Google Wifi - AC1200

4 Google wifi pods for a 1800sq ft house. Awesome

I had a single original Google WiFi puck in a 2 bedroom apartment and loved it. When I bought a house in 2020 i upgraded to the Nest WiFi, basically what you have in the screenshot there. I was able to use my Google WiFi puck as a mesh AP and I had 3 pucks in the whole house. I did NOT use wired backhaul setup as it was not feasible and the throughput was absolutely awful. For context, I have gigabit from my ISP. With Nest WiFi I’d hardly ever get more than 100mbps on a single device regardless of how close I was to the puck. I replaced the whole system with a single Eero 6E and made no changes to my ISP/modem etc and now get 800mbps downloads on a 5ghz or 6ghz device with no loss of coverage in my home. In conclusion, switch to Eero or anything but Google. Google gave up on this product.

100% wired backhaul with my google WiFi v1 gives me full broadband speed everywhere in the house. I keep wanting to upgrade it because it’s “old” but I’ll get zero value out of an upgrade.

Ubiquiti is also one of the more involved ones (on that list) to set up and requires a bit more knowledge than done of the others. I'm a network engineer and my home setup is the previous gen Google puck 3-packs. I bought it specifically for price and ease of use. I deal with routing and switching all day long, so at home I want it to just work. It's been months since I even checked the app.

Been using the Google AC1200 mesh system for at least 5 years now with no trouble. We have about 1700 sq ft on a 1 acre lot and I have good wifi throughout the property.

Same here and working very well.

We have the tri band, also upgraded from the first general Google Wifi system. Overall more reliable, have never needed to reboot in the 2 or 3 years we owned it. Tri band is good because if you are doing wireless mesh the 3rd band is dedicated to backhauling between the units, instead of sharing the usual 2 bands used for normal connections. Also 250 is a good price, the best I remember was 199 from ebay for a factory refurbished set. 50 bucks more for brand new from Costco is a good deal.

Google. Gen 2 router and 1 Gen 2 point. And 2 Gen 1 points

Sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you don't.. I've set up large networks where there was no real planning and things were just placed where it was convenient. Sometimes it works flawlessly and you can roam the entire property without any hiccups or drops. Sometimes I have to go back and spend a ridiculous amount of time tweaking power levels (If it's a system you can do that with) or moving access points around in order to get it optimal. Sometimes that's not possible. Either due to construction materials or interference. Sometimes you can only get it as good as you can get it. In those cases the solution to the problem would be, a different location lol. A lot of times it depends on the device you're using while roaming and the brands of equipment you got for your network / Wi-Fi. Some networking equipment has built-in protocols to assist with handing off while roaming. Some have less and some have none. Then there's the device itself. IPhones tend to hang on to access points even after they basically lost the signal for a long time before switching over to a stronger signal. Not all Android phones are better. I've noticed a lot of the newer Android phones are starting to do the same thing. I think it's a bad hack to make the battery life last longer. I'd rather have a little less battery life and better Wi-Fi management but that's me. I'm sure the marketing departments for Apple, Google, Samsung, and so on would disagree with me lol. The best system weirdly enough, when it was working properly lol, for roaming around a property while doing a video call or even a voice call over Wi-Fi.. was the original Google Wi-Fi system. If laid out properly, and there wasn't some weird interference, and all the access points were wired, roaming was flawless. I say was, because they seem to have broken that a few firmware updates ago. There will be any more firmware updates for that system so now that it's broken, it'll stay that way. The next best brand of system I've personally tested when it comes to roaming and Wi-Fi is ubiquiti. I haven't tested everything they have but their higher end products seem to work great! Sometimes it takes tweaking a few settings and that can be a bit of a hurdle for the average person. However, I think it's worth it. I'd say about half the systems in the last 3 years I've been installed were ubiquiti and out of all of the systems I've installed, I've never really had any clients call about issues with their ubiquiti system. At most I'll occasionally get a call from a client that manages their own system and normally it's just a question regarding if they should do a software or firmware update. Not really a question about a problem. I have had a few people screw up their own system by messing with settings but that's normally pretty easy to fix, especially if they had giving me prior remote access. Plus I tend to make and keep backups of clients configurations. Good luck and for overall reliability, I would avoid systems sold in stores. That's not to say that the brands that are sold in stores are bad but it's actually very common for TP-Link and other companies to make a slightly different cheaper version of a model to ship to and sell in stores. This is normally to increase the profit of the store and without doing it the store typically would refuse to order and sell the product in the first place. Just spend the same money and either buy whatever it is on Amazon or directly from the manufacturer. Good luck! Once you get something that works you'll forget it's even there 😅👍

