if maybe its a problem with the end device and not your network.

The best way to get wifi is to use ethernet cable to connect between the main router and the remote radio units. This has been the gold standard that is still used today by most large corporations. They do not use wifi repeater/mesh systems.

If you do not have the ethernet cable the next best option is going to be to use MoCA devices to instead of ethernet to connect to the remote (ap). You can likely use your current remote mesh units as AP. To use MoCA you need coax tv cable in both rooms. If you do not have that you consider powerline networks to act as the ethernet cables. The newer AV2 units work in most houses and many people get 300mbps. They are very stable compared to using a wifi signal between the remote units and the main router.

Mesh is not very standard. You in general can not mix brands. The few I have looked at have almost no settings or options. The only real thing you can do is try to place the units in a different location. To work well it must have a very strong signal from the main router but still be able to send a usable signal to the end device. This can be very hard when you have a wall or floor absorbs a lot of wifi signals.
 
Nov 15, 2020
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Ok, just tried your suggestion of unplugging everything but the "main" mesh node. That didn't solve the problem either, though it did seem to keep the internet connection for slightly longer.

I'm going to see if I can bring the tablet somewhere else that has wifi and see if the problem exists there. if it does, then I know the problem is with the devices and not with my wifi nodes.
 
With only 1 node it can't be the mesh.

It could be some random wifi issue but you would think it would affect all your devices at least to some extent. I guess it could be different amount of interference if you are using them in different locations.

Not sure what to recommend. A PC has much more diagnostic and logs than a tablet does....well some that have unrestricted linux clients are ok too.