[ssully]

I got a single Google WiFi router (home is small enough to not need the mesh) last year to pretty terrible results. I mainly got it for more frequent firmware updates, and easy administration via their phone app (easier to use then my Netgear Nighthawk; i.e. can show my wife how to use it).

Everything worked great with it for the first few months, but then I started getting severe speed drops - specifically I was seeing download rates of 20MBps or less, when I should be getting 350MBps or less. I did all of their recommended troubleshooting (reset router, reset modem, restore to factory settings and reupdate the firmware, move router away from potential sources of interference, etc) and could not solve the issue. I still had my Nighthawk and ended up spending an afternoon testing the two, and the Google WiFi router would consistently drop speeds, while the Nighthawk stayed rock solid.

I ended up just sticking with my Nighthawk and throwing my Google Wifi in a drawer. I was outside their return window, and honestly just had no desire to try and go through Google's customer service (or finding out if it even exists for their WiFi devices). Long story short, it was the worst experience I've ever had with a router and I would hesitate to ever try their WiFi devices again.

[lbotos]

Ya know, I'm literally experiencing this right now and It's befuddling. For the past week or so, I've been using fast.com and only from my Macbook Pro do I see the speed drop. My phone on wifi only will maintain 200Mbps++ I'm really mad because it's been seamless until now.

[wstrange]

My mac pro sometimes does the same thing, whil other devices in the house don't seem to have this issue. Reconnecting the wifi seems to fix it.

I'm not sure if this is a google wifi problem (I have the OnHub) - or an issue with the mac pro wifi drivers.

[lbotos]

Right, I noticed that too! The weird thing is... it appears to be a new Macbook Pro driver problem. I have a 2013 and I don't see this behavior on that one. Just the 2016. sigh....

I restarted my macbook pro 2016 wifi and I'm getting 50Mbps

2013 with the same test: 150 Mbps

[pfranz]

I kind of hoped we were past this kind of issue. 5-10 years ago I felt like there were "brand" incompatibilities with home wifi. A specific wifi router would just not connect to a specific type of computer/phone.

[ssully]

I only tested it on a few devices, but I saw the speed drop on my PC, work laptop(a dell), two iPhones, and a PS4. Only device that I couldn't get to drop speed was my iPad. I literally spent multiple evenings for 2-3 weeks running as many tests as I could and was never able to pinpoint it to anything specific.

During my tests, I found a few reddit posts of people experiencing a similar issue. A few people were linking the issue to a firmware update around November/December of 2018, but I couldn't verify since I bought by Wifi device around February of 2019.

[bobbyi_settv]

I have Google Wifi and its mostly been great.

I don't think it makes sense if you don't need mesh; the whole point of the thing really is that it is the easiest way to set up a home mesh network (or maybe it isn't, but in the research I did before buying it, it seemed to be the most popular and recommended, which is why I got it even though I was skeptical of buying wifi from google).

I've seen speed drop offs twice in about a year of using it, which is my only problem with it. In both cases they were related to mesh: if located in the room with the main router, I'd still get 100+MBps, but when I was in range of the other AP's, it dropped to ~3MBps and the app was reported the mesh connectivity was poor where it is usually "great". In both cases, I rebooted the AP's (via the app) and it instantly fixed it.

[josefresco]

I have a Nighthawk and think the mobile app is pretty simple/useful. I'm curious, what was it the Google offering had that the Netgear didn't offer / do well?

[lbotos]

for me when I got google wifi, it was:

- Mesh

- "Simple" objects (They blend in to my house)

- "Security"