It’s definitely holding it back. Moving to a wifi6 setup or greater would be ideal. I swapped out our google wifi pucks for a dual asus xt8 setup and it’s night and day in throughput for us in the further locations. The problem with the google wifi was the lack of customization. I can map out the signal strengths and place the pucks correctly but not being able to pick the channels or assign devices to a specific puck really does limit your ability to manage the coverage the way you want it to be. You want to be able to force a band for the backhaul. Google was constantly swapping to 2.4ghz as a BH so that alone will gimp your 5ghz fronthaul to 2.4ghz like speeds. Having more control of your network topology is a must.

Just need a more robust and customizable mesh system. Some wifi6 deco units have the ability to dedicate a backhaul band but its only if the firmware allows it and some deco hardware revisions have it and others dont. All have the option on their wifi7 mesh. Asus aimesh has it too. Honestly the cheapest and best thing you can do first is position your google pucks in optimal locations and see how that goes. Get a laptop and use something like netspot or use a phone and wifiman to map the signal strength so you can place your first satellite puck. Then after the first 2 pucks are going go ahead and do the same for the 3rd puck. You want the pucks spread out enough but also not too far that the 5ghz connection between them breaks or else itll default back to 2.4 on the mesh backhaul. Its a fine balance to find but it’s what you gotta do.

I have a 3 pack google wifi 5 router, these ones: [https://www.amazon.com/Google-Wifi-System-Router-Replacement/dp/B08GG9CMLR?th=1](https://www.amazon.com/Google-Wifi-System-Router-Replacement/dp/B08GG9CMLR?th=1) and I have a Rogers 1.5 gbps home internet plan. When I test the speed in google home it usually gets 800 mbps, thats almost half the speed lost. Plus when the mesh actually reaches upstairs, which is where my xbox series x, pc, etc. are, they only get about like 60mbps to 130 mbps. I am thinking it's my wifi 5 router bottlenecking the potential speed but is that true? If so what should I upgrade to that isn't so expensive?

So google wifi is bad from the beginning? I believe back in 2016 is when I got these and at the time I was just using a singular rogers router in my basement, and the signal was bad on the 2nd floor. So I found the wifi 5 google home router 3 pack, and that's what I've been using till now. Back then I didn't have that 1.5 gbps plan, but now it's been like 3 years with the 1.5 gbps plan and I finally want an upgrade because I realized I wasn't using all the speed that I'm paying for. I'm planning to get the tplink deco x50 or x55 router 3 pack

Still running Google AC1200 mesh with the main point as the router and 2 points.

I just scrapped mine for being flaky and useless.

I'd end up with service for the whole network dropping several minutes multiple times per day. My ISP proved stable so it means my network was the issue. Google Wi-Fi is a pretty closed system and doesn't permit much customization. I bought into Unifi. 1 week in and no drops.

I have been running Google WiFi for years without any problems. Coming from a Cisco WiFi system, I had a bad time with one... I use a Google Nest router with three Google WiFi access points connected via a LAN switch (backhaule). I have 43 devices on my network. I can walk around the house (three storey building) without any connection problems. It is important to note that there are four different Google WiFi modules available. 1st generation Google WiFi This is always a router and an access point. It also has two LAN ports, which is important if you want to connect a PC/PlayStation or use a backhaul via LAN. 2nd generation (Google) Nest WiFi You can buy a router OR an access point here! They have the better WiFi/CPU/RAM, but the access points have no 2nd LAN port, so no backhaule... However, they are compatible with the 1st gen, so I use this one as my router, but the very cheap 1 Gen as my access points. 3rd Gen Also better WiFi, generally improved version, very expensive, don't know too much about them. You can compare the ones [here](https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/6300732?hl=en).

For years, I've been using Google Fiber 1 GB service with a Google Nest Router and several first-gen Google WiFi pucks. Performance has been solid, with \~45 wifi devices, until recent weeks. So, I reached out to customer support who offered and upgrade to the GFiber Wi-Fi 6E router and two extenders. The network is 100% wireless, with no wired backhaul. My speeds are much better, but coverage on one end of the second floor is much worse. I've experimented with extender placement, but suspect that a mesh solution would be better (although, the tech who installed the equipment thought it wouldn't be as good). I'm tempted to go back to my prior system but was curious about opinions.

I was noticing video lag during videoconferencing, on a Mac getting a wireless signal from a puck in my home office (on the 2nd floor, with the Nest router on the 1st floor). With the new system, the upload/download speed with the same Mac is much, much better (700+ mbps up and down), but I've lost coverage in the bonus room (which is further from the router). In the old system, there was a puck in the bonus room, and I was getting 90-100 mbps up and down on an old iPad. Now, the iPad is having trouble staying connected in the same room.

Really? Then why is the uptime on my 3 puck hardwired system currently at 282 days and counting?

Orbi def best in market, next best is the google mesh, then Mby Eero mesh system… saw a lot of decco recommendations… they work alright but def lower in the ranks and way cheaper

Those first gen google mesh’s are still solid af just replaced mine with Nest pro 6e’s

I've had an amazing experience with some tapo c120 cameras. Have been almost flawless. Two different homes with 3 cameras each, both homes running og google wifi mesh pucks. Bonus of no monthly fees with these cameras. Free person detection, free vehicle detection also integrate well with smart home stuff. One home has 1gb down/200 mbps up and the other is 100mbps down/100 mbps up.

Still using og google wifi pucks at 2 residences. Only one puck out of 7 has a wired backhaul and they have all been rock solid. As long as they are fast enough for your use, then you should be fine. All were used and bought for 15 per puck. Have 1 year on one system and 2 years on the other with no problems. Ebay, Mercari and Facebook marketplace is where you can find them cheap. If you gotta have the Nest model, they make points and routers. Source routers only if you think you will ever want a wired backhaul.

I had the previous WiFi 5 and it worked fine, although it was just basic...but worked. I upgraded to the WiFi 6 version. I have 5 units including the one used as a router. Again, it works. But it just feels safe. Nothing spectacular. I feel like it's just way too safe. I don't know what it is, but I'd like to be able to do more either it.

Absolutely true. I have 5 pretty old pucks in my three floor concrete home. Three are wired, one through WiFi. Very little issues. I’m running over 70 devices, most of them on WiFi.

UniFi is the answer. Love it. I’ve used Netgear, Early Google, Nest, and others. They are trash compared to UniFi.

I apologize for not answering your direct question, but it's been forever since I've had good luck using a single wireless access point. Some eight years ago I set up a Google Wifi mesh network in my house and I've never looked back; wires are best, of course, but being able to transparently extend my wireless network in any direction has an awful lot going for it. In two places I use the access points as glorified antennas, with a side benefit of extending the network in that direction. If you care about keeping your wireless bands clean, this is not the solution for you. They frequency-hop all the time.

I use the original Google Wi-Fi units with some wired units and some wireless. Never had any issues. I have about 40 connected devices.

Asus xd5. I’m a big fan of Wireguard vpn for sharing video services like YouTube tv and Netflix . I was a Google Wi-Fi gen 1 before this.

odd. . .i have had the Google Wifi since gen1 . . . have 4 points, been using it since 2016 and never had any issues and I have ~50 or so devices connected including 8 nest cams, unmanaged comtrend switch for a Plex server, NAS, xbox, and PC.

I upgraded from the original Google Wifi mesh and got a 2-pack version of these after a lot of research. Placed 1 in the living room and 1 in my room upstairs, no wired back haul. I get the same 920-ish/500 odd plus in my room (connected via LAN to my dock)!! All my kids get 800+/450+ in their rooms also. My room is directly above the main one below. I am in New Zealand, so any bans anywhere else doesn’t matter. 3 months in and I have no issues whatsoever with either speed or connectivity. We are heavy internet users ( family of 5).

I was using OG Google Wifi until it started capping to <200mbps a couple months ago. I loved TP Link but found a cheaper Linksys mesh system I decided to go with.

I just bought 3 and was disappointed in the range, added 2 more and it's better but I feel the price to performance sucks.

What exactly do you do with your internet? I stream everything and work from home. I pay Comcast for a 150Mb connection and I use the regular Nest Wi-Fi, with one Nest Wi-Fi point, and another old Google Wi-Fi puck for a three point mesh system. I have no issues with anything I do and I can't imagine upgrading my internet connection or Wi-Fi hardware in the next several years.

I didn't return it, I've had OnHub, then Google Wi-Fi, then Nest Wi-Fi. They all now sit in a big box in my office, I'll put them on eBay or something. I moved to a full Unifi setup. My stack had been needing an overhaul so I replaced a number of items so my wired network can do a minimum of 2.5Gbps. I replaced an older 48 port Dell switch with a 24 port Pro max 24. My AP's all got replaced with Nano HD's (4 in total) (not 2.5Gbps but anything that needs those speeds is wired anyway) I have an Express 7 router as my main device, that will eventually be replaced by the Cloud Gateway Fiber when it comes back in stock. When I replace it, the Express 7 will become a Wi-Fi 7 AP and replace one of the Nano's. Hope that helps.

I used to use netgear routers. Even using custom firmware to make things better, they just couldn't hold up to my demand. So I upgraded years ago to Google wifi system (3 point mesh system) After upgrading around the house over the years, they just suck (for many reasons). I used to be up to date on shit, but I retired and stopped being up to date on shit. Now have 70-80 switches/outlets on wifi. 8 "smart TVs", 3 Nintendo switches, Xbox, ps5, 5 computers, 2 laptops, 6 phones, 5 smart watches, 3 printers, garage door opener, cars, etc. Not humble bragging, but trying to show the severity of my wifi situation. I need a mesh router that can handle a billion devices and still give me the speed to handle all my families shit. And yes, I have fiber. 5gig up and down. I'm really fucking tired of my devices randomly not being able to be seen. I know the interference from so many devices is wild. (tonight I can't tell my thermostat to make it so I'm not freezing in bed, fucking thing). Two story house, about 4k Sq ft if it matters. And to show I'm (dad) not humble bragging, I am still running an i5 with GeForce 750ti. My kids have better computers than me ffs. I can't play shit on my computer... Can't play shit on the game consoles because wife uses them for fucking Netflix... Sorry.. I just had to get that off my chest. Someone please direct me to a mesh router that can handle my families devices. I am absolutely open to ideas. Also, fwiw, I absolutely have thought about running cable everywhere but that wouldn't work for all the switches and outlets. One may ask why switches and outlets... I forgot to mention the damn 10 alexa's so I can be lazy and not get up to turn shit on and off. Or better so I can turn the kids shit off when they should be sleeping. Or when they get up at night and turn every damn light on in the house. Sorry ranting again. edit: damnit, y'all making me read about all this wifi6 and 7 shit after some bourbon (buffalo trace if it matters). Now I am downstairs on my shitty computer trying to catch up from the last decade or two. I was hoping for a quick solution, but I guess I gotta just do that continuing edumacating.

I fucking love you! > If you want to avoid buying the $500 dream machine or omada controller then both companies offer the controller software for free and you can run it on windows or Linux. I may have more than a few linux boxes sitting around that are very much not wifi ... hell I still have an old 286 with dos 2.0 on it, because well, reasons. > Since you don't want to change out all the smart home stuff another option is to setup your access points so that you are broadcasting a separate hidden network that is only used by the smart home devices. Set that network to be on a different channel from your main network. That way those devices won't need to compete with things like cellphones and laptops which can use up a ton of air time. Bruh, this is a great idea that I hadn't even considered. Due to having shitty google wifi (wife's idea, let's be honest), I absolutely forgot about channel separation through network SSID. I used to run 3 netgear wifi routers with OpenWRT/DDWRT firmware. I had channels separated for uh, reasons. It was SUCH a pain in the ass to put everything on one SSID when we got the google shit. In fact, because I didn't feel like fucking with the printers, I just used their SSID when I got the google shit. fuck I've been using the same SSID for them for like at least 10 years, but probably more like 15... I know, I really should just wire them, especially because they are literally right next to the main router... and I have an old hub laying around. Damnit man. You're awesome... wish they still did gold on reddit, I'd totally award you for this comment alone!

> Also smart home devices tend to be 2.4ghz so you can probably just use your old access points to setup a 2.4ghz only network for those devices. I've had some cheaper smart home devices really hate it when you have a dual frequency network and they'd constantly drop. I am really looking to get rid of the google shit entirely... and this is a helluva good idea that I was thinking about as you replied. Yes, I'm a cheapo and I have all my 'smart' home stuff on 2.4 (like why the hell would a light switch even NEED to be on 5ghz???). I'm thinking in the meantime, I might setup one or two of the old devices to force them onto a different channel. I'm not entirely sure how to force the google shit onto a specific channel, or if it's even possible. Long story short, wife said the wifi sucked upstairs and asked me for a recommendation. I said, fuck if I know honey, just get that google wifi, or the amazon wifi shit with a few AP's (I actually used the term "little wifi things" so she'd understand easier, and I was at least 3 old fashions in at the time) She went and bought the google shit minutes after checking prices. I was fucking PISSED after setting the google shit up and I couldn't directly access the routers with anything other than my phone. But I've lived with their shitty product long enough, time for me to fix it ;) Thanks again for your help. I hope you have an excellent day/night/week/month/life!

I just retired my Google puck WiFi. I had 1Gb service and with G WiFi I got a fraction of that speed. One room isn’t too far away from main router had horrible signal despite having a puck in there. The few tests I ran the mesh didn’t seem to do much. I’m in a single floor home, around 1700 sq ft. I recently upgraded to 2GB plan (I don’t need the speed but was part of the plan I got to reduce overall cost), and bought new modem and router that can keep up. I got the Asus Rogue GT-AX6000 router and now I easily get over 120mpbs on iPhone all over the house. On a MacBook near router it actually hit 1.5GBps! The router is twice as much as the Nest but well worth it. My old router was holding me back from the service I paid for.

I am still using the OG Google WiFi as well, with 4 nodes, and gigabit symmetric service. Although there's been a number of wireless advancements, I can't bring myself to upgrade, because I can't find a good reason why. * Wired devices are achieving gigabit throughput; devices where that really matters is my main system (work, programming/db) and gaming, and (*maybe* the Google TV) * Everything else is wireless with wired backhaul, achieving \~300-600 Mbps, at which point I ask myself, "What benefit is *faster* wireless tx to the devices that are using it? Phones, tablets, chromebooks and the like don't need anything more. So here I stay, because I can't find a compelling reason to change, and everything just works, with a nice interface.

I still use the OG Google wifi and it works great for me. Initially they weren't rated to handle gigabit speeds, but they've been handling it fine. For a few years I ran them in tandem with a Comcast supplied unit to not have a data cap and they matched or beat the performance of that unit.

I went from Netgear Nighthawk -> Google Pucks (great) -> Google Pro (mistake!!!!) -> Unifi DMP (meh) -> Eero (never looking back!) I've also learned to trust Amazon more than Google. Google will just drop a product from support. They will limit your ability to fine tune your own system. The Eero has just worked for the last 2 years. It updates itself in the middle of the night, and I've never noticed. It's the first WiFi that I have NEVER had to reboot to fix something. Don't know a lot about TP Link.....but stuff like this: https://www.pcmag.com/news/us-lawmakers-demand-probe-into-tp-link-claiming-spying-risks-from-china

The mesh network also has latency issues. I removed the mesh puck and only use the pro router. My gaming, working, streaming, and wifi security cameras all work how they are supposed to, ever since I moved to router only. Unless you can wire the points together, forget about it.

Unfortunately I'm old school when it comes to gaming and have everything hardwired there. I believe that Eero does have SQM, but I doubt you have any sort of granular per device control. I will say, though, that Eero at least has a minimum of functions. I had worked with a Google Home Wifi system that you couldn't even adjust DNS settings on or disable the 5GHz band temporarily.

I was using the older Google Wifi with 4 pucks. Finally upgrade to the Nest wifi with 2 routers +1 point as mesh. All my Google home speakers works fine on either system. Nest Wifi router on sale at Amazon.

I went from the first gen Google Wifi to the AXE5300 from Costco. No issues for me. Anecdotally, I get better coverage throughout my house and I had four of the Google pucks.

Google Wi-Fi is literally the worst Wi-Fi on the market. No wonder they are getting out of it.

I dumped my entire nest and google WiFi mesh network and went Ubiquiti. Best decision I ever made. Period.

Technology aside (I.e. UniFi WiFi 7 better than WiFi 6 with my old Google/nest WiFi setup) the level of network control provided by ubiquiti software is FAR superior to Google home. UniFi tells knows whether problems are with specific clients, APs, or your ISP. I can create VLANs for just cameras and security. Separate ones for business and can filter application etc

Had Nest/Google WiFi for years and it was so frustrating… I upgraded to these (AT FULL PRICE) and they are phenomenal… great speeds and never reboots (my Google’s were rebooting several times a day)…

Yes it is bottlenecking your speed. all Gens of Google/Nest Wifi are 1GB wan. So \~800 is about maxing the 1GB. otherwise any number of physical reasons why your mesh isnt as strong as it could be. wiring the access points to a switch and then connecting the switch to the Main GoogleWifi router will help greatly

I have owned every version of Google/Nest WiFi and I will not get them again. There are companies out there that are fully 100% focused on this stuff and they do a better job of it than Google does who has its attention focused on other products. My Nest WiFi pro pods are very unreliable and have had connection issues daily for months now with no fix in sight